Former leader of Vietnam’s top cement firm stripped of Party titles

Tran Viet Thang, former general director of the Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation (Vicem), has been dismissed as member of the Executive Committee of the Central Businesses’s Party Unit and member of the Executive Committee of Vicem's Party unit.

The latest senior official to be purged in Vietnam’s burgeoning corruption crackdown, Thang has been found guilty of several legal violations as well as breaking Party rules.

Thang, who became head honcho at state-owned Vicem, the country's leading cement producer, in September 2013, took actions that plunged the company into VND4 trillion ($175.2 million) in debt by the end of 2016, Party inspectors said. He left the the post in September 2017.

Tran Viet Thang, former general director of the Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation (Vicem). Photo by VnExpress

According to the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Thang signed several documents and took decisions that he was not authorized to. His actions violated the Corporate Law and Bidding Law, as well as rules for Party members.

It said Thang’s violations were serious, compromised Vicem’s bottom line and damaged the reputation of the company as well as the Party.

Vietnam’s ongoing corruption crackdown, which has already claimed many scalps including high-ranking officials from several ministries, departments and firms, is set to continue holding senior officials accountable.

The Central Inspection Committee, the top watchdog of the ruling Communist Party, has been calling for disciplinary actions against many officials and leaders at state-owned businesses.

The series of dismissals and warnings are adding heat to the anti-corruption campaign spearheaded by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

Scores of high-ranking officials and businesspeople have been investigated and sent to jail over the past couple of years.

Trong, 74, has repeatedly said that the corruption fight would maintain its momentum and continue moving forward, sparing no one.