Former Vietnamese Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien has come under intense scrutiny at trial as prosecutors accused officials involved in two long-delayed hospital megaprojects of squandering public resources and causing massive losses to the state budget.

During closing arguments on May 21, representatives of Vietnam’s Supreme People’s Procuracy said the abandoned state of the second campuses of Bach Mai Hospital and Viet Duc Friendship Hospital had triggered widespread public frustration and reflected “the waste of taxpayers’ money” caused by unlawful conduct throughout the projects’ implementation.

Prosecutors stressed that the government’s original policy to build the new facilities was “correct and necessary,” aimed at easing pressure on overcrowded hospitals, improving healthcare access, advancing medical research and supporting social welfare goals.

However, they argued that years of delays, unfinished construction and procedural violations had transformed the projects into symbols of waste and inefficiency.

“This was state money entrusted to you without hesitation - not money falling from the sky,” a prosecutor said in court. “It was the sweat, tears and tax contributions of the people, yet it was wasted.”

Authorities allege that mismanagement and illegal procurement decisions caused losses and waste exceeding VND 803 billion ($31.5 million), while leaving the two flagship hospitals unfinished and unusable for years.

The prosecution has recommended a prison sentence of five to six years for Nguyen Thi Kim Tien on charges of violating regulations on the management and use of state assets, causing losses and waste. Prosecutors also asked the court to require her to compensate VND 108 billion ($4.2 million).

The case centers on the construction of the second campuses of Bach Mai Hospital and Viet Duc Friendship Hospital - two of Vietnam’s leading medical institutions - which were envisioned as world-class healthcare complexes comparable to facilities in Japan and Singapore.

According to the indictment, officials from the Ministry of Health and the Major Medical Projects Management Unit approved foreign consultancy contracts and bidding packages in violation of procurement laws, signed incomplete framework contracts lacking detailed technical standards and payment mechanisms, and allowed the projects to proceed without finalized technical designs.

Prosecutors said the violations eventually halted construction from January 2021 through the end of 2024, leaving sprawling, overgrown construction sites abandoned while state funds remained tied up in unfinished infrastructure.

“The sight of grass growing wildly across these projects has angered many citizens,” prosecutors said during rebuttal arguments. “The longer the problems remain unresolved, the greater the waste becomes.”

In court testimony earlier this week, Nguyen Thi Kim Tien admitted signing all major approvals related to the projects, including foreign consultancy plans and contractor selection decisions.

She said her ambition at the time was to build hospitals that could serve the country for at least a century and reduce the need for Vietnamese patients to seek treatment abroad.

“Our dream was very big,” she told the court. “We wanted to create something lasting - hospitals that could become centers for treatment, training and advanced medical research.”

The former minister acknowledged shortcomings in supervision and inspection but denied intentionally violating the law.

She also admitted receiving money from subordinates, including VND 2.5 billion ($98,000) from former project management director Nguyen Chien Thang and VND 5 billion ($196,000) from another project official.

Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said she neither solicited nor negotiated for the payments and claimed she did not know the origin of the money at the time.

Defense lawyers argued that the former minister had cooperated fully with investigators, voluntarily returned all money she received and paid VND 24.5 billion ($960,000) toward compensating damages.

Her legal team also cited her decades-long career in public health, including leadership during outbreaks of SARS, H5N1 avian influenza and H1N1 flu, as well as her role in strengthening Vietnam’s disease control system ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lawyers further emphasized her deteriorating health, telling the court she suffers from multiple serious illnesses including congenital coronary artery disease, osteoporosis and severe vestibular disorders.

“The seven months of detention endured by an elderly woman with many underlying illnesses have already been a severe punishment,” her lawyer argued.

At the hearing, Nguyen Thi Kim Tien also appealed for leniency for all defendants involved in the case, saying the partially completed hospitals themselves demonstrated the value of the original vision.

“The hospitals were designed like five-star facilities,” she told the court. “I only hope the panel will consider reducing the sentences as much as possible for everyone involved.”

T. Nhung