According to the indictment, 9 business leaders and 1 lecturer, subordinates of former Minister of Health Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến, were “forced” to pay commissions totaling over 100 billion VND.
The two individuals directly accused of receiving money from contractors over many years are Mr. Nguyễn Chiến Thắng and Nguyễn Hữu Tuấn (both former heads of the Key Health Sector Department). Both also confessed to giving over 20 billion VND from this money to former Minister Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến.
However, Ms. Tiến stated she only received a total of 7.5 billion VND from her subordinates and was unaware of the money’s origin.
Contract Packages Requiring Payouts of Tens of Billions
The indictment states that during the investigation, the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security received criminal denunciations from 10 individuals. The denunciations had similar content regarding Mr. Nguyễn Chiến Thắng demanding that when the investor made payments or advances, contractors had to give him an amount corresponding to 5% of the advanced value.
As they wanted Mr. Thắng to create favorable conditions, not cause difficulties during construction, final settlement, and to provide work for their staff, the contractors complied, the indictment notes.
After Mr. Thắng retired and Nguyễn Hữu Tuấn succeeded him as department director, the practice of paying “commissions” continued.
Investigating the denunciations, the investigative agency concluded there were grounds to determine Mr. Nguyễn Chiến Thắng required contractors to pay “commissions” equal to 5% of the value of each advance or payment for each contract package before tax.
Contractors implementing 10 construction and installation packages across the two projects directly gave Mr. Nguyễn Chiến Thắng a total of 88.4 billion VND, the indictment states.
From September 2017, after Mr. Thắng retired and the defendant Nguyễn Hữu Tuấn became department director, although he did not directly negotiate with contractors, he “continued operating the money-receiving mechanism,” the prosecution alleges.
However, due to difficulties in implementation, only 3 contractors gave Nguyễn Hữu Tuấn a total of 12.1 billion VND. The money handovers mostly took place in the two former directors’ offices.
The largest commission case involved Mr. Thắng signing the final settlement for a consortium of Corporation 36 – Corporation 319 and Thanh An Corporation (enterprises under the Ministry of National Defense).
This consortium’s contract package was worth nearly 2,190 billion VND. By December 2020, these contractors had received advances and payments totaling 1,900 billion VND. After each payment, the contractors gave money to Mr. Thắng, totaling 37.8 billion VND.
A consortium of Hanoi Construction Corporation and Hong Ha Vietnam Joint Stock Company won a contract package with a total contract value of 2,200 billion VND. The consortium received payments of 1,900 billion VND. After each payment or advance, this consortium paid “commissions,” totaling 36.4 billion VND to Mr. Thắng.
Within this, Hanoi Construction Corporation (Hancorp), chaired by Mr. Lê Tiến Ngọc, had to pay the defendant Thắng multiple times totaling 14.6 billion VND. Hong Ha Vietnam Joint Stock Company, with Mr. Hoàng Quốc Huy as Deputy General Director, had to pay the defendant Thắng multiple times totaling 13.8 billion VND… Subcontractors also had to pay amounts ranging from several hundred million to several billion VND.
Mr. Trần Thanh Hiền, Director of Hatech Company, denounced Nguyễn Chiến Thắng for suggesting he had to pay about 5% of the advance value during the company’s execution of a contract package at the second campus project. According to his testimony, Mr. Hiền was forced to give 4 billion VND.
Mr. Nguyễn Bá Long, Chairman of