Former Head of Propaganda Department of Hoa Binh Provincial Party Committee sentenced to 4.5 years in prison

Defendant Nguyen Dong at the first instance trial

In this case, the defendants include: Do Huu Tiep (born in 1978), former Head of the Administration Department, Provincial Party Committee Office; Nguyen Dong (born in 1973), former Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department, former Chief of the Office of the Hoa Binh Provincial Party Committee; Tran Manh Cuong (born in 1982), Chairman of the Board of Directors of PTC Investment Joint Stock Company; Nguyen Xuan Thien (born in 1988), Director of P&T Investment Joint Stock Company, Director of PTC Vietnam Joint Stock Company; Dang Viet Cuong (born in 1984), Chairman of the Board of Directors of P&T Investment Joint Stock Company; Nguyen Viet Cuong (born in 1982), Deputy General Director of Hanoi Post Office Investment and Development Consulting Joint Stock Company; Dao Tien Dung (born in 1985), former employee of Thang Long TDK Auditing Company Limited, collaborator of Vietnam Valuation and Financial Consulting Company Limited, is now Chairman of the Advisory Board of Hanoi Tax and Auditing Services Company Limited and Nghiem Xuan Dung (born in 1978), Director of Vietnam Valuation and Financial Consulting Company Limited (FACOM).

At the trial as well as the investigation agency, the defendants admitted all their crimes. Based on the nature, role, and level of each defendant's crimes and considering the overall content of the case, the Trial Panel of the People's Court of Hoa Binh province sentenced the defendants Do Huu Tiep to 5 years in prison; Nguyen Dong to 4 years and 6 months in prison; Tran Manh Cuong and Nguyen Xuan Thien to 3 years and 6 months in prison; Dang Viet Cuong, Nguyen Viet Cuong, Dao Tien Dung and Nghiem Xuan Dung to 3 years in prison. All were charged with the crime of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties" as stipulated in Clause 3, Article 356 of the 2015 Penal Code.

Regarding civil liability, the defendants must be responsible for compensating the entire amount of damage to the State budget that they have caused. During the investigation, the defendants have partially remedied the consequences and must continue to pay the remaining amount.

According to the case file, from 2015 to 2018, when implementing the Project "Building an online conference system for the Hoa Binh Provincial Party Committee", 8 defendants took advantage of their positions and powers and assisted in colluding to increase the price of equipment belonging to the project, causing a loss of over 6 billion 251 million VND.

In particular, Do Huu Tiep was assigned to advise on the project implementation and execution. For personal gain, Tiep had the idea of ​​raising the price to take advantage of the difference in value from the "Procurement, installation of equipment, training and technology transfer" bidding package. After that, Tiep discussed and colluded with Tran Manh Cuong, Nguyen Xuan Thien and Dang Viet Cuong on selecting P&T Company to win the bid and carried out round-about purchases to raise the price of equipment supplied to the Office of the Hoa Binh Provincial Party Committee; provided the estimated price of equipment to legalize the bidding documents and procedures for the "Consulting on preparing bidding documents, analyzing and evaluating bidding documents" package; provided a list of equipment, an estimate table and a quotation for Nghiem Xuan Dung, Director of Vietnam Financial Consulting and Valuation Company Limited (FACOM) to appraise the price; directing and arranging for P&T Company to have the lowest quotation as the basis for determining the value of the bid package and requiring P&T Company to arrange "green troops" to participate in the bidding, not ensuring fairness and transparency in bidding activities, causing damage to the State budget of over 6 billion 251 million VND.

In this case, defendant Nguyen Dong, at that time, as the Chief of the Office of the Hoa Binh Provincial Party Committee, was the person with the highest responsibility in the process of implementing the project. Due to the motive of profit, when hearing Do Huu Tiep's proposal, he agreed to let the company with a relationship with Tiep be assigned to implement the project. At the same time, he assigned Do Huu Tiep to advise on the steps from the project preparation stage, project implementation to acceptance, handover and putting into use. In this project, defendant Nguyen Dong benefited 1 billion VND.

According to VNA