Former Vice Chairman of Hanoi said he was not guilty in the water pipe burst case

Mr. Phi Thai Binh - also former Chairman of Vinaconex Board of Directors said he did it with pure motives and not for personal gain. Vinaconex earned thousands of billions of dong from the Song Da clean water pipeline project.

» Prosecution of former Vice Chairman of Hanoi Phi Thai Binh

Mr. Phi Thai Binh - former Vice Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee, former Chairman of Vinaconex Board of Directors.

On the afternoon of May 22, the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency issued a decision to prosecute Phi Thai Binh - former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vinaconex Corporation, former Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee, for violations during his tenure as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vinaconex, the investor of the Song Da water pipeline project that broke many times.

Speaking to Tuoi Tre by phone on the evening of May 22 after the news of his prosecution, Mr. Binh said:

“This is a long story and I believe that what I did was right. I think with my responsibility, I have done it with all my heart and with pure motives, not for personal gain.

In particular, I think I contribute to solving the thirst for clean water for the capital's people, the implementation process has no loss, no negativity, no corruption.

This is a project to solve the clean water needs of millions of people lacking water, so no one wants any unfortunate incident to happen.

Now we have to separate the story about our responsibilities during the project period. It was a project that took 4-5 years to complete, and while the project was still unfinished, I returned to work at the Hanoi People's Committee.

* Now the prosecution agency holds you responsible and prosecutes you. Do you have any concerns?

- I am concerned. I am not guilty in this matter. That project is effective, it is a source of water for the people, hundreds of workers have jobs and especially Vinaconex has earned thousands of billions of dong in profit from this project.

Many people think that in the past we imported pipes from China but that is not true. In fact, our company has done a lot of research before deciding to use new materials that are widely used in the world but have never been used in Vietnam.

This is the first project in which the enterprise has applied new technology to the largest project in Vietnam, importing a production line for large diameter pipes according to international standards, with diameters up to 1.8m to supply to the project.

Up to now, the country can only produce cast iron pipes with a diameter of 80cm, so first, we have to import from abroad, second, we have to invest to avoid dependence on foreign countries.

For those reasons, through survey, design, and consideration, we made very careful selections before importing the technological line to produce this type of pipe so that in the future we do not have to depend on foreign countries or use foreign currency.

This is also a project that does not use state capital, but is designed, manufactured, constructed and operated by the enterprise itself. But just because it does not use state capital does not mean that we can do it carelessly and wrongly.

* You mean there is no profiteering or personal gain from the project?

- That's right. Now let's find out which of the dozen or so times the pipe broke, what year it was manufactured. Each pipe has its own profile, what date it was manufactured, which unit received it, where it was installed, where it was located and whether the installation process is complete enough to ensure the technical requirements of the project.

* But clearly the repeated pipe bursts are related to quality, sir?

- There is a reason for the repeated breakage, which has been accurately determined by the Ministry of Construction and the appraisal agency. I also think there is another reason for the breakage, but I will discuss it when necessary.

As for the project, I was the one who thought about it and struggled to bring this project out with the working class, because the goal was clear at that time: Hanoi was so thirsty, the water source was polluted, the budget was limited, so we had to do it.

Unfortunately, the project was unfinished in the first two years when I moved to Hanoi.

The Da River water pipeline during its 10th rupture on January 15, 2015. Photo: Phuong Minh

According to Tuoi Tre