Former Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee and Former Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long were arrested.

* Indictment and detention order for former Hanoi chairmanfor the crime of violating regulations on management and use of State assets causing loss and waste, according to Article 219 of the Penal Code, enforced by the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency (C03) on June 7.

Nearly three hours before the arrest warrant was executed, Mr. Chu Ngoc Anh was dismissed from his position as Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee by the City People's Council. Yesterday, he was expelled from the Party.

Mr. Chu Ngoc Anh.

With the same charge as Mr. Chu Ngoc Anh, C03 prosecuted and temporarily detained Mr. Pham Cong Tac, former Deputy Minister of Science and Technology.

Mr. Chu Ngoc Anh and Pham Cong Tac were accused of violating the law in assigning, managing, and using the National Science and Technology Project to research and manufacture Covid-19 test kits. This behavior caused loss and waste of state assets, according to the investigation agency.

Mr. Chu Ngoc Anh, 57 years old, from Ba Vi, Hanoi; served as Minister of Science and Technology from April 2016 to September 2020. In September 2020, he became Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee, one month after his predecessor, Mr. Nguyen Duc Chung, was arrested in three cases.

Mr. Pham Cong Tac, 60 years old, from Nam Dinh, was appointed Deputy Minister in August 2014, before that he was Chief of Office of the Ministry. Yesterday, the Prime Minister issued a disciplinary decision forcing him to resign.

* On the same day he was dismissed from office and removed from the National Assembly, former MinisterMinister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long was prosecuted and detained.

On the afternoon of June 7, Mr. Long was served with a decision by the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency (C03) to prosecute him for the crime of Abusing position and power while performing official duties, according to Article 356 of the Penal Code. His private house on Hoang Hoa Tham Street was searched.

On the same morning, the National Assembly dismissed Mr. Long from his position as a member of the XVth term and approved his dismissal from the position of Minister of Health. One day before, at an extraordinary meeting of the Central Executive Committee, he was expelled from the Party.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long

The 56-year-old former Minister of Health was accused of intervening, influencing, and supporting Viet A Company in the process of granting temporary and official circulation registration certificates; negotiating prices and checking negotiated prices for test kits provided by this enterprise. He issued price announcements for biological products and medical equipment for diagnosing Covid-19 in violation of regulations...

Currently, Mr. Long is the highest-ranking person in the Ministry of Health to be prosecuted in connection with the Viet A case. At the end of December 2021, two former department heads, Nguyen Nam Lien (Department of Financial Planning) and Nguyen Minh Tuan (Department of Medical Equipment and Construction), were prosecuted.

Mr. Long has been Deputy Minister of Health since December 2011, and in October 2018 was transferred to the position of Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department.

Since January 2020, he has returned to work as Deputy Minister of Health. He has been Minister since November 2020, taking on the task during the Covid-19 outbreak. At this time, the Ministry of Health is responsible for many tasks, from coordinating medical forces to treat and support localities; participating in planning anti-epidemic policies to negotiating vaccine supplies from abroad...

More than 10 days before Mr. Long was arrested, Mr. Nguyen Huynh, Mr. Long's secretary during his tenure as Deputy Minister of Health, was prosecuted and detained by the C03 on charges of "Abusing power while performing official duties". At the time of his arrest on May 25, Mr. Huynh held the position of Deputy Head of Price Management, Department of Drug Administration, Ministry of Health.

The Ministry of Public Security believes that Mr. Huynh took advantage of his position as a leadership secretary to "introduce, intervene and influence" Department Director Nguyen Minh Tuan in the Ministry of Health's receipt and appraisal of the application for a Covid-19 test kit registration number for Viet A Company. Therefore, Viet A's application was issued in violation of regulations.

In 2020, when Covid-19 broke out, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Military Medical Academy researched test kits with the participation of Viet A Company from the very beginning to promptly transfer technology and put it into production to serve epidemic prevention.

However, C03 determined that Viet A General Director Phan Quoc Viet took advantage of the urgency of the epidemic to sell test kits to provinces and cities for illegal profits.

In December 2021, the price gouging case at Viet A was investigated. Over the past 6 months, the Department of Health, CDC and hospitals of 16 provinces and cities have been accused by the investigation agency of being involved in this violation.

Of the revenue of about 4,000 billion VND, Viet A paid "commissions" to individuals and organizations of nearly 800 billion VND.