Nguyen Duc Thai, former chairman of the wholly state-owned Vietnam Education Publishing House, was arrested on Monday for alleged bidding violations in supply of printing paper.
Thai and Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, former head of marketing planning at the firm were detained by the Ministry of Public Security's investigative agency for further investigation on charges of abusing positions and powers while on official duty.
On the same day, the police detained Dinh Quoc Khanh, former deputy head of the company's marketing planning, and To My Ngoc, chairman of the Phung Vinh Hung Paper Joint Stock Company, on charges of violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences.
Initial investigation results show that Thai, Khanh, Thuy and Ngoc violated the laws on ensuring fairness and transparency in bidding activities to supply printing paper.
The investigative agency concluded that the defendants' collusion has caused particularly serious damage to state property.
After winning the bid, Thai and Thuy "received material benefits" from Ngoc, the police said.
One month ago, Thuy was arrested in another case- the Viet A Company Covid test kit scam - on charges of taking advantage of influence over people with positions and powers for personal gains.
Thuy was found to have influenced some leaders of a number of ministries and state agencies to help Viet A Company produce and trade Covid-19 test kits for illicit profits.
The wholly state-owned Vietnam Education Publishing House has a charter capital of VND596 billion ($25.25 million), with the Ministry of Education and Training as its governing body.
In 2021, the company printed more than 164 million textbooks, earning a total revenue of VND1,828 billion ($77.44 million), of which over 97% came from book publishing activities. Its profit after tax was VND287 billion ($12.16 million), an all-time high.
At the end of last year, the Government Inspectorate determined that there were many "abnormalities, which did not ensure fairness and economic efficiency" in the company choosing contractors to supply textbooks.
Checking some of the printing paper supply contracts between the company and private firm Phung Vinh Hung, the Government Inspector found that the average price of printing paper is 1.7 times higher than the price of paper directly imported by the former, or a difference of about VND210 billion ($8.9 million).