A senior Vietnamese Communist Party official has been removed from the powerful politburo for committing “very serious mistakes and violations” when he was head of the country’s oil and gas monopoly PetroVietnam.
The Central Committee voted in majority to impose the disciplinary measures against Dinh La Thang, according to a statement posted on the party’s Web site late on Sunday.
Thang, 56, was chairman of the board of PetroVietnam from 2005 until he was appointed Vietnamese minister of transport in 2011.
While leading PetroVietnam between 2009 and 2011, Thang committed serious violations in his leadership, command and staff works, “sparking annoyance among officials, party members and people,” the statement said.
His removal signaled the intensification of the party’s fight against corruption among its functionaries, which have undermined its reputation and caused serious economic problems for the country, said Le Hong Hiep, research fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, in an e-mail.
The party’s efforts to fight corruption and restore trust should go along with institutional reforms for power oversight, said Le Danh Doanh, economist and former head of a government think tank.
Thang’s removal was a rare punishment against a politburo member. Discipline against other politburo members has ranged from a reprimand to being stripped of party membership.
The party’s inspection committee last month said that Thang had permitted an investment in the private Ocean Bank that exceeded regulations, causing “very serious losses to PetroVietnam.”
He also was found responsible for a lack of oversight over four major projects, resulting in their suspension and financial losses.
Hiep said Thang is close to former Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung, so his removal could be seen as a move to purge Dung’s cronies.
His removal would also facilitate the investigation into his wrongdoing at PetroVietnam as well as possible problems at the Vietnamese Ministry of Transport.
He was known during his tenure there for sacking ministry officials for wrongdoing.
Thang had been elected to the 19-member politburo early last year.
He remains a member of the 180-member Central Committee, but his position as party chief of Ho Chi Minh City is likely to end, since it requires a politburo membership.
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