Proposal to prosecute former director of Thu Duc Hospital for additional crimes related to Viet A

The Ho Chi Minh City Police Department has issued a supplementary investigation conclusion into the case of violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences, giving and receiving bribes occurring at Thu Duc Hospital, Viet A Company and Nam Phong Company.

The Ho Chi Minh City Police Department has proposed to prosecute the defendants, including Nguyen Minh Quan (former director of Thu Duc Hospital) for violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences; defendant Pham Vu Phong (director of Nam Phong Company) for violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences and bribery.

Truong Thi Bao Tran (medical equipment and supplies staff - Thu Duc Hospital) was proposed to be prosecuted for violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences and accepting bribes.

Mai Le Quyen (head of microbiology department, Thu Duc City Hospital) was proposed to be prosecuted for bribery.

Nguyen Lan Anh (former deputy director of Thu Duc Hospital) was proposed to be prosecuted for violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences. Ms. Lan Anh was prosecuted in November 2023, after the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy decided to return the case file for further investigation. Ms. Lan Anh is currently being detained at the T17 detention center of the Ministry of Public Security.

According to the additional investigation conclusion, on August 20, 2020, Thu Duc Hospital planned to deploy Covid-19 diagnostic testing, so it sought partners to ensure supplies, test kits, etc.

After the hospital contacted Viet A Company, Le Trung Nguyen (sales staff) introduced the test kit produced by this company. Nguyen introduced his close friend Pham Vu Phong to sell the test kit produced by Viet A Company directly from Nam Phong Company.

Mr. Quan, as the director of Thu Duc Hospital, signed decisions approving the plan to select contractors, Viet A Company and Nam Phong Company, without appraising the documents; appraising the contractor's proposal documents, ranking the contractors...

The nature of the implementation of bidding documents for Viet A and Nam Phong Companies was to legalize documents to pay for the number of test kits supplied by Viet A and Nam Phong Companies in advance; without considering the capacity and experience of the contractor..., causing damage to Thu Duc Hospital of more than 14.9 billion VND.

Phong, although knowing that his company was not qualified as a contractor, still used the legal entity of Nam Phong Company to commit fraud and collude in bidding. He carried out 1 competitive bidding package, 4 shortened designated bidding packages and 33 designated bidding packages to purchase test kits manufactured by Viet A Company from Nam Phong Company.

According to the additional investigation conclusion, regarding the consequences of damage, the price of the test kit produced by Viet A Company (including 5% profit) is a maximum of 143,461 VND/kit. Thu Duc Hospital paid Viet A Company and Nam Phong Company to buy the test kit for more than 24.9 billion VND. Of which, Thu Duc Hospital paid more than 640 million VND to Viet A Company and paid 24.3 billion VND to Nam Phong Company (8.9 billion VND has not been paid yet).

Individuals at Thu Duc Hospital did not follow the bidding process properly, causing the hospital to lose more than 14.9 billion VND.

Nam Phong Company benefits from selling test kits to Thu Duc Hospital by more than 10.5 billion VND (excluding taxes payable to the State).

In order to complete the documents for the hospital to pay for the test kit, Phong also gave more than 997 million VND in commission to the staff at Thu Duc Hospital.

In particular, defendant Truong Thi Bao Tran completed the bidding procedure in violation of regulations so that Thu Duc City Hospital could pay for the test kits. Tran received more than VND997 million in commission from Nam Phong Company and proactively returned the entire amount before being prosecuted.

Mai Le Quyen decided and selected the test kit of Viet A Company for Thu Duc City Hospital to bid, leading to losses. Quyen received 100 million VND in "compensation" from Le Trung Nguyen (an employee of Viet A Company) through the defendant's husband's account.

Nguyen Lan Anh admitted that because she trusted the bidding documents that had been approved by Mr. Quan and trusted the staff to follow the correct procedures, she signed a contract with Nam Phong Company to buy test kits, causing damage to the hospital.

In December 2023, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court held a first-instance trial of the case of violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences; embezzlement of assets, and money laundering occurring at Thu Duc Hospital and related units.

The court sentenced former director Nguyen Minh Quan to 21 years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering. Former hospital deputy director Nguyen Lan Anh to 3 years and 6 months in prison for violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences.