Former National Assembly General Secretary faces disciplinary action

The Party Central Committee’s Inspection Commission has proposed competent authorities take disciplinary action against Bui Van Cuong, who stepped down last week as the National Assembly’s General Secretary.

The proposal was made after a commission meeting held in Hanoi on Monday and Tuesday, chaired by Tran Cam Tu, a Politburo member, permanent member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat, and chairman of the commission.

The commission looked into wrongdoings of the standing board of the Dak Lak Party Committee in the 2015-2020 tenure and Bui Van Cuong, who acted as its secretary between July 2019 and April 2021.

According to the commission, the standing board of the Dak Lak provincial Party Committee in the 2019-2020 period of the 2015-2020 tenure, and the Party civil affairs board of the provincial People Committee in the 2016-2021 and 2021-2026 tenures violated the principle of democratic centralism and showed relaxed leadership, enabling the provincial Party Committee and many collectives and individuals to commit violations during the implementation of the eastern wing of the Ho Chi Minh road construction project in Buon Ma Thuot town, the capital of the province.

They were also found with violations during the implementation of several solar and wind power projects. Some officials and Party members violated the Party’s regulations and the State’s laws on corruption and negative phenomena prevention and control, the commission concluded.

“The above-mentioned wrongdoings caused serious consequences, posed a risk of great money and property losses to the State and waste of social resources, caused bad public opinion, and undermined the prestige of the local Party organization and administration to an extent that requires disciplinary measures,” it noted.

Cuong, a member of the Party Central Committee, was among the officials bearing responsibility for those wrongdoings and shortcomings, according to the commission.

The commission decided to strip the Party membership of Pham Van Ha, former secretary of the Party Committee of and former director of the province’s management board for transport structure construction and agriculture-rural development projects; and Bui Van Tu, head of the province’s project management board for industrial parks.

The commission also gave warnings and reprimands to several Party organizations and sitting and former officials of the Central Highlands province.