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Humanitarian hospital project not yet licensed
Ground broke for a humanitarian hospital project in HCMC’s Binh Chanh District last Saturday but a HCMC Department of Health leader confirmed on Wednesday that this project had obtained no license as required by law.
Pham Khanh Phong Lan, deputy director of the department, told the Daily on Wednesday that people at the department were surprised when receiving an invitation from the organizer of the ground-breaking ceremony for Hai Thuong Y Vien Hospital.
The department had not been informed of the project although this was a huge project which the organizer said was worth US$70 million, she said.
Lan added a representative of the project came to the department on Wednesday to give a formal explanation after the news about the lack of a license for the project broke. This person admitted the failure to abide by the required procedure.
The department backs any private projects to build modern clinics for charitable purposes, she said, adding that if those people involved in the project were actually ignorant of legal requirements, the department would provide them with advice on how to fulfill the requirements.
But if they intentionally committed violations, law enforcement agencies would strictly deal with them, she said.
The groundbreaking ceremony took place in Tan Kien Commune in HCMC’s Binh Chanh District, but Nguyen Thi Hong, director of the HCMC-based Institute of Planning Research for Urban Development Strategy (UPI) and co-founding member of the project, told the Daily that this was not the location of the project.
The event on February 21, she added, was actually aimed at announcing the project to the public although Tran Huu Vinh, head of the Traditional Medicine Office of the department, Buddhist dignitaries and other figures joined the ceremony to break ground for the project claimed to cover 19 hectares.
When asked to show documentation of the project, Hong said she was doing the procedures to ask for a plot of land for the project. She even failed to show any papers that validate the project.
Le Minh Hai, head of the privately-invested medical services office of the health department, told the Daily that his office and health inspectors had worked with Hong to find out what happened.
The office wrote to the HCMC government reporting on the issue and asking for an instruction to deal with it, he said.
“We are waiting for the instruction from the city authorities and work with the Department of Planning and Investment to check the information,” he said.
A source from the Department of Planning and Investment, who is responsible for issuing investment licenses, said he had never heard about the project before.
VietNamNet, SGT
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