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Vietnam health authority under probe for ?emergency? purchase
<table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr><td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top" width="100%">Police in Vietnam are looking into a medical purchase last year by a provincial health agency which was allowed to circumvent tender rules after claiming it was an emergency.
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<table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr><td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top" width="100%">Police in Vietnam are looking into a medical purchase last year by a provincial health agency which was allowed to circumvent tender rules after claiming it was an emergency.
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Most of the medical equipment worth VND363.5 million (US$22,687), bought to tackle an ?urgent? bird flu situation, is still lying unused with the Bac Lieu province Health Department 17 months later.
They all came with a 12-month guarantee.
The local government permitted the department to skip tendering and sign contracts with any supplier it trusted since ?the bird flu epidemic is raging and the situation is urgent?.
Immediately, Ha Ngoc Chien, the department?s director, signed contracts to buy protective masks and clothes, two specialized monitors to check on patients, and three automatic syringes.
However, only some of the equipment was supplied to the Bac Lieu Hospital and the Gia Rai district health center. The rest was stored at a preventative health center where they still remain.
A Ho Chi Minh City company supplied the items.
The provincial police are now investigating if the department and the company inflated prices to embezzle funds.
Compensation long due
At the peak of the bird flu epidemic two years ago the Vietnamese government announced it would assist farmers who culled their chickens or lost them to the disease.
But farmers in Long An province?s Hiep Thanh commune who lost or culled thousands of birds complain they are yet to receive a single dong.
The province?s agriculture department claims it has already handed over money for the purpose to Hiep Thanh commune.
There is no word from the commune authorities.
Source: Nguoi Lao Dong ? Translated by Hoang Bao
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