'An elephant in the room' - the story of Vietnam's vehicle registration centers

By Le Van Tach

Wed, January 11, 2023 | 9:03 am GMT+7

The case of an illiterate man who was appointed director of a vehicle registration center in Ho Chi Minh City has been described as “an elephant in the room”.

“An elephant in the room” in English means there is an obvious problem or difficult situation that people do not want to talk about.

When the police raided the 50-17D auto registration center in Nha Be district on December 19 to uncover possible violations, they found that its director, Ho Huu Tai, 52, was unable to read or write, said Ministry of Public Security spokesman Major General To An Xo at a government meeting earlier this month.

At the meeting, Xo disclosed really shocking information about violations at registration centers in provinces and cities across the country.

He reported that about 70,000 motor vehicles had been registered against regulations, with violations in the manual inspection stage and replacement of poor-quality spare parts ignored. Some registration centers even used software to change emission parameters.

In addition to the case of the illiterate registration center director, a number of centers have been established despite failing to meet standards by using fake registrars to satisfy legal requirements.

As a person with decades of experience in automotive engineering and motor vehicle safety, I think this is worrying information for anyone. These cars pose potential risks of causing accidents or worse.

Therefore, they must periodically be thoroughly examined in order to ensure that all cars on the road meet technical safety and environmental protection standards.

70,000 vehicles that do not meet the main inspection standards are 70,000 sources of danger on the road and anyone could be a victim, one way or another.

What surprised me more was the reply from the leader of the Vietnam Register, who said that the appointment of an illiterate man to the position of registration center director derived from the policy of socializing the registration of motor vehicles under government Decree 139/2018, making centers compete with each other to attract vehicle owners to register for inspections.

This answer shows that the Vietnam Register “kicked" its responsibility to others, and has failed in its duty to the country.

Remember that the Vietnam Register, registration units and registrars are the ones who take the main responsibility when motor vehicles do not meet safety and technical standards.

The Vietnam Register also gives advice to the Ministry of Transport on legal documents to submit to the government, as well as licenses the operation of registration centers and supervises their activities.

In these circumstances, should we accept the fact that a person who cannot read or write has the right to administer and direct subordinates to perform work related to vehicle safety inspections? Can we accept a person with only money as the head of a unit that has the power to allow unqualified motor vehicles to be on the road?

More than 10 years ago, when I was working at Toyota Vietnam, I once reported to the Vietnam Register thousands of Innova and Fortuner cars that did not meet technical standards. However, the authorities did not address the problem.

The Western proverb "an elephant in the room" implies that there is an obvious problem but some people do not see or pretend not to see it to avoid taking responsibility. And that is what is happening at registration units in Vietnam.

The consequences have been visible as the Ministry of Public Security assessed violations in the supervision of vehicle quality have affected state management activities, caused property damage, stirred public outage, and posed a risk to people's safety.