23 officials at the Food Safety Department were prosecuted, many professional stages were 'broken'

After 23 officials - from specialists to key leaders and former leaders - were prosecuted for their involvement in a bribery case, the Food Safety Department (Ministry of Health) is facing a serious shortage of personnel.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong, former director of the Food Safety Department, has been prosecuted and temporarily detained - Photo: BYT

This also directly affects the management and supervision of food quality; the issuance of quality standards for new products or the re-issuance of expired certificates; and the assessment of GMP (good manufacturing practices) for factories.

Among the 23 officials and former leaders of this department, former director Nguyen Thanh Phong and Mr. Nguyen Hung Long (deputy director, currently in office) have been temporarily detained.

A series of leaders of functional departments and public service units were also prosecuted. These people were in charge of managing and signing product declaration documents - a key step in the food safety management process.

In particular, the three most important functional departments of the department, including the department of standards management and testing; the department of food poisoning monitoring and information and communication; the department of food product management... were all seriously affected when the department heads, deputy heads and many specialists were arrested one after another.

In addition, the Food Safety Application and Training Center - a unit with the function of providing professional support, research, and technical training - also lost its entire leadership team, from director, deputy director to staff.

Many experts from public service units including the office of the Vietnam Codex Committee have also been prosecuted and temporarily detained to clarify the incident.

The individuals prosecuted are in professional positions, directly appraising documents, signing licenses, controlling food safety and communicating warnings to the community.

With a series of officials being removed from the apparatus at the same time, many professional aspects of the department were almost "broken".

A leader of the Food Safety Department admitted that the prosecution of many of the department's officers and specialists has greatly affected the department's professional activities.

Processing of product declaration, licensing and market surveillance dossiers is facing many obstacles and interruptions due to lack of competent and specialized personnel.

Informing Tuoi Tre on the afternoon of July 15, the leader of the Ministry of Health said that there was a plan to appoint personnel and give instructions so as not to interrupt the professional work of the Food Safety Department after the incident occurred.

The Food Safety Department is an agency under the Ministry of Health , responsible for state management of food hygiene and safety, licensing the circulation of product groups such as health protection foods, medical nutritional foods, foods for special diets; nutritional products for children up to 36 months old...

Initially, the investigation agency determined that tens of billions of dong were bribed to suspects at this department to issue thousands of food product declaration acceptance certificates, meaning that many fake products were sold on the market.

WILLOW

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/23-can-bo-o-cuc-an-toan-thuc-pham-bi-khoi-to-nhieu-khau-chuyen-mon-bi-dut-gay-20250716100625761.htm