Việt Á scandal

In 2020 and 2021, Việt Á Technology Corporation [vi] bribed Vietnamese government officials to sell COVID-19 RT-PCR tests, at a heavy mark-up to provincial health departments and hospitals.

The scandal broke in late 2021, leading to a number of prominent officials being dismissed, including Nguyễn Thanh Long, health minister for most of the pandemic, and reduced public trust in the government.

The scandal led to a wider crackdown on corruption in Vietnam, contributed to the removal of deputy prime ministers Phạm Bình Minh and Vũ Đức Đam, and to the resignation of president Nguyễn Xuân Phúc in 2023.

[2] However, the high amount spent on mass testing, four times the expenses incurred by Vietnam to supply COVID-19 vaccines, had resulted in some suspecting collusion between the government and private companies for the latter's gain.

[1] By June 2022, dozens of politicians were arrested and charged, including health minister Nguyễn Thanh Long and Hanoi mayor Chu Ngọc Anh [vi], who were also stripped of their Communist Party membership and thus dismissed from office.