Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance Le Duy Minh, former Director of the Tax Department, was arrested by the Ministry of Public Security on December 19, on charges of “receiving bribes” in the Xuyen Viet Oil Company case. Thus, Mr. Minh was arrested in conjunction with former Secretary of Ben Tre Le Duc Tho.
So, after just one year in the “hot” seat of Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance, Mr. Le Duy Minh followed in the footsteps of his predecessor – former Director of the Department of Finance Dao Thi Huong Lan. Ms. Lan is wanted in the case of selling gold land, involving tycoon Duong Thi Bach Diep.
In a row, two generations of Directors of the Department of Finance of Ho Chi Minh City ended up falling into the trap of corruption. Former Director Dao Thi Huong Lan was luckier, she fled since January 2019. She is wanted, but up to now, the Ministry of Public Security has not been able to trace her.
A series of city leaders were also imprisoned because of the Department of Finance. The case began in 2011, when the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City assigned the golden land at 8-12 Le Duan to Lavenue Investment Joint Stock Company, chaired by Ms. Le Thi Thanh Thuy. This land allocation decision was signed by Vice Chairman of the City People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Tai, with the advice of Ms. Dao Thi Huong Lan and Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy. Ms. Thuy is the former Director of Ho Chi Minh City Housing Business Management Limited Company, a state-owned enterprise. This incident is said to have caused damage of up to VND2 trillion ($82 million).
Regarding this incident, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tai, Dao Anh Kiet, Nguyen Thanh Rum… were prosecuted and arrested.
Moreover, Ms. Dao Thi Huong Lan also along with Mr. Tran Nam Trang – Deputy Director of the Department – falsely advised another Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City at that time, Mr. Nguyen Huu Tin. According to this advice, Mr. Tin signed over the real estate at 15 Thi Sach to Phan Van Anh Vu, also known as “aluminum” Vu. As a result, Mr. Nguyen Huu Tin and Mr. Tran Nam Trang were arrested. As for Ms. Dao Thi Huong Lan, she “got away quickly.”
Listing the things just mentioned so we can see, Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance is a nest of corruption, specializing in embezzlement, racketeering, to systematically drain the budget.
Saigon Giai Phong newspaper on December 19 reported, “Deputy Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Ho Hai: Everything succeeds or fails, first of all it depends on the officials.”
The news said that on December 19, the Binh Chanh District Party Executive Committee held the 15th Conference (expanded). Mr. Nguyen Ho Hai, Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, attended and gave a directive speech. Accordingly, Mr. Nguyen Ho Hai re-emphasized Uncle Ho’s advice, “Everything that succeeds or fails depends first of all on the officials.”
Commenting on Mr. Nguyen Ho Hai’s statement, public opinion said that in the current context of Vietnam, corruption has “never been like it is today.” From low level eating small, high level taking big, up to now, it has progressed to a situation where low level takes big, high level takes bigger. Just like the words of former Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan, lamenting about “the situation where officials take and leave nothing for the people.”
That is why General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s anti-corruption work fell into adversity: The more you fight, the more corruption increases. Prosecution and detention still did not stop, almost all the leaders were arrested, but the comrades who had not been exposed were still not afraid, they continued to “eat” and continued to eat until they were finished.
To reach such a tragic situation, “cadre work” is certainly part of the answer, but this is a necessary condition, not a sufficient condition.
Public opinion is always skeptical about why General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong once affirmed the importance of leadership personnel work. Many times, Mr. Trong affirmed, “resolutely not to let into the Central Committee people who do not have enough moral qualities, abilities, corrupt elements, and opportunists” but in the end they did get in.
In the Xuyen Viet Oil case, it is known that former Secretary of Ben Tre Le Duc Tho was arrested for “receiving bribes” from this Company, when he was still General Director of Vietinbank. So why didn’t the personnel work of the 13th National Congress’s Personnel Subcommittee detect it?
More importantly, Mr. Le Duc Tho’s case is not an isolated case, but there are many. It can be said that more than 70% of high-ranking personnel have not been exposed, even many “comrades” have been exposed, but because of money, selectors still choose, if they are exposed, they will respond later.
The 12th term had Politburo members such as Dinh La Thang, Nguyen Van Binh, Hoang Trung Hai being disciplined. And in the 13th term, there were Tran Tuan Anh, Pham Binh Minh, Dinh Tien Dung – Secretary of Hanoi, even Pham Minh Chinh – Prime Minister, etc.
That is why there is a policy of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s leadership and General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to find every way to reduce the crimes of officials who commit crimes.
Also because of problems with the General Secretary’s personnel work, the number of Party Central Committee members, including many Politburo members, were punished due to corruption.
The number of Central Committee members, leaders at all levels, got imprisoned in recent years, is large in both number and scale and title, which shows the quality of personnel selected by Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong very problematic.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
