HCMC - Hoang Van Thuc, former general director of the Environment Department under the former Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, has been arrested for allegedly receiving VND35 billion in bribes along with his subordinates during the implementation of an automatic air quality monitoring project.

The Environmental Crime Prevention Police Department (C05) under the Ministry of Public Security, in coordination with Hanoi’s Investigation Police Agency, initiated legal proceedings against them on March 30. They are being investigated for offenses including violations of bidding regulations causing serious consequences, giving bribes, and receiving bribes. Initial findings indicate that violations occurred in projects to develop air quality monitoring networks and upgrade environmental monitoring systems at the Northern Environmental Monitoring Center as well as at related units nationwide. These projects are part of a system of 18 automatic air quality monitoring stations across the country, invested in and managed by the Environment Department since 2020. These stations are installed in public areas to monitor air quality and provide pollution warnings in localities. A consortium of Seiky Group Joint Stock Company and Global Technical Joint Stock Company supplied the monitoring systems. According to investigators, after winning the contract, the companies paid VND35 billion to Thuc. To fund these off-contract payments to the project owner, the contractors inflated the prices of imported equipment. Earlier, C05 reported that it had coordinated the prosecution of 74 suspects on 10 separate charges across multiple cases. Those implicated include officials and leaders from state environmental management agencies, along with representatives of 59 companies involved in emissions and the installation of monitoring systems nationwide. Inspections of more than 300 monitoring stations operated by emission sources revealed that nearly 160 had been interfered with or had their data manipulated. Since exceeding pollution thresholds and triggering red alerts can force factories to halt production, some businesses resorted to altering data to keep readings within permissible limits.