Former deputy ministers of transport Nguyen Van Cong (L) and Nguyen Nhat.

Three deputy ministers of transport and several other officials have been reprimanded or warned for equitization and divestment violations.

Nguyen Van Cong, member of the Ministry of Transport's Party Committee and Deputy Minister of Transport, received an official warning from the Party Central Inspection Committee. Nguyen Nhat and Nguyen Ngoc Dong, also members of the party committee and deputy transport ministers, were reprimanded.

Pham Viet Muon, former vice head of the Government Office, and Tran Ngoc Thanh, former member of the Executive Committee of the Central Party Committee, former party secretary and former chairman of the members’ council of the state-run Vietnam Railways, received warnings.

The Central Inspection Committee also reprimanded Nguyen Ngoc Hue, former party secretary and former chairman of the member’s council of the state-owned shipping corporation Vinalines.

It also asked the Secretariat of the Central Party Committee to consider disciplining the Ministry of Transport's Party Committee of the 2011-2016 period as well as Nguyen Hong Truong, former member of the Party Committee and former Deputy Minister of Transport.

The Ministry of Transport's Party Committee was found to have violated the principle of democratic centralism, broken working regulations, and been negligent in leading, managing, inspecting and supervising, allowing multiple violations in equitizing and divesting from several state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under this ministry's management, the inspection committee said.

Dinh La Thang, a former political star who was Minister of Transport and chairman of the state-owned oil giant PetroVietnam, was found mainly responsible for the violations. Thang is serving a 13-year jail term given in January for economic management violations.

Pham Viet Muon committed violations in advising government leaders about the equitization of and divestment from several SOEs, the inspection committee said.

The three deputy transport ministers, Nguyen Van Cong, Nguyen Van Dong, Nguyen Nhat and the former deputy transport minister, Nguyen Hong Truong, were also responsible for the violations.

These violations have resulted in major losses to the state, and badly impacted the reputations of the Party and the transport sector, the committee said, without revealing specific numbers.