Health minister, former technology minister face disciplinary measures

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long and Chu Ngoc Anh, former Technology Minister, are encountering disciplinary measures due to their involvement in the Covid-19 test kit scam at Viet A, a local supplier of medical chemicals and equipment.

The Party Central Committee’s Inspection Commission on Thursday stated that leaders at the two ministries “had shown a lack of responsibility and lax management, resulting in wrongdoings and violations of Party regulations and State laws.”

The inspectors named several officials who must bear shared responsibility for the wrongdoings and violations as well as individual responsibility for their mistakes in performing assigned duties and tasks.

They included former Technology Minister Chu Ngoc Anh, now Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee; Deputy Technology Minister Pham Cong Tac; Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long; and Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Truong Son.

The responsibility of some units and individuals of the Ministry of Finance will continue to be investigated.

The Party inspectors also decided disciplinary measures against officials from the Vietnam Military Medical University who had engagement in the Viet A scam.

A warning was issued to Lieutenant General Nguyen Viet Luong, Secretary of the Party Committee of the university, along with three other officers. Four others took a reprimand, while two were dispelled from the Party.

The Inspection Commission asked the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat to consider disciplinary measures against the standing board of the university’s Party Committee in the 2015-2020 and 2020-2025 tenures, along with the university’s director - Lieutenant General Do Quyet, and deputy director Major General Hoang Van Luong.

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