Two senior officials expelled from Party for wrongdoings in Viet A test kit case
VOV.VN - The Party Central Committee at its extraordinary meeting in Hanoi on June 6 decided to expel Hanoi People’s Committee Chairman Chu Ngoc Anh and Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long from the Party.
Both officials are members of the Party Central Committee.
The decision was made on a request of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat that the Party Central Committee take disciplinary actions against the two officials in response to their misconduct and rule violations linked to the COVID-19 test kit scandal at Viet A Technologies.
The scandal erupted when Anh and Long took the helm of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health in the 2016-2021 tenure respectively.
The Political Bureau and the Secretariat maintained that the wrongdoings and violations committed by the Party leadership of the two ministries had caused serious consequences to the state budget, negatively impacted the COVID-19 fight, stirred up public anger, and adversely tarnished the reputation of Party organizations of the two ministries.
Last December, the police arrested and initiated legal proceedings against Phan Quoc Viet, general director of Viet A Technologies, for raising the price of RT-PCR COVID-19 test kits and giving bribery to health officials to sell their test kits.
Investigations showed that Viet and key leaders of the company had admitted to colluding with leaders of hospitals and provincial Centre for Diseases Control (CDC) to supply COVID-19 test kits to hospitals and CDCs these units at prices set by the company, which were much higher than the production price.
The Ministry of Public Security had also found signs of wrongdoings in the management, research and transfer of the scientific project on COVID-19 test kits at the Ministry of Science and Technology and in licensing the circulation of the test kits and the negotiation of COVID-19 test kit price with Viet A Company at the Ministry of Health.
