CDC Hanoi chief, accomplice receive $47,200 bribe in Viet A test kit scam

Center for Diseases Control Hanoi (CDC Hanoi) director Truong Quang Viet and chief accountant Le Bich Tuyen received bribes of VND1.1 billion ($47,200) to help Viet A Company win Covid test kit supply bids.

Investigations showed that defendants Viet and Tuyen had received VND1.1 billion in exchange for putting Viet A’s test kit specifications into bidding documents, helping the firm win two supply contracts.

"The violations caused more than VND9 billion (over $388,000) in damage to the state budget," Major General Nguyen Thanh Tung, deputy head of Hanoi Police, told a press meeting Friday.

Viet and Tuyen were detained on June 10 for wrongdoings in the scam triggered by Viet A, following the arrest of CDC leaders nationwide on the same charges. They have been probed on charges of "violating bidding regulations, causing serious consequences."

Viet, 49, was appointed to the position in February this year after almost two years as the acting head though he was a deputy director. The appointment came after the director, Nguyen Nhat Cam, was arrested for "inflating the price" of Covid-19 test kits provided by Viet A Company and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Phan Quoc Viet, CEO of Viet A Company, was arrested in December 2021. He then admitted he had inflated the price of a Covid-19 test kit by 45% and given huge bribes to corporate partners and leaders of provincial and city centers for disease control nationwide, asking them to distribute and use Covid-19 test kits provided by his company.

Lieutenant General To An Xo, chief of staff and spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security, told a government meeting in June that Viet A earned up to VND4,000 billion ($172.47 million) illicitly, of which VND800 billion was spent on bribes.

In the past six months, since the Viet A case was uncovered, police across the country have prosecuted nearly 70 people, including former Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long and former Hanoi Chairman Chu Ngoc Anh.

Long was found to have had “interests in the Viet A case”, so he was prosecuted for abusing his position and power while performing official duties, according to Major General Nguyen Van Thanh.

Thanh, deputy head of the Ministry of Public Security’s police department for corruption, smuggling and economic crimes (C03), told a press meeting Thursday that the case showed four groups of crimes, but the center is collusion to violate bidding regulations and bribery.