The process of appointing the Director of the Department of Drug Administration to Deputy Minister is very strict.

Regarding the appointment of the Director of the Drug Administration to Deputy Minister while the VN Pharma case was ongoing, former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Tien Dinh said the process of appointing a Deputy Minister was very strict.

Regarding the VN Pharma case, public opinion cannot help but wonder when the Director of the Drug Administration Department, the head of the place directly reviewing and licensing the import of more than 9,000 boxes of H-Capita - a fake cancer drug in 2013-2014, was appointed Deputy Minister at the end of 2016, when the case was still unclear. As a leader who used to work in personnel organization, do you think this is reasonable?

Former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Tien Dinh. Photo: Hoang Long

The Ministry of Health's explanatory report said that the Drug Administration did the right thing.

Specifically, the Department licensed the import of the drug but later discovered a problem, reported it to the authorities and did not allow the drug to be circulated on the market.

The Ministry of Health cited evidence that at that time, they invited experienced experts from various agencies to evaluate but they could not detect the forgery because the documents were very sophisticated. After the discovery, everything stopped.

According to the Ministry of Health's explanation, the Department had made a mistake, but not intentionally, but by accident. It was not discovered because it was done so sophisticatedly, only when the police got involved did they discover it.

At that time, the Ministry of Health confirmed that the Director was not responsible. That is why the Ministry continued to make a document proposing the appointment.

So sir, is the appointment process not strict enough?

The process of appointing Deputy Ministers is very strict. The Ministry of Health must determine that the Director has no shortcomings during his working period before proposing him. After that, he must be examined by the Central Organization Committee, the Central Inspection Committee, and the Party Committee of the Central Agencies before being promoted.

In addition, it must go through the Party Executive Committee and then report to the Secretariat for consideration and approval. After completing all steps, the Prime Minister will sign the appointment as Deputy Minister. The process is very strict.

The appointment to Deputy Minister must go through many stages, and be verified from the grassroots. During that process, the Party Committee of the Ministry of Health must report to the Director on the good performance of the tasks during his tenure as Director and propose a promotion to meet the requirements of the task.

I do not know if the Drug Administration has any shortcomings. Currently, the case is related to VN Pharma, I only know that the Ministry of Health reported and explained.

According to you, what should the authorities do to dispel public concerns about the appointment of the Director of the Department of Drug Administration to the position of Deputy Minister?

In this case, if there is any problem, I believe the authorities will step in to clarify the matter.

According to the Ministry of Health's explanation, this case of falsified documents was so sophisticated that I heard that they had to be sent to Canada and they said it was not true. The Ministry of Health itself did not detect it, not that they did it on purpose, even the experts did not detect it. Before it was discovered, the Ministry of Health must have done the procedures to plan and promote the Director to Deputy Minister.

If there is an intentional element, then it is true that it is related to the responsibility of the leader.

Therefore, in my opinion, the investigating agencies and authorities need to continue to clarify this matter to fully assess it.

According to Vietnamnet