The Government Inspectorate announced the conclusion of the inspection of the Investment Project to build new facilities 2 of Bach Mai Hospital and Viet Duc Hospital.

At the announcement ceremony, Mr. Ngo Dinh Long, Deputy Director of Department III, Head of the inspection team presented the full text of Inspection Conclusion No. 528/KL-TTCP on the inspection of the Investment Project to build a new facility 2 of Bach Mai Hospital and the Investment Project to build a new facility 2 of Viet Duc Hospital.

According to the Inspection Conclusion, the Government Inspectorate recommends that the Prime Minister direct the Minister of Health to organize a review of responsibilities and take strict disciplinary action according to the law for the Minister and Deputy Minister assigned to be in charge of 02 projects in each period related to the violations and wrongdoings stated in the Inspection Conclusion and report to the Prime Minister. The Government Inspectorate has transferred the case files and documents showing signs of violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences as prescribed in Article 222 of the 2015 Penal Code to the Ministry of Public Security for consideration and investigation and handling according to regulations for 02 contents: (1) For 04 consulting bidding packages, intentionally violating the provisions of the law on construction bidding in submitting for approval the policy of hiring a foreign consulting unit to establish a project when it was unclear about the ability of the domestic consulting unit to meet the requirements as prescribed, using financial proposals and consulting costs for establishing an architectural project established by the designated contractor for appraisal is against the regulations... (2) The bidding process for signing the contract for the Bach Mai 01 medical equipment bidding package had many violations, especially signs of violating prohibited acts in bidding, there were discrepancies in the content of the requirements of the bidding documents...

TTCP transfers information to the Ministry of Public Security for consideration, investigation and handling according to the provisions of law for contents with many violations of bidding and construction laws and related legal provisions...

In addition, the Government Inspectorate also recommended many contents related to the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Construction , and Ministry of Finance.

In his concluding remarks, Deputy Inspector General of the Government Nguyen Van Cuong said that this was a surprise inspection under the direction of the Central Steering Committee on anti-corruption, waste and negativity; directly, General Secretary To Lam requested the Government Inspectorate to issue the Inspection Conclusion before March 31, 2025 with high progress and quality.

Recognizing the importance of the assigned task, the Government Inspectorate promptly announced the inspection decision. The inspection time was short, the inspection period was very long (2014-2024); during this period, the legal system had many changes, many regulations were abolished, amended, supplemented, and applied transitionally.

The inspection team had to carry out a huge amount of work, including checking and evaluating nearly 3,000 document items, comparing them with thousands of different old and new regulations. Given the nature of the inspection work, this was a big challenge.

The inspection took place before, during and after the Lunar New Year of At Ty, so all members of the delegation had to put aside family work and wholeheartedly carry out the assigned tasks, demonstrating a high sense of responsibility. With the efforts of the Inspection Delegation and the leaders of Department III, the high-quality Inspection Conclusion was issued after only 59 working days.

Deputy Inspector General of the Government Nguyen Van Cuong shared that the image of two large, towering hospitals, which the State invested tens of thousands of billions of VND in but were left abandoned and overgrown with weeds because they could not be used for the past 10 years, is a heartbreaking image for the entire political system and society, and this is a typical example of waste in public investment.

In his article on combating waste, General Secretary To Lam pointed out: “ Waste has been causing many serious consequences for development. Moreover, waste also causes a decline in people's trust in the Party and State, creates invisible barriers in socio-economic development, and misses development opportunities for the country .”

The guiding viewpoint of General Secretary To Lam on the issue of waste is a very correct theoretical and practical basis. Recognizing the significance and importance of this issue, the Government Inspectorate leaders requested the Inspection Team to clarify 5 things: (1) clarify the cause, (2) clarify the violations, (3) clarify the responsibility, (4) clarify the damage and (5) clarify the waste .

Deputy Inspector General of the Government Nguyen Van Cuong said that clarifying the value of waste is a very new requirement in the inspection of current basic construction investment projects, but it is an urgent requirement of society in the new situation, aiming to break down barriers to socio-economic development, so that our country can enter a new era, an era of national growth.

And the Inspection Team has answered the above 5 questions thoroughly and with full legal basis, this has been shown in the Inspection Conclusion.

The Deputy Inspector General affirmed that the inspection results showed that the violations in the implementation of the two projects were systematic, the later violations were caused by the previous violations; there were subjective factors occurring in almost all stages, from investment preparation to investment implementation; from approving the policy and plan for selecting contractors; organizing bidding; selecting, signing and implementing bidding packages. The construction contracts were signed unclearly, not complying with any regulations in legal documents on contracts in construction activities. Just after signing the contract, 8 days later, it was necessary to request adjustments to the basic design. Construction was carried out without a technical design, no construction design drawings and no estimate.

In particular, the value of waste discovered through inspections at 02 projects amounted to thousands of billions of VND, many times higher than the estimated damage of about 100 billion VND. This shows that the head of our Party has identified this problem very accurately and has warned the entire political system and all classes of people about this problem through an article titled "anti-waste" in October 2024.

The phenomenon of "waste" in the two projects is very common, in many different forms, causing many particularly serious consequences, including material consequences such as resource depletion, increased cost burden due to ineffective management and use of public assets; non-material consequences such as wasting people's medical examination and treatment opportunities; causing pain in public opinion; reducing people's trust in the Party and State's cause of protecting and taking care of people's health.

In the Inspection Conclusion, the Government Inspectorate transferred the case file with signs of crime to the Ministry of Public Security for consideration, investigation and handling in accordance with legal regulations. At the same time, it analyzed the legal and scientific basis, compared practices to determine the value of waste and recommended that anti-waste must be given greater focus, changing perceptions and inherent habits, so that this spirit can be widely spread throughout the entire political system and all classes of people, in order to prevent and combat this problem early and from afar.

In particular, it is necessary to amend and supplement the legal system to be complete and synchronous, from determining the consequences and value of waste to the inspection, supervision, detection and handling mechanisms that are appropriate and highly deterrent to wasteful acts, as General Secretary To Lam affirmed: "To thoroughly resolve the causes leading to waste of public assets, the focus must be on strongly innovating the work of building, perfecting and enforcing laws".

The inspection conclusion has incorporated the opinions of relevant units, been assessed according to strict procedures, commented on by the Standing Committee of the Government Inspectorate Party Committee and approved by the Prime Minister. The conclusion has honestly, accurately and objectively reflected the inspection content and was issued in accordance with the provisions of the Inspection Law.

Deputy Inspector General of the Government Nguyen Van Cuong requested that during the implementation of the Inspection Conclusion, the directly inspected units, in addition to the work contents under their authority, need to proactively coordinate with relevant agencies and units to fully implement the contents of the Conclusion, and report to the Prime Minister the implementation results according to regulations.

The Deputy Inspector General requested that Department 5, the Government Inspectorate, the unit assigned to perform the functions of urging, inspecting, and handling after inspection, proactively perform its tasks according to regulations.

Finally, Deputy Inspector General Nguyen Van Cuong hoped that after the inspection, the Ministry of Health and relevant agencies and units would draw valuable experiences to serve the management and operation work, in parallel with the process of organizing the implementation of the inspection conclusions. Deputy Inspector General Nguyen Van Cuong requested the Ministry of Health and relevant units to continue to enhance their sense of responsibility, resolutely implement measures to soon put the two hospitals into operation, meeting the expectations of the Party and Government leaders and all classes of people.

Thanh Loan

Source: https://thanhtra.gov.vn/web/guest/rss/-/asset_publisher/9o9NiJxEaxfK/content/id/6606653