bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Associated Press

A senior Vietnamese Communist Party official has been removed from the powerful Politburo for committing “very serious mistakes and violations” when he was head of the country’s oil and gas monopoly PetroVietnam.
The Central Committee voted in majority to impose the disciplinary measures against Dinh La Thang, according to a statement posted on the party’s website late Sunday.
Thang, 56, was chairman of the board of PetroVietnam from 2005 until he was appointed transport minister in 2011. While leading PetroVietnam between 2009 and 2011, Thang committed serious violations in his leadership, command and staff works, “sparking annoyance among officials, party members and people,” the party statement said.
The Politburo is the party’s top decision making body and is filled with senior apparatchiks including the president and prime minister.
Vietnam has been struggling to clean up its vast and inefficient state-run sector for years.
Like its giant communist neighbour China, the current leadership has vowed to tackle corruption.
His removal signalled the intensification of the party’s fight against corruption among Communist Party functionaries, which have undermined its reputation and caused serious economic problems for the country, said Le Hong Hiep, research fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

Economist Le Danh Doanh, former head of a government economic think tank, said the party’s efforts to fight corruption and restore trust should go along with institutional reforms for power oversight.
His removal was a rare punishment against a Politburo member. Discipline against other Politburo members in past cases has ranged from a reprimand to being stripped of party membership.
The party’s inspection committee said in April that Thang had permitted an investment in the private Ocean Bank that exceeded regulations, causing “very serious losses to PetroVietnam.”
He also was found responsible for a lack of oversight over four major projects, resulting in their suspension and financial losses.
Hiep, the research fellow, said Thang is close to former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, so his removal could be seen as a move to purge Dung’s cronies.
His removal would also facilitate the investigation into his wrongdoing at PetroVietnam as well as possible problems at the Ministry of Transport. He was known during his tenure there for sacking ministry officials for wrongdoing.
Thang had been elected to the 19-member Politburo early last year. He remains a member of the 180-member Party Central Committee, but his position as party chief of Ho Chi Minh City is likely to end, since it requires a Politburo membership.
It is also not the first time PetroVietnam has come under scrutiny.
Last year four senior employees at a construction subsidiary of the firm were prosecuted for mismanagement that allegedly cost the company $150 million.
That year a court also convicted the former chairman of Vietnam Construction Bank and 35 other employees for stealing more than $400 million from the joint-stock bank.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


Vietnam Politburo member sacked over 'serious mistakes' when head of energy giant

US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, is seated with Dinh La Thang during their meeting, in Ho Chi Minh City in January. Dinh been sacked,accused of mismanagement during his time running the country’s biggest energy giant more than six years ago. Photo: Reuters

Workers operate a pipeline at the newly built PetroVietnam's largest petrol port-station at Nha Be district in Ho Chi Minh-City on 19 December 2002. The petrol port-station is capable of receiving 25,000 tonne oil ships. Vietnam produces annually some 20 million tons of crude oil but due to lack of refining facilities the country has currently to import petrol needed for domestic use. AFP PHOTO

News

Asia

Southeast Asia

Dinh La Thang is one of the most senior party officials to have fallen from grace in years
