Vietnam dismisses Party official promoted by now disgraced father

The chief investment official of Vietnam's central province of Quang Nam has been officially removed from office after a two-month suspension following an earlier investigation that found his rise to power had been fueled by nepotism.

Dinh Van Thu, the province's chairman, said on Monday that Le Phuoc Hoai Bao, 33, had been removed from his position as director of the province’s Planning and Investment Department, a position he had held since September 2015.

Bao has also been retrospectively dismissed from previous positions he had been wrongly appointed to, including deputy chairman of the province's Thang Binh District and deputy director of the department, and expelled from the Communist Party.

Last December, the Central Inspection Committee, the Communist Party's top watchdog, said that Bao had been “dishonest” on his profile and application when he was nominated for membership of the provincial Communist Party unit in 2015.

The committee held Quang Nam’s provincial administration responsible for a series of wrongdoings that led to his appointment.

Bao’s father, Le Phuoc Thanh, who was the province’s top leader until September 2015, was singled out for the promotion and appointment of his son.

Thanh had sanctioned the local government to fund his son's postgraduate degree in the U.S., which was later used to help him climb the political ladder, the investigation found.

Both father and son had made “serious” violations that damaged the reputation of the Party, the committee said.

When Bao was installed as head of the investment department in 2015, he became the youngest department director in any Vietnamese province.

The appointment grabbed national headlines and drew public scrutiny because he was considered inexperienced and his father was still the chief of Quang Nam’s Communist Party unit.

A week after his son’s appointment, Thanh stepped down on health grounds.

Vietnam's Communist Party Secretariat last month dismissed Thanh for staff management, appointment and promotion violations.

Thanh was stripped of the role he held as the Party head of Quang Nam Province from 2010-2015. He was also provincial chairman from 2011-2016.

The Party's highest implementation body said he had violated the Party's democratic centralism principles and regulations on the management, appointment and promotion of local officials during his time in power.

Nepotism is not new to Vietnam. According to the Governance and Public Administration Performance Index, “nepotism and corruption in public sector employment have become a systemic problem.”

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in January last year called for any bureaucrats whose appointments were influenced by nepotism to be dismissed.

In January this year, Party leaders announced that strict measures will be taken to prevent anyone from taking a short cut to political power.