From the case of Mr. Vu Quang Hai, the Ministry's leaders have requested relevant units to review the promotion and transfer of all officials in the 2013-2015 period, and report initial results by the end of next week.

The above information was shared by Minister of Industry and Trade - Tran Tuan Anh with VnExpress late on June 15. "The review will include both cases of receiving people from outside and cases of being transferred from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to hold positions in the Board of Directors, Board of Directors of corporations, general companies, and companies under the Ministry," said Minister Tran Tuan Anh.

At the same time, the Ministry's leaders also requested units to report on personnel planning work during the period from 2011 to 2015. "Relevant units are urgently implementing and reporting to the Party Committee the initial results of the review by the end of next week," said the Minister.

Previously, the controversy over the appointment and transfer of officials at the Ministry of Industry and Trade received public attention after documents from the Vietnam Association of Financial Investors (VAFI) regarding personnel work at Saigon Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Corporation (Sabeco), specifically the case of Mr. Vu Quang Hai (son of former Minister Vu Huy Hoang) being transferred to a leadership position at a young age.

Vu Quang Hai (top row, left) was appointed General Director at PVFI at the age of 25.

Responding to Tien Phong newspaper after this event, Mr. Vu Huy Hoang said that at the end of 2014, Sabeco's Board of Directors, directly led by Chairman Phan Dang Tuat, sent an official dispatch to the leaders and the Party Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Trade regarding the restructuring of the leadership apparatus, in which he requested the Ministry to allow the specific transfer of Mr. Vu Quang Hai to do management work.

"The authority to appoint and promote belongs to the corporation. Hai was then the deputy head of the department, in terms of personnel management, the Ministry had to agree before he could go. Based on Sabeco's request and taking into account the standards, the Ministry agreed to let Hai in so that Sabeco could carry out the appointment process," said Mr. Hoang.

Meanwhile, when answering Tuoi Tre newspaper, Mr. Vu Quang Hai also said that his appointment to work at Sabeco came from the proposal of the enterprise, not from the Ministry's appointment and there was absolutely no such thing as "father appointing son".

"Sabeco still has an outside shareholder, Heineken, so the Ministry cannot decide on this matter," Mr. Vu Quang Hai shared. He also denied that he was the representative of the State capital and said that since joining Sabeco until now, he has only been an employee of this enterprise.

Meanwhile, Mr. Phan Dang Tuat - former Chairman of Sabeco's Board of Directors also confirmed that he proactively proposed and said the reason for wanting to bring Mr. Hai back was to add young, suitable personnel for the position of Deputy General Director of the enterprise.

Considering the responses from “insiders” to be positive, in the latest document sent to the press on the afternoon of June 15, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Hai - Vice President of VAFI was still not satisfied and continued to question Mr. Vu Quang Hai about his return to the Trade Promotion Agency (before returning to Sabeco) “at the request of the Agency”, as well as his contributions during his time working there to be promoted to the rank of Deputy Director. In addition, VAFI also continued to question the legality of the documents transferring Mr. Hai to Sabeco as well as many other issues...

The case of Mr. Vu Quang Hai is not an isolated incident that has recently attracted public attention related to personnel work at the Ministry of Industry and Trade. In addition, we must also mention the Vice Chairman of Hau Giang Province - Trinh Xuan Thanh, who was recently discovered to have many irregularities when using a private luxury car, but with a blue license plate. Mr. Thanh previously spent 4 years running and holding the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Construction Corporation (PVC), a member unit of the Oil and Gas Group, an enterprise under the Ministry.

During Mr. Thanh's leadership, PVC suffered continuous losses due to large investments outside the industry (accumulated losses of more than 3,000 billion VND by the end of 2013). He was then appointed as Deputy Chief of Office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Chief Representative of the Ministry in Da Nang in September 2013. In early 2015, Mr. Thanh was appointed as Department Head, holding many important positions before being transferred to become Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Hau Giang province.

Previously, there were rare cases of decisions and appointments of officials at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, typically the appointment of two people (Mr. Kieu Nghiep and Than Duc Cong) to hold the position of Head of the Anti-Counterfeiting Department (Market Management Department) in 2013 - 2014. It took 6 months for the incident to be discovered and then many leaders of this agency were inspected and reprimanded...

According to VNE