Vietnam has suspended a senior official of the Food Hygiene and Safety Agency for granting an award for community health to a Taiwanese company that polluted a river, an official said yesterday.
Hoang Thuy Tien, the agency’s deputy head, last week signed award certificates naming three products of the Vedan condiments company among the country’s “Top 100 Products for Community Health.”
The award ceremony was broadcast live on national TV.
Last October, Taiwanese-owned Vedan Vietnam was ordered to suspend operations and pay US$7.7 million in fines after inspectors found it had been illegally discharging wastewater through concealed pipes into the Thi Vai River since the mid-1990s. Environmental officials said the discharges decimated aquatic life in the river.
“The Minister of Health has suspended [Tien] from work and asked him to make a report explaining the situation,” said Tran Quang Trung, chief inspector at the Ministry of Health.
The news Web site VnExpress quoted Tien as saying he had signed the blank certificates before the awardees’ names were filled in. He acknowledged having been mistaken in not checking the recipients beforehand.
The Tien Phong daily reported on Monday that the awards committee had demanded a US$1,700 fee from each recipient for organizational expenses.
On Wednesday, Vietnamese Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan told the online newspaper Vnexpress his ministry would recall Vedan’s award.
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