There are 10 defendants involving in the case, including six from the CDC - former CDC Director Nguyen Nhat Cam; Nguyen Vu Ha Thanh, former head of Financial-Accounting Office; Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, former head of the Organisation Office; Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, former head of the Professional Plan Office; Hoang Kim Thu, former chief accountant; Le Xuan Tuan, a CDC official.
The four others are from private companies: Dao The Vinh, Director of the Vietnam Scientific and Material Science Company Limited (MST); Nguyen Tran Duy, General Director of the Nhan Thanh Asset Valuation and Auctioning JSC; Nguyen Ngoc Nhat, an employee of the Vitech Development Co., Ltd; and Nguyen Thanh Tuyen, an employee of the Phuong Dong Medical Equipment Co., Ltd.
Twenty-seven lawyers have registered to defend the defendants at the court.
According to the indictment by the Supreme People’s Procuracy, taking advantage of the COVID-19 situation, from early February 2020, CDC former Director Nguyen Nhat Cam colluded with Nhat, Tuyen and Vinh to raise the prices of medical machineries and equipment in a bidding package from CDC Hanoi before carrying out normal procedures.
He then directed his employees to legalise all normal procedures, enabling MST to win the bid with a price they had agreed upon, resulting in an economic loss of over 5.4 billion VND (233,200 USD).
Procurators said Cam was the mastermind.
The defendants earlier confessed to police that they jacked up the price of the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) machines used in testing the new coronavirus by a factor of three.
