Receiving a ‘kickback’ from Viet A, the 4 defendants at Tien Giang CDC were exempted from punishment

After a day of trial on the afternoon of April 25, the People’s Court of Tien Giang province exempted defendant Nguyen Ngoc Chon – former director of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) of Tien Giang province – and three accomplices from punishment from punishment. Vo Thanh Binh (former head of the CDC testing department), Trieu Vuong Tuyen (pharmacist) and Dang Minh Uy (testing department employee) were charged with “violating regulations on bidding causing serious consequences”.

The jury found that during the investigation process and at the trial, the defendants sincerely confessed, repented, had excellent achievements in their work and in preventing the COVID-19 epidemic, and voluntarily returned their numbers. “kickback” money, first time offender, family with meritorious service to the revolution.

Considering that the defendant had many circumstances that mitigated his criminal responsibility, the trial panel exempted all four defendants from punishment.

Regarding civil liability, the amount of damage to the state budget of more than 7 billion VND was resolved in the first instance criminal judgment No. 29 dated January 12, 2024 of the Hanoi People’s Court, so the Trial Council did not consider it. review.

At the same time, it declared confiscation to state funds of more than 2 billion VND that the defendants received from Viet A Company.

According to the indictment, from June to September 2021, the COVID-19 epidemic in Tien Giang province broke out and became complicated.

Tien Giang CDC was assigned additional funding of more than 31 billion VND to carry out epidemic prevention and control work, purchase equipment and chemicals to deploy testing.

As director of Tien Giang CDC, Mr. Chon directed Tien Giang CDC officials to set up procedures to request an advance payment for COVID-19 test kits, then set up procedures to validate all bidding documents for the purpose of Viet A Trading – Production and Services Joint Stock Company (Viet A Company for short) won the bid, causing damage to the state budget of more than 7 billion VND.

Accordingly, the total amount paid by CDC to buy test kits produced by Viet A Company is more than 11 billion VND.

After Tien Giang CDC paid for the bidding package, Mr. Chon, Binh, Tuyen and Uy themselves did not agree in advance, but were paid a “commission” by Viet A Company outside the contract with a total amount of over 2 billion VND.