Authorities in Vietnam on Tuesday arrested the country’s health minister and the mayor of Hanoi for their roles in an alleged $170 million COVID-19 testing kit scandal.
Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party expelled the two officials from the regime and they were sacked from their positions after being accused of violating party rules and allegedly causing losses to the state budget, Reuters reported.
The country’s legislative body, the National Assembly, and the People’s Council of Hanoi voted the oust the two officials from their roles before the regime’s security ministry issued arrest warrants late Tuesday.
The country’s health minister, Nguyen Thanh Long, who assumed the role in 2020, faces accusations of abusing his position as an official to violate the law in regard to COVID-19 test kits, according to a statement by Vietnam’s Public Security Ministry….