For many years, almost CEO and high-ranking leaders in state-owned companies with total property value up to tens of thousand billion of Vietnam dong and yearly revenue of thousands of billion have been transferred from other management positions in public companies or administrative organizations.
Tan Thuan Industrial Promotion Company building (Photo: SGGP)
Some of such companies have seen vacancies of CEO for a long time. For instance, a new CEO of Saigon Water Corporation (Sawaco), a major water supplier in Ho Chi Minh City, took the helm after the old one had been retired for three years before. Similarly, after CEO Tran Hung Viet of SaigonTourist company had announced his retirement in October, 2019 but after two years, new CEO Nguyen Binh Minh was appointed to the empty position in the company.
Worse, Tan Thuan Industrial Promotion Company (IPC) has seen their CEO to be prosecuted. Te Tri Dung, former CEO of IPC, was arrested by HCMC police for "embezzlement" and "violations of regulations on the management and use of state-owned property that led to losses or wastefulness” in May, 2019. Pham Phu Quoc who was Deputy Head of the HCMC Institute for Development Studies was transferred to be CEO of IPC. However, nine months later, he resigned from the position as he was found to have obtained Cypriot nationality though he was being a National Assembly (NA) delegate from HCMC. IPC welcomed a new CEO in February 2021.
After four years in the position of CEO of State-owned company Saigon Agriculture Incorporated (Sagri), Le Tan Hung, former general director of Sagri, was arrested as part of an investigation into alleged violations of regulations on the management and use of State assets at the company in June, 2019. Elsewhere in the city, Nguyen Duc Trong was appointed to the position of the Saigon Construction Corporation in June, 2017 while being a chairman of the People’s Committee in District 10. However, Mr. Trong resigned from the position one year later.
The CEO crisis which has also caused barriers in the organizations’ activities has proved that there have been certain difficulties for those in these high positions. Being an experienced leader in managing Saigon Trading Company (Satra), Le Minh Trang, former general director of Satra, shared the company has been always a hive of activity continuously. Fortunately, the company welcomed its new leader ten days after the former one retired in October 2020.
A leader of a company which has seen vacancies for CEO said that CEO is a legal representative pursuant to the laws of Vietnam; therefore, any company without CEO can’t sign big contracts, personnel-related decisions and other activities. Additionally, an empty CEO position also impacts on the equitization plan of SOEs.
Lecturer Huynh Thanh Dien from Nguyen Tat Thanh University said that HCMC should have hired talents outside to be CEO of state-owned companies long ago because managing a company is different from that in an administrative organization. A CEO's resume responsibilities include making major corporate decisions, managing the overall operations and resources of a company from production, product promotion, financial and personnel management. The CEO must have accordingly worked in business environment for a year to control a company’s activities smoothly.
Mr. Dien added that all state-owned companies must have activity regulations and inspectors to control CEOs.
