In November 2014, after local newspapers reported about the huge assets owned by the then General Government Inspectorate Tran Van Truyen, the Central Inspection Commission began a probe to clarify the case.

The inspection committee found that Truyen committed mistakes and violations when implementing the laws on land and housing. A list of six houses and villas owned by Truyen and his relatives shown by the inspection committee gave people a start.

Many other government officials have also been found as owners of valuable villas worth tens of billions each. How can officials get so much money to build villas with their average income of several millions of dong a month?

The huge assets owned by many government officials has caused public concern. It is difficult to discover who got rich with their sweat or with illicit means

However, the splendid villas and big houses are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’. Local newspapers sometimes report about the housebreaking cases, in which thieves ‘visited’ government officials’ houses and stole hundreds of taels of gold, tens of billions of dong and tens of thousands of dollars. 

Most recently, the public was stirred up by the information that Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Ho Kim Thoa and her family have huge stock assets worth VND600-700 billion.

In fact, Thoa’s ownership of Dien Quang Lamp’s shares is not a secret. The list of shareholders can be seen on Dien Quang’s official website for the last 10 years, since the day the company began listing shares on the bourse. Thoa also made declaration about the shares. High-ranking government officials are now required to declare their assets.

However, the public still wants to find out why Thoa can get so much money to buy shares and if there were dubious actions taken during the Dien Quang equitization.

As many questions have been raised about Thoa, the Prime Minister has assigned three ministries and the government inspectors to verify Thoa’s assets.

Major General Le Van Cuong, a former senior official of the Ministry of Public Security, while saying that it is necessary to clarify if government officials abuse their power to seek profit for themselves, emphasized that the public needs to be neutral, or they could be accusing officials unjustly. 

Cuong believes that at first, it is necessary estimate the value of officials’ assets. If the assets are valued at several hundreds of millions of dong or several billions of dong, it would be unnecessary to query the assets. However, it is necessary to find out the origin of the assets worth tens or hundreds of billions of dong.

RELATED NEWS

PM requests verification of news on Deputy Minister’s assets

Deputy minister questioned over huge personal assets

Ha Nam