Vietnam deputy minister who created red tape for overseas jobs bribery arrested
A former deputy labor minister, who is currently a deputy minister of home affairs, has been arrested for allegedly increasing paperwork merely to extract bribes from labor export companies.
Nguyen Ba Hoan, 58, was put under criminal probe on Wednesday along with Tong Hai Nam, director of the Department of Overseas Labor, and Nguyen Gia Liem and Pham Viet Huong, both deputy directors, on charges of accepting bribes.
Huong has been placed under house arrest while the others are in custody.
Hoan worked for more than 30 years in the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, holding various roles including positions in the department of overseas labor, chief of office, and eventually deputy minister from September 2020.
Preliminary investigations found that during his tenure as deputy minister, Hoan directed the department of overseas labor to create « sub-licenses » not mandated by the law for job companies to obtain for labor export.
According to the Department of Economic, Corruption, and Smuggling Crime Investigation under the Ministry of Public Security, this entangled the companies in red tape, effectively pressuring them to pay bribes to officials.
As a result, the job companies collected service fees several times higher than regulated, most of whom came from disadvantaged backgrounds.
This criminal case against Hoan and three other officials is part of an expanding investigation into irregularities in labor exports.
Earlier the police had arrested Nguyen Duc Nam, chairman of Sona Company; Nghiem Quoc Hung, chairman of Hoang Long Company; Nguyen Dinh Tham, deputy general director of Hoang Long; and several others for alleged violations of accounting regulations « causing serious consequences. »
They determined that Sona and Hoang Long had abused the regulations governing the licensing and deployment of overseas labor to commit violations.
The companies collected excessive fees but failed to report them as the executives intended to embezzle the money.
By Pham Du – VnExpress.net – June 11, 2025