On June 30, the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam arrested six senior officials of Binh Duong province.
The arrest was described as “expanding the investigation” of a criminal case probed in December 2019 related to a company in which the Binh Duong Provincial Party Committee has large shares.
“Currently, the Investigation Police Department of the Ministry of Public Security is continuing to investigate and expand the case and apply statutory measures to recover assets for the state,” the Ministry of Public Security website bulletin said.
Six defendants were probed and detained for investigation on “Violation of regulations on management and use of State assets, causing loss and waste” including:
- Pham Van Canh, former deputy secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, former chairman of the People’s Council of Binh Duong province,
- Tran Thanh Liem, former chairman of Binh Duong Provincial People’s Committee,
- Nguyen Thanh Truc, vice chairman of Binh Duong Provincial People’s Committee,
- Tran Xuan Lam, Chief Inspector of Binh Duong Province,
- Vo Van Luong, Chief of Office of Binh Duong Provincial People’s Committee,
- Ngo Dung Phuong, head of Finance Department, Office of Binh Duong Provincial Party Committee.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong is expected to continue to lead the ongoing battle against corruption.
The decision to probe the above suspects was made about two weeks after General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong chaired a meeting on June 18 to discipline a number of leading officials and former leaders of this province.
The Politburo and the Secretariat at that time said that the Standing Board of the Binh Duong Provincial Party Committee in the 2015–2020 term and the Party Affairs Committee of the Binh Duong Provincial People’s Committee in the 2016 – 2021 tenure “had loosened their leadership, only …for some party organizations and party members to violate the management and use of land, capital and assets of the Party and the government at Binh Duong Production and Import-Export Corporation (Corporation 3 /2) belongs to the Binh Duong Provincial Party Committee, causing very serious consequences and huge losses to the State budget,” Thanh Nien reported on June 18.
“The violations related to the management and use of land and assets at the 3/2 Corporation were pointed out by the authorities related to the following contents: leaving 43 hectares of land (Tan Phu urban area) and the 145 ha land area (golf course project) once managed by an enterprise under the Provincial Party Committee has now been converted to a private enterprise.
In addition, there was a mistake in calculating land use fees for the land plots of 3-2 Corporation in Binh Duong new city (including land plots 43ha and 145ha),” Tuoi Tre newspaper reported on June 30.
Regarding the violations in Binh Duong, Mr. Tran Van Nam – Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee was also previously reported by the Politburo and asked the Party Central Committee to consider and take disciplinary action.
Thanh Nien newspaper on June 30 cited “authoritative agencies” as saying that 3/2 Corporation (a state-owned enterprise under the Office of the Binh Duong Provincial Party Committee) was assigned the right to manage and use a 43-hectare land area to carry out activities. Existing project of Tan Phu urban – commercial – service area.
“…the transfer of this 43 hectares of land to companies that they later established is not correct in terms of valuation, asset auction in accordance with regulations on investment of state capital in enterprises and management and use of capital assets at the enterprise, causing a loss of over VND126.8 billion ($5.4 million).”
Up to now, the total number of defendants in the case related to this land sale case has reached 17 people.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
Source: https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/vietnam-57668027
