Exemption from punishment for former Director of Tien Giang CDC and 3 accomplices

Scene of the trial

Accordingly, the People’s Court of Tien Giang province exempted defendant Nguyen Ngoc Chon, former Director of CDC Tien Giang province, and three accomplices, Vo Thanh Binh (former head of Tien Giang CDC testing department) from punishment, Trieu Vuong Tuyen (former head of Tien Giang CDC testing department) from punishment. Ministry of Pharmacy) and Dang Minh Uy (laboratory department employee).

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

Considering that the defendants had many circumstances that mitigated their 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.

The court also announced the confiscation of more than 2 billion VND that the defendants received from Viet A Company to state funds.

Defendants at trial

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 staff 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 giving the Company Viet A Trading – Production and Services Joint Stock Company (Viet A Company) won the bid, causing a loss to the state budget of more than 7 billion VND.

Accordingly, the total amount of money CDC Tien Giang paid 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.

According to Ngoc Phuc (SGGP Newspaper)