HCMC – Up to 30 of 32 cities and provinces audited by the State Audit of Vietnam (SAV) have bought Covid test kits worth nearly VND2.2 trillion from Viet A Technology Corporation.
SAV has issued a report on the mobilization, management and use of resources for the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic at nine ministries and State agencies and 32 cities and provinces.
VND376.2 trillion had been mobilized for the pandemic response, including VND130.5 trillion from the State budget, VND11.4 trillion worth of 69 million Covid vaccine doses presented by other countries and international organizations as of December 31 last year, VND140.5 trillion from the fund for support policies and VND93.6 trillion from other resources.
According to SAV, ministries, agencies and localities audited in the 2020-2021 period were found to have bought over 58.7 million rapid and PCR test kits worth nearly VND8 trillion.
As for the 30 localities buying test kits from Viet A, Hanoi spent over VND41 billion; Hai Duong, VND166 billion; Vinh Phuc, VND64 billion, Danang, VND275 billion; Quang Nam, VND126 billion, and HCMC, VND33 billion.
The two audited provinces that did not buy Viet A’s test kits were Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Binh Thuan.
The Ministry of Health and its subordinates spent over VND617 billion buying nearly 1.3 million rapid test kits and 237,500 PCR test kits. The prices of rapid test kits ranged from VND47,000 to VND220,500 each, while PCR test kits cost some VND126,000-653,600 each.
According to SAV, the management and use of test kits involved shortcomings as the building of testing and test kit distribution plans failed to serve the testing work, and the management of test kits was also poor.
As a case in point, a batch of 4,000 Covid test kits sponsored by an enterprise to Danang was not checked by the Ministry of Health and produced wrong results, as concluded by the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute.
In addition, some units and localities borrowed and bought testing equipment and test kits from providers without contracts, or the contracts had no required information.
SAV has sent the list of these units and localities to the Government Inspectorate.
