Prosecution of former Director of Department of Education and Training and 11 defendants

The Supreme People's Procuracy has just issued an indictment.prosecuteMs. Pham Thi Hang - former Director of the Department of Education and Training of Thanh Hoa province for the crime of "Violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences" related to 2 bidding packages for purchasing teaching aids for grade 1.

Defendant Pham Thi Hang - former Director of the Department of Education and Training of Thanh Hoa province. Source: Ministry of Public Security

Prosecuted for the same crime are 11 accomplices including: Nguyen Van Phung, former Deputy Head of the Planning and Finance Department; Le Van Cuong, former Head of the Planning and Finance Department; Trinh Huu Nghia, former Head of the Planning and Finance Department; Bui Tri Thuc, former specialist of the Planning and Finance Department, Department of Education and Training; Le The Son - Director of Thanh Hoa Book Company; Dang Xuan Minh - Chairman and General Director of BTC VALUE Valuation Company; Nguyen Quoc Viet - Appraiser of BTC VALUE Company; Ho Thi Sau - Director of Appraisal Block III of BTC VALUE Company; Nguyen Duy Linh - Director of Nam Anh Company; Bui Viet Long, former Deputy Head of the Business Department of Hoang Dao Company; Vu Thi Ninh - Chief Accountant of Thanh Hoa Book Company.

According to the indictment, in 2020, the Department of Education and Training of Thanh Hoa province deployed 2 bidding packages to purchase teaching aids for grade 1 to implement the new textbook program from 2020-2021 for schools in Thanh Hoa province, with a total value of more than 119 billion VND.

Wanting to win the bid, Le The Son - Director of Thanh Hoa Book Company met Pham Thi Hang to ask to participate, creating conditions to win the above 2 bid packages.

Pham Thi Hang then directed Le Van Cuong - Head of Planning - Finance Department; Nguyen Van Phung - Planning - Finance Department, to create conditions for Son's Thanh Hoa Book Company to participate and win the bid.

During the process of implementing the bidding package to purchase teaching aids for grade 1 and implement the new textbook program from 2020-2021 for 169 schools in extremely difficult areas and transport and install equipment (Bidding Package No. 1), defendants Cuong and Phung agreed with Son to let the Thanh Ha consortium (Thanh Hoa Book Company and Hoang Dao Company) win the bidding package No. 1.

To legalize the documents and qualify for the bid, Cuong, Phung and Son agreed to make a list of equipment and prices for each type of equipment for teaching grade 1. Son then contacted Bui Viet Long, Deputy Head of the Sales Department of Hoang Dao Company, to get the technical specifications, configurations, projector prices, etc., then agreed on the prices for Pham Thi Hang to sign a request for the Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee to approve the policy for implementing the bid package. When the Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee agreed on the policy, Pham Thi Hang signed a contract to hire BTC VALUE Valuation Company to appraise the price of equipment for bid package No. 1, represented by Ho Thi Sau.

Then, Sau used the list and equipment prices that Phung and Son had previously agreed upon and revised the draft valuation certificate according to Son and Phung's request.

From the list agreed upon by the defendants, the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province approved the list and budget for purchasing teaching aids for package 1 with a total budget of over 33.6 billion VND.

Next, defendant Hang assigned Nam Anh Company to prepare bidding documents and evaluate bidding documents for package No. 1 without evaluating the company's capacity profile according to regulations.

Nguyen Duy Linh himself is the company director, without a certificate to practice bidding activities as prescribed, but Linh forged documents, submitting other people's degrees to meet the requirements.

After that, Linh drafted the contract negotiation minutes, consulting contract, and bidding decision and sent them to Bui Tri Thuc - specialist of the Planning and Finance Department (Thanh Hoa Department of Education and Training) for Thuc to legalize and submit to the defendant Hang for approval to prepare the bidding documents.

All the work of preparing bidding documents and evaluating bidding documents for package No. 1 was carried out by Nguyen Duy Linh according to the requirements and agreement of Phung, Cuong and Son.

Similar to the above tricks, in the bidding package for purchasing teaching aids for grade 1 to implement the new textbook program from 2020-2021 and transporting and installing equipment for 512 schools (bidding package No. 2), the above defendants, along with Trinh Huu Nghia - Deputy Head of the Planning and Finance Department (replacing the retired Le Van Cuong), Vu Thi Ninh, Dang Xuan Minh, and Nguyen Quoc Viet, agreed, colluded, and created fake records and documents to legalize and submit them to relevant agencies for approval.

However, due to the large value of package No. 2 (nearly 87 billion VND), Thanh Hoa Book Company did not have the capacity to participate, Son proactively contacted Hoang Dao Company, Khang An Company, Nam Hoa Company and Long Thanh Company to propose to join the bidding consortium under the name Thanh Ha-Thanh Hoa Consortium.

Due to prior collusion and arrangement, Thanh Ha Joint Venture (Thanh Hoa Book Company, Hoang Dao Company) and Thanh Ha-Thanh Hoa Joint Venture (all managed by Son) participated in the bidding and easily won the above two packages with a total value of 119.6 billion VND (package number 1 worth 32.6 billion VND; package number 2 worth nearly 87 billion VND).

The asset appraisal conclusion showed that in package 1, the actual value was 24.9 billion VND but was inflated to 32.6 billion VND (a difference of 7.6 billion VND). In package 2, the actual appraisal value was 73.7 billion VND, while the actual bid package was nearly 87 billion VND (inflated by 13.2 billion VND). The total value of the 2 bid packages was inflated, causing a loss to the State budget of over 20.8 billion VND.

According to the indictment, defendant Pham Thi Hang abused her position and power to illegally interfere in bidding activities and directed her subordinates to create conditions for Thanh Hoa Book Company to participate and win the bid.

Pham Thi Hang signed the proposal documents of her subordinates, knowing full well that the content of the contractor selection results was not fair and objective.

Pham Thi Hang illegally benefited 3 billion VND. Many defendants in the case benefited billions of VND.