Exemption from punishment for 4 defendants at Tien Giang CDC who received “commission” from Viet A

On the afternoon of April 25, the People’s Court of Tien Giang province waived punishment for defendants Nguyen Ngoc Chon, former Director of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) of Tien Giang province, Vo Thanh Binh (former head of CDC testing department), Trieu Vuong Tuyen (pharmacist) and Dang Minh Uy (laboratory department employee), on charges of violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences.

The jury found that during the investigation process and at the trial, the defendants honestly confessed, repented, and voluntarily returned the “commission” they received.

The defendants were also assessed to have had excellent achievements in their work and in preventing the Covid-19 epidemic, were first-time criminals, and their families had contributed to the revolution.

With the above circumstances mitigating criminal liability, the jury 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 jury did not consider.

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

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

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