After receiving a complaint from the Vietnam National University’s Centre for Educational Technology and Career Development (ETC) that the inspection should not be focus on their finances but education management, the Government Inspectorate sent their respond on June 21.

According to the approved inspection plan at 11 education facilities, they also have to review the facilities' revenue and expenditure, which are an important part of their management.

"Inspectorate Nguyen Manh Cuong had violated the regulation by receiving gifts from ETC's deputy head. He was suspended." said the correspondence. "Asides from that we have carried out the inspection in accordance to the law and didn't cause any disturbance to the organisations under inspection."

It also said that the inspectorate had a meeting with Vietnam National University, leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training on January 4 to announce the result. And on January 18, it had a meeting with leaders of both Vietnam National University and ETC.

The inspection team accepted the explanation and used it for their reports. To reach their final conclusions, the inspectorate had meeting with the Ministry of Education and Training, the police, the Supreme Court and Government Office.

On June 8, the Government Inspectorate reported the results to the Prime Minister, who is expected to make a statement on the issue.

Widespread misconduct in the National University’s affiliated programmes were revealed on press. The ETC had skipped many required procedures in their programmes such as allowing students to graduate without needing to do a thesis.

However, their financial inspection revealed more wrongdoings. The ETC finance report showed that it paid VND177.8 billion (8.6 million) for Griggs University to do 70% of the work though in reality, Griggs only did 30%. ETC did not transfer the whole money to Griggs but to another unknown account in Singapore which might be related to Nguyen Quang Hoa Binh, the head of ETC.

ETC also violated the laws when making a full payment for the service companies they own despite the fact that many contract terms hadn't been fulfilled.

However, Vice Chairman of the National University in Hanoi, Vu Minh Giang condemned the the report, saying it contained inaccurate and confusing conclusions. He said because this was an affiliated programme, it followed foreign school regulations.

The school's representative claimed that the inspectorate did not have the authority to investigate their financial situation.

Dtnews