On the morning of January 4, the Hanoi People's Court continued questioning the defendants in the Viet A case.

Previously, answering questions in the court session on the afternoon of January 3, defendant Phan Quoc Viet (Chairman and General Director of Viet A Company) said that this company was established in 2007, operating in the field of buying and selling medical biological products. In addition, Viet also runs many other companies in the same field.

Viet said he met Trinh Thanh Hung (former Deputy Director of the Ministry of Science and Technology) around 2012, 2013 when Viet A Company participated in a project with the Military Medical Academy.

Around the end of January and beginning of February 2020, defendant Hung called Viet to cooperate with the Military Medical Academy to research COVID-19 test kits.

"Mr. Hung convinced the defendant to participate because at that time only Viet A met the required conditions. On the other hand, it was urgent, within a month the test kit had to be available and licensed by the Ministry of Health," defendant Viet stated, adding that he later accepted Hung's offer.

In early February 2020, Viet and his subordinates went to Hanoi to attend a meeting on the topic of research and production of COVID-19 test kits chaired by Mr. Pham Cong Tac (former Deputy Minister of Science and Technology).

After this meeting, Viet A participated in the research and trial production of 20,000 COVID-19 test kits within one month.

In court, Phan Quoc Viet stated that at that time, the Military Medical Academy transferred to Viet A Company a number of documents and processes related to test kits. Viet A then relied on these documents and processes to optimize and research the COVID-19 test kit.

"Viet A received 1 billion VND in wages from the Military Medical Academy, the rest was raw materials worth about 8-9 billion VND," defendant Viet stated.

In mid-February 2020, Viet A researched and developed a test kit. Then, Phan Quoc Viet and his subordinates brought the product to Hanoi, to the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for testing, the results were "passed".

At the same time, the Military Medical Academy also researched test kits, but the product was not as optimal as Viet A.

After receiving the "passed" result from the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Viet A submitted a request for a temporary circulation number from the Ministry of Health. However, the Ministry requested that the project be accepted.

At this time, the Ministry of Science and Technology has organized the acceptance of phase 1 as "passed", then completed the documents to submit to the Ministry of Health for licensing.

On March 4, 2020, Viet A's test kit was granted temporary circulation license, and on December 4, 2020, it was officially granted circulation license.

- "When licensed by the Ministry of Health, was it a product of Viet A or the Military Medical Academy ?", the chairman asked.

- "All written by Viet A", Viet replied.

The judge asked Viet about any difficulties in the process from cooperation to licensing the test kit. The defendant said that during the temporary circulation number issuance stage, the file was returned repeatedly.

"The defendant asked Mr. Huynh to entrust the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology," Viet said. When it came to the official licensing stage, the defendant continued to ask Nguyen Huynh (former Deputy Head of the Drug Price Management Department, Department of Drug Administration, Ministry of Health) to help, so that the application could be approved quickly and the test kit could be available in time.

In addition, Viet also asked Trinh Thanh Hung to influence the Ministry of Health, "the defendant does not know how Mr. Hung influenced" , Phan Quoc Viet stated.

Video: Escorting 2 former Ministers Nguyen Thanh Long, Chu Ngoc Anh and 36 defendants to court in the Viet A case

In court, the Chairman of Viet A admitted to giving Trinh Thanh Hung 350,000 USD, more than 2 million USD and 4 billion VND to Nguyen Huynh so that he could give more than 2 million USD to former Minister Nguyen Thanh Long.

In addition, defendant Nguyen Minh Tuan (former Director of the Department of Construction Equipment) received 300,000 USD, Nguyen Nam Lien (former Director of the Department of Finance and Planning) received 100,000 USD.

Defendant Nguyen Van Trinh (former Deputy Prime Minister's Assistant) and former Minister of Science and Technology were also "thanked" by Phan Quoc Viet with 200,000 USD.

In the case of Mr. Pham Cong Tac (former Deputy Minister of Science and Technology), Viet affirmed that he gave 50,000 USD but Mr. Tac declared that he only received 100 million VND.

Wisdom