Hanoi mayor sacked over Covid test kit wrongdoings

Hanoi dismissed its chairman Chu Ngoc Anh on Tuesday after he was expelled from the Communist Party a day before.

The city People’s Council voted with a 100% ratio for the dismissal.

Anh, a Party Central Committee member, Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee and former Minister of Science and Technology, was found to have violated regulations on Party member conduct.

"Chu Ngoc Anh has caused very serious consequences, damage to the state budget; affected the country’s anti-pandemic efforts; caused anger in society; and affected the reputation of Party organizations of the ministries to the point of having to face disciplinary action," the Party Central Committee stated.

Last month, the Central Inspection Committee proposed the Politburo take disciplinary action against Anh.

The inspection commission stated that the technology ministry leaders in the 2016-2021 term were found to have lacked responsibility, showed loose leadership, and lacked direction, management, and inspection, giving rise to some ministerial officials violating the Party’s regulations and State laws in approving and signing contracts, managing, inspecting, supervising and funding a project that studies and manufactures Covid-19 test kits for Military Medical Academy.

On the same day, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long was dismissed from his position for his involvement in the Viet A Covid-19 test kit scam after being expelled from the Communist Party. The National Assembly also approved the government’s vote, expelling Long from the legislative body.

Nguyen Thi Thanh, head of the delegate issues unit under the National Assembly Standing Committee, told media that a report showed Long had earlier intervened to allow Covid-19 test kits provided by Viet A Company to be circulated across the country. She said the report mentioned his main violations.

Phan Quoc Viet, CEO of the company, was arrested by the police 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 on Saturday that Viet A earned up to VND4,000 billion ($172.47 million) illicitly, of which VND800 billion was spent on bribes.