Hai Duong Party chief expelled from Party over Covid test kit scandal

Pham Xuan Thang, former Secretary of Hai Duong’s Party Committee, were ousted from Vietnam’s Communist Party on Monday, two weeks after he had been prosecuted and detained.

A Monday release from the Central Party Committee’s Office stated that the committee had decided to take disciplinary action against Thang, a committee member.

Thang, 56, was also former chairman of the northern province’s People’s Council, a legislative body.

He was found to have showed deterioration in his political ideology, morality and lifestyle; violated the Party’s regulations and the State’s laws; breached the regulations on Party members’ conduct and leaders’ responsibility to set an example.

"Pham Xuan Thang's violations caused very serious consequences; did great damage to the budget of the State, people and society; led to the occurrence of a corruption scandal at the provincial Center for Disease Control (CDC); causing bad public opinion and reducing the prestige of Party organizations and the local administration."

Thang was arrested on September 17 for “abusing positions and power in performing official duties” per the Penal Code, say investigative authorities.

This is the latest development in the Viet A test kit case that involves: violating regulations on management and use of state assets, causing loss and waste; violating regulations on bidding, causing serious consequences; abusing positions and power while performing official duties; giving bribes; and accepting bribes.

The Ministry of Public Security’s investigative agency (C03) said that Pham Xuan Thang had taken advantage of his positions and power to issue directions that breached the law on bidding, allowing the Viet A Company to gain large amounts of illicit profit.

The day before his arrest, Thang had been suspended from Party-related activities and Party positions by the Politburo, premier decision-making body of the Party.

The criminal case related to Viet A Company is considered a major one subject to monitoring and direction by the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption.

Until now, prosecution agencies under the Ministry of Public Security and police departments across the country have detained more than 90 people in related cases, including several former Party Central Committee members.

Before Thang’s arrest, the C03 had detained former Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long and former Mayor of Hanoi Chu Ngoc Anh.

Taking advantage of “special relationships” with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science and Technology and some localities, between February 2020 to December 2021, Viet A Company provided millions of Covid-19 test kits to ministries, state agencies, hospitals, centers for disease control (CDC) and partners in more than 60 provinces and cities, earning revenues of about VND4,000 billion ($169 million).

The prosecution agencies determined that in order to win the contract to provide test kits and biological products, Viet A Company leaders paid VND800 billion ($33.81 million) in “commissions” to partners. Many company leaders were prosecuted for giving bribes.