Former Director of Hanoi CDC appears in court in case of purchasing test kits from Viet A

The two defendants who appeared in court in this case include: Truong Quang Viet (born in 1973, former Director of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control, Chairman of the Center's Goods and Services Procurement Advisory Council), Le Minh Tuyen (born in 1974, former Head of the Finance Department of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control) were prosecuted by the Hanoi People's Procuracy for the crime of "Violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences" according to the provisions of Article 222 of the Penal Code.

According to the indictment, on June 8, 2020, the Hanoi Department of Health issued Decision No. 698/QD-SYT on the transfer and appointment of Truong Quang Viet, Deputy Director of Hanoi Heart Hospital, to work and hold the position of Deputy Director of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control. On January 28, 2022, the Hanoi Department of Health issued Decision No. 168/QD-SYT appointing Truong Quang Viet to hold the position of Director of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control.

When implementing package No. 5 in 2020, through open bidding to purchase 28,300 test kits with a total amount of more than 13 billion VND, with the purpose of purchasing test kits from Viet A Company, Truong Quang Viet (at that time holding the position of Deputy Director in charge of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control, Chairman of the Procurement Council) was responsible for presiding over the development and approval of technical specifications of the COVID-19 test kits put up for bid. Viet wanted to buy products manufactured by Viet A Company, so he instructed his staff to build a profile based on the COVID-19 test kit biological product manufactured by Viet A Company, to ensure that this unit participated in the bidding and won the bid.

At that time, Le Minh Tuyen (member of the Procurement Council of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control) knew that the Center had developed technical specifications for the COVID-19 test kit to be put out for bidding based on the COVID-19 test kit biological product produced by Viet A Company, ensuring that this unit would win the bid according to the content of the previous discussion between Truong Quang Viet and Viet A Company.

The Procuracy determined that the actions of Truong Quang Viet and Le Minh Tuyen violated the legal provisions on ensuring fairness and transparency in bidding activities, violated Clause 6, Article 89, Law on Bidding 2013 and Clause 2, Article 12, Decree No. 63/2014/ND-CP dated June 26, 2014 of the Government, causing a loss to the State budget of more than 9.1 billion VND. After the Hanoi Center for Disease Control paid for the bidding package, under the direction of Truong Quang Viet, defendant Tuyen received more than 1.3 billion VND in extra-contract money from Viet A Company. Of which, Viet benefited 500 million VND and Tuyen benefited more than 800 million VND.