HCMC – Investigators under the Ministry of National Defense have filed charges against two officials of the Hanoi-based Military Medical Academy for their alleged involvement in Viet A Technology Corporation’s price gouging of Covid-19 test kits.
Colonel Ho Anh Son, deputy director of the academy’s Institute of Biomedicine and Pharmacy, was prosecuted and arrested for alleged embezzlement and abuse of power while on duty. Meanwhile, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Hieu, head of the academy’s Materials and Equipment Supplies Department, faced the same charges for allegedly violating bidding regulations and causing serious consequences.
Son was head of a project to research and produce Covid test kits in collaboration with medical tech firm Viet A Company.
Last week, the Central Inspection Committee said in a statement that the academy’s Standing Party Committee had violated the principle of democratic centralism and working regulations; had been irresponsible and shown laxity in leadership and supervision to allow officials at the academy to violate regulations when proposing and implementing national-level scientific and technological tasks, including the research and production of Covid test kits and purchase of test kits from Viet A.
In late December last year, a few days after Phan Quoc Viet, chairman and general director of Viet A, was arrested, Colonel Son told news site VnExpress that Viet A had participated in the Covid test kit research team since the early days given the urgent demand for serving the country’s Covid fight.
As for the Viet A case, investigators have pressed charges against 21 people and seized assets worth VND1.6 trillion in total.
