The Ho Chi Minh City Police Department has just completed the investigation into a major corruption case in the vehicle registration industry, transferring the case to the People's Procuracy of the same level to propose prosecuting 254 defendants on 11 charges.

Both directors were corrupt and took bribes.

According to the investigation conclusion, the accused Tran Ky Hinh (Director of the Vietnam Register from January 2014 to July 2021) and the accused Dang Viet Ha (Director of the Vietnam Register from August 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022) are the heads responsible for leading and directing all activities of the Register as assigned by the Ministry of Transport ; assigned the task of State management of registration work nationwide.

However, both of them did not properly perform their assigned duties and tasks, loosened management, and lacked inspection and supervision, allowing the departments under the Department of Registration, Registration Centers, and Registration Sub-Departments nationwide to systematically commit violations and negative acts over a long period of time.

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2 defendants Dang Viet Ha (left) and Tran Ky Hinh. Photo: Vietnam Register

When discovering violations and negativity, Mr. Tran Ky Hinh and Dang Viet Ha did not correct or handle them but instead took personal advantage, accepted bribes from businesses and inspection units, ignored violations in granting licenses to operate Inspection Centers, violations in the process of vehicle inspection, and accepted bribes in the process of evaluating design documents.

The investigation agency determined that the defendant Tran Ky Hinh received bribes totaling more than 6.5 billion VND and 23 thousand USD.

In addition, the investigation also determined that the defendant Hinh took advantage of his position, authority, and work position to violate regulations and approved the granting of full capacity to facilities that did not meet the prescribed conditions, creating conditions for shipbuilding facilities to operate illegally, affecting the normal operations of the Registration Sub-Departments and the reputation of the Registration Department, reducing the effectiveness of State management related to inland waterway registration activities.

In the "big vehicle inspection case", defendant Tran Ky Hinh was proposed to be prosecuted for two crimes: "Accepting bribes" and "Taking advantage of position and power while performing official duties".

Detecting negative things without preventing them, 'demanding' more bribes

Regarding the defendant Dang Viet Ha, the investigation agency clarified that when discovering violations and negativity at the Department of Vehicle Inspection, he did not prevent it and continued to issue illegal policies and instructions in the direction of increasing his own benefits from the amount of negative money and bribes received by officers of the Department of Motor Vehicle Inspection and the Department of Vehicle Inspection Centers.

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Defendant Dang Viet Ha must bear criminal responsibility for the amount of more than 40 billion VND that his subordinates received in bribes. Photo: CACC

The investigation agency determined that the amount of money that defendant Dang Viet Ha received in bribes and benefited from was nearly 8.8 billion VND and 13 thousand USD.

However, the defendant Ha must bear general criminal responsibility for the bribe amount received from the Department of Motor Vehicle Inspection from August 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022 of more than 31 billion VND, the bribe amount received from 4 Inspection Centers of Block V in Ho Chi Minh City from April 1, 2022 to November 2022 of more than 7.6 billion VND, the bribe amount received from 5 Inspection Centers of Block V in Hanoi of 780 million VND and the bribe amount of the directors of Inspection Centers of Block D of 680 million VND.

The total amount of bribes for which defendant Ha must bear criminal responsibility is 40 billion VND. Defendant Dang Viet Ha is proposed to be prosecuted for the crime of "Receiving bribes".

In addition, the case also involved the role of defendant Nguyen Vu Hai (Deputy Director of Vietnam Register) in charge of the activities of the River Ship Department. This defendant was proposed to be prosecuted for the crime of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties".