Standing deputy PM’s assistant faces disciplinary action in pandemic repatriation scam

The Central Inspection Committee has proposed the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat considers disciplining Deputy Foreign Minister To Anh Dung and Nguyen Quang Linh, assistant to the Standing Deputy Prime Minister.

The committee issued Monday a notice on proposed disciplinary action against some Party members in the case of "giving bribes, receiving bribes, abusing power and positions while performing duties, fraudulently appropriating assets" at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Hanoi and other localities.

The inspection entity found that Dung and Linh had showed deterioration in their political ideology, ethics, lifestyle; violated the Party’s regulations and the State’s laws on anti-corruption; and breached the regulations on Party members’ conduct and responsibility to set a good example.

"These violations distorted the correct and humanitarian policy of the Party and State in organizing repatriation flights to bring Vietnamese citizens home when the Covid-19 pandemic surged, causing very serious consequences, negative public opinion, and harming the prestige of Party organizations," the inspectors stated.

Deputy Foreign Minister To Anh Dung had been arrested on April 14 on charges of accepting bribes related to the “rescue flights”.

Lieutenant General To An Xo, chief of staff and spokesman of the Ministry of Public Security, said that Dung, 58, was detained by the ministry’s investigative agency for allegedly “receiving bribes”. Dung was appointed as Deputy Foreign Minister in 2019.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, Vietnam has organized nearly 800 repatriation flights, bringing home more than 200,000 citizens from more than 60 countries and territories. When the flights were deployed, many people claimed they had to buy very expensive tickets and experienced cumbersome procedures.