Hanoi gets stand-in leader after chairman’s dismissal

The appointment was made after Chu Ngoc Anh was dismissed as chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee for his involvement in a Covid-19 test kit scam at the Viet A Technology JSC. He was expelled from the Communist Party on Monday.

Son, 57, is a native of the central province of Thanh Hoa. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law and was formerly chief of staff at the Ministry of Justice and later Deputy Minister of Justice. He has been deputy chairman of Hanoi since April 2014.

The Politburo, the Party's highest decision-making body, and the Secretariat, the Party's highest implementation body, concluded that Anh had violated Party and State regulations, "causing severe consequences, losses to the money and assets of the State, undermining the Covid-19 fight, causing social unrest and affecting the reputation of the Party, the health ministry and science ministry."

The Central Inspection Committee had said in March that the Party Committee and officials of the health and science ministries for the 2016-2021 term had been negligent in their management, allowing violations in the approval, management and sale of Covid-19 test kits.

Phan Quoc Viet, general director of Viet A, admitted in January that he had inflated the price of a Covid-19 test kit by 45 percent and awarded around VND800 billion ($35.2 million) ins "bonuses" to company partners. Viet also admitted that he had bribed certain individuals in this regard.