Almost all of the $6.6 million and VND1.3 trillion ($59 million) that PetroVietnam paid to PVC as advance payment to implement the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the $1.7-billion Thai Binh 2 thermal power plant was used to pay for PVC’s loans in banks.

Vu Duc Thuan at the hearing (Photo: VNE)

This was the testimony of Vu Duc Thuan, former general director of PetroVietnam Construction Corporation (PVC), at the court hearing this afternoon.

Thuan is tried on charges of intentionally violating state regulations on selecting the contractor for the EPC contract for Thai Binh 2 thermal power plant, causing serious consequences.

According to the charges, in October 2007, the Ministry of Industry and Trade assigned PetroVietnam to develop Thai Binh 2 thermal power project, a task for which PetroVietnam assigned PV Power as the investor to develop the project.

In 2010, PetroVietnam decided to change the technology of the boilers of the plant. In February 2011, Vu Huy Quang, general director of PV Power, and Vu Duc Thuan, former general director of PVC, signed EPC contract No.33. The contract was not built according to the available forms.

On May 13, 2011, PetroVietnam, PV Power, and PVC signed another contract to transfer the role of investor from PV Power to PetroVietnam. Accordingly, on October 11, 2011, PetroVietnam officially signed the contract with PVC to become the contractor of Thai Binh 2 thermal power project.

Thuan also confessed that during the implementation of the project, PVC faced financial difficulties, thus, it needed money to pay bank debts and mobilise capital for other purposes. 

At the time, despite the fact that the signed EPC contract was not compliant with regulations, Dinh La Thang, in the role of chairman of PetroVietnam’s Board of Directors, asked PetroVietnam to pay PVC more than $6.6 million and VND1.3 trillion ($59 million) in advance to implement the contract.

Thuan said that almost all of this advance payment was used to pay bank interests or was invested into PVC’s member companies and other projects.

This morning, the Hanoi People’s Court opened the first instance hearing of Dinh La Thang, Trinh Xuan Thanh, and 20 other related defendants charged with “intentionally violating state regulations on economic management and causing serious consequences” and “asset embezzlement.”

VIR