Hanoi(VNA) – The court began to question defendants about their specific roles in wrongdoingsaccused of “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management, causingsevere consequences” at the Thai Binh 2 thermal power project, at the trialthat opened on January 8.

Dinh La Thang,former Chairman of the Member Council of PetroVietnam (PVN), and Trinh XuanThanh, former Chairman and General Director of PetroVietnam Construction JointStock Corporation (PVC), were isolated before the questioning session.

The indictment says in 2010, PVC invested more than 3.1 trillion VND (136.4million USD) in 46 companies.

In 2011, the corporation’s investment in 43 units totalled nearly 3.5 trillionVND (154 million USD), as compared with its chartered capital of only 2.5trillion VND (110 million USD), resulting in an imbalance in the corporation’sfinance.

To help PVC, Thang, as PVN Chairman at the time, appointed PVC to implement theengineering, procurement and construction (EPC) bidding package of the ThaiBinh 2 thermal power project.

He also asked Nguyen Quoc Khanh, then PVN Deputy General Director, to direct PetroVietnamPower Corporation (PVPower) to sign the EPC contract No.33 with PVC againstregulations.

After that, Thang instructed Phung Dinh Thuc (then PVN General Director),Khanh, Nguyen Xuan Son (then PVN Deputy General Director), Ninh Van Quynh (then chief accountant and head of thedepartment of finance, accounting and auditing of PVN), Le Dinh Mau (thendeputy head of the department of accounting and auditing of PVN), Vu HongChuong (then head of PVN’s management board for the Thai Binh 2  thermalpower project) and Tran Van Nguyen (then chief accountant of PVN’s managementboard for the Thai Binh 2 thermal power project) to base on thecontract to advance 6,607,500 USD and over 1.312 trillion VND (57.7 millionUSD) to PVC against regulations.

After getting the advance payment, Thanh (then Chairman of PVC), together withVu Duc Thuan (then PVC General Director), Nguyen Ngoc Quy (then PVC ViceChairman), Nguyen Manh Tien (then PVC Deputy General Director), Pham Tien Dat (thenchief accountant of PVC) and Truong Quoc Dung (then PVC Deputy General Director)used more than 1.1 trillion VND (48.4 million USD) out of the advance to serveother purposes other than channeling the sum into the Thai Binh project, violatingClause 2 of Article 31 of Decree No. 09/2009/ND-CP and Clause 6 of Article 17of Decree No. 48/2010/ND-CP.

Based on the assessment outcomes, the Supreme People’s Procuracy said there issufficient ground to conclude that the acts of Thang and other defendantscaused losses worth nearly 120 billion VND (5.3 million USD) to the Statecoffer.

At the trial, Thuan (former PVC General Director) admitted that theEPC contract No.33 lacked several documents such as bidding suggestion, minuteson contract negotiations, appendixes, and conditions.

However, he still signed the contract with the hope to create jobs for workers,get money to pay bank loans and invest in other projects, Thuan said.

He also admitted that at that time, PVC did not have sufficient capacity andexperience to carry out the contract.

Meanwhile, Khanh (then PVN DeputyGeneral Director) said he only became aware of the lack of legal documentsand dossiers after signing the contract.  

Asked about the reason why he did not add adjustments and supplements to theEPC contract No. 33 in the contract No. 4194 which was compiled to transfer theinvestor role to PVN, Khanh blamed the mistake on the PVPower staff, sayingthey just made a brief report on the contract without sending the dossier tohim.

Khanh also said it would take a lot of time to complete required dossiers tosign contract No. 4194 while the project urgently needs capital in order tostart construction.

According to Khanh, he signed contract No. 4194 at the instruction of Dinh LaThang and the authorization of Thuc (then PVN General Director). However, aftersigning the contract, he did not report the shortcomings of the EPC contractNo. 33 to Thang and Thuc as he thought they had known about the problem.

Ninh Van Quynh (then chiefaccountant and head of the department of finance, accounting and auditing ofPVN)also admitted that the signing and implementation of EPC contract No. 33 ran againstregulations.

Although Quynh reported the shortcomings to Nguyen Xuan Son (then PVN Deputy GeneralDirector), Son still told him to transfer the money, explaining that thecontract will be finalised later.

Quynh said he ordered the transfer of money partly due to the pressure of Sonand partly due to his low awareness.

Meanwhile, Son said he was also under the pressure of the PVN Member Counciland the project’s progress.

Pham Tien Dat (then chief accountant of PVC) said after taking theposition, he made a report on financial difficulties facing PVC at that timeand asked PVC leaders to take measures to solve the corporation’s debts.

However, Dat still signed documents for the disbursement of advance moneybecause PVC must pay bank loans, in line with resolutions of the Board ofDirectors.

Nguyen Manh Tien (then PVC Deputy Director General) admitted that PVC used the advancemoney for wrong purposes, saying only 200 billion VND was disbursed for theThai Binh 2 thermal power project.

Vu Duc Thuan (then PVC General Director) also admitted to the wrongfuluse of the advance money, saying that the advance was used to pay bankloans of PVC, invest in other units and support production and businessactivities under the direct instruction of Trinh Xuan Thanh.

The questioning will continue on January 9.

The trial is scheduled to run for two weeks.-VNA