Former Director of Vietnam Register and many others arrested

Mr. Hinh (62 years old, living in Hanoi) was temporarily detained by Ho Chi Minh City Police for accepting bribes. This move was made during the process of expanding the investigation into violations at the Vietnam Register and a series of registration centers in Saigon and other provinces and cities.

On January 11, authorities temporarily detained Mr. Dang Viet Ha, Director of the Vietnam Register, on charges that he and his accomplices Tran Anh Quan (Acting Head of the Motor Vehicle Inspection Department), Dang Tran Khanh (Deputy Head of the Department) and specialist Pham Duc Ngoc received bribes "monthly and quarterly" from inspection centers in many provinces and cities. In addition, inspection stations wishing to establish themselves had to bribe the leaders of the Vietnam Register and their accomplices to be approved.

The investigation agency determined that from 2014 to August 2021, Mr. Hinh, in his role as Director of the Vietnam Register, through Tran Anh Quan, received bribes from a number of directors of registration centers to sign and approve the issuance of Registration Codes and Certificates of Eligibility for Registration Operations even though these facilities were not yet qualified.

In addition, during his time as head of the Vietnam Registry, Mr. Hinh was lax in management, lacked supervision and inspection, directly received bribes (monthly and quarterly) from center directors, and "ignored" violations in receiving money from vehicle owners and brokers to issue registration certificates for vehicles that did not meet technical safety and environmental protection standards.

Also detained on the same day as Mr. Hinh were Hoang Huu Thinh (31 years old), Truong Duy Duc (41 years old, employees of the Inspection Center 15-05D), Ho Ngoc Nam and Tran The Khanh Ho (both 34 years old, technical staff of Viet Net Company Limited). The defendants were accused of the crime of Manufacturing, trading, exchanging or giving away tools, equipment, and software for illegal use under Article 285 of the Penal Code.

Previously, when searching the 71-02D ​​Vehicle Inspection Center (Ben Tre province), Ho Chi Minh City Police discovered that the Deputy Director and the vehicle inspectors there had used software to read (get) and edit technical parameters for motor vehicles (including: speed, concentration of radioactive gas, idle speed, maximum speed, coefficient K...) to intervene and edit the results of vehicle emission inspection.

During the investigation, City PoliceHo Chi MinhIt was determined that Thinh, Duc, Nam and Ho had colluded to write software to illegally interfere with the database and edit vehicle inspection parameters, then sold it to a number of inspection centers (including Inspection Center 71-02D) to use for illegal purposes.

Over the past month, police across the country have been continuously investigating violations in vehicle registration activities. Particularly in Ho Chi Minh City,Ho Chi MinhAuthorities searched 13 centers, including 5 facilities in Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Dong Thap, Soc Trang and 8 units in Saigon; confiscated many related objects, documents, and electronic data.

City PoliceHo Chi Minhprosecuted 6 cases, temporarily detained 89 people including Directors, Deputy Directors, employees of the Registration Centers and brokers for the crimes of Receiving bribes, Bribery brokerage and Forgery in work.

Currently, more than 20 inspection centers nationwide have been suspended to serve the investigation. The tricks of the violating centers are to receive "bribes" from brokers, ignore vehicle violations during the manual inspection process or rent spare parts that do not meet technical standards. For example, vehicles with worn tires have to pay to replace tires, replace the body, and replace some parts to ensure standards; use software to interfere with the inspection system to change emission inspection parameters...

Authorities estimate that 70,000 motor vehicles were inspected in this "law-making" manner. The inspection centers issued about 52,300 technical safety inspection certificates for environmental protection, illegally profiting tens of billions of dong. Some inspection centers were not qualified but were still established, creating fake lists of inspectors to legitimize some government regulations on motor vehicle inspection services.

Given the particularly serious nature of the case, on January 12, the Central Steering Committee on anti-corruption and anti-negativity added the case that occurred at the Vietnam Register and a number of registration centers to the list of cases to be monitored and directed.

According to VnExpress