Arrest warrant on former PVTex general director

Vu Dinh Duy, former general director of PVTex

Vu Dinh Duy has been prosecuted for “deliberately acting against the state regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences” (Article 165 of the 1999 Penal Code), and “taking bribes” (Article 354 of the 2015 Criminal Code).

Earlier, on June 16, 2017, MoPS started the prosecution of five defendants and issued arrest warrants for four of them (so far one person has been arrested), including:

• Tran Trung Chi Hieu, former chairman of PVTex;
• Vu Dinh Duy, former general director of PVTex;
• Vu Phuong Nam, chief accountant of PVTex;
• Dao Ngo Hoang, former head of the business division of PVTex;
• Do Van Hong, chairman and general director of PVC.KBC.

At the time, the investigation agency could identified Duy’s location.

In late 2016, Vu Dinh Duy, former general director of PVTex, as a member of the Board of Directors of Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem), suddenly disappeared from office for an extended time.

Dinh Vu Polyester Plant in Haiphong is 75 per cent held by Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) through PVTex, with the total investment of $325 million. However, since starting operations in May 2014, this factory has been constantly experiencing difficulties and issues with product quality, affecting sales. The plant also had to stop operations several times.

According to a report by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), the calculations of the feasibility study before developing the factory were unrealistic and there were huge differences after the facility was put into operation.

Accordingly, the feasibility study estimated to spend only $4.69 million on power annually, which came to $12 million in reality. The study estimated to spend only $0.5 million for chemicals and other auxiliary materials, but the real figure was $11 million. Additionally, PVTex had to hire 1,000 employees instead of the estimated 500.

They also estimated that the factory could recover capital within eight years and eight months, but based on current figures, this will be 22 years and 10 months. The development of this factory was delayed by two years. In 2014, the first year of deployment, it operated for only seven months, but made losses of over VND1.085 trillion ($48 million).

PVTex's Dinh Vu Polyester Plant is one of the 12 trillion-VND loss-making projects under the management of MoIT. As of December 31, 2017, the total debts of these projects increased by VND3.44 trillion ($150.8 million) on-year to VND58.5 trillion ($2.56 billion), almost all of which is threatening to become bad debts.