The Hanoi People's Procuracy has announced that they have finalized the indictment to prosecute the individuals involved in the violations at the 29-11D Vehicle Inspection Center for the offense of ‘Receiving bribes’.
The indictment alleges that Xuan Mai Automobile Mechanical Company opened the 29-11D Motor Vehicle Inspection Center on National Highway 6 in Chuong My District of Hanoi. This center employs 12 people, 7 of whom have been recently prosecuted for accepting bribes.
From January 2017 until the conclusion of October 2022, the indictment states that defendants Bui Minh Kien (former Director of the center), Tran Khanh Duong ( former Deputy Director), and employee Pham Van Binh who were responsible for operations at the 29-11D Inspection Center, conspired to augment their income beyond their official salaries. They allegedly accepted payments to overlook deficiencies in vehicle components such as brakes, exhaust systems, signal lights, and modifications to the vehicle's body for those cars presented for inspection at the center.
During the investigation, it was determined that the inspectors would suggest that the vehicle owners pay money by leaving money in areas such as the armrest, passenger seat or passenger side trunk with the purpose of having the inspectors receive the money, ignore the errors and carry out the vehicle registration procedures.
As per the probe, if the money is not found in the specified areas in the vehicle, the center’s registrar will secretly suggest taking the vehicle for repair. It's understood that the vehicle owner or driver may need to provide money to the inspector to overlook the violation. They are aware of this unspoken understanding and will discreetly leave the money in the vehicle. Subsequently, they will return the vehicle about 1-2 hours later to complete the registration process.
When a registrar observes a monetary exchange related to the vehicle, they will proceed to step 4 of the inspection process, which pertains to emissions testing, and overlook any violations. This allows the inspection to be deemed successful, resulting in the issuance of a registration certificate for the vehicle.
In the context of emission testing, the protocol requires the inspector to fully insert the measuring device head into the exhaust pipe of the motor vehicle. This ensures that the probe can capture a substantial volume of the vehicle's emissions, thereby yielding the most precise results. However, to disregard any emission discrepancies, the inspector responsible for step 4 only partially inserts the measuring device head into the exhaust pipe, allowing the probe to collect a minimal amount of emissions, which ultimately leads to a "pass" outcome.
The prosecution agency also clarified that for errors related to brake force testing, according to the procedure, when the vehicle is on the brake test stand, the inspector only applies the brake once. However, to ignore the error, the inspector will apply the brake or apply the brake many times to make the deviation of the brake force below 25 percent (over 25 percent is not qualified).
Regarding errors in lights, turn signals, wall size, and vehicle body, the inspectors manually check with a ruler, the naked eye should be ignored and the software's result evaluation section is qualified.
Vehicle owners often face charges ranging from VND100,000 to VND300,000 for brake, exhaust, signal light, and other inspection errors. Trucks, trailers, and pickup trucks with extended beds incur a fee of VND500,000.
The indictment alleges that registrars Nguyen Sy Tuat, Do Cong Thanh, Nguyen Nga Viet, and Le Xuan Luan, despite being prohibited from involvement, were aware of defendants Kien, Duong, and Binh's agreement and assignment of tasks to collude in suggesting that vehicle owners pay money to overlook inspection errors and obtain illegal funds.
Investigators revealed that from January, 2017 to October, 2022 individuals that those involved the bribery case have pocketed more than VND1.2 billion (US$47,270).
