|
Wrongdoings at Song Da Corp cost state $512 mln
Some VND10.676 trillion ($512.7 million) should be retrieved for the state budget due to mistaken investments and capital allocations in the state-owned Song Da Corp, said the State Inspectorate after a recent inspection.
The State Inspectorate has also pointed out a series of errors at the state-run group.
Song Da Corporation was established after the merger of six similar state-run corporations operating in investment and construction.
However, instead of revaluing the amount of state capital and the total assets of the six companies and the merged one, the Ministry of Construction empowered the new board of directors to do the job, thus leading to inaccurate evaluation of the charter capital.
In the process of management and use of state capital and assets, the group and its investment arms poured some VND2.335 trillion into non-core businesses, violating the provisions of the Ministry of Finance.
Loose management in the use of capital assets also led to the lost tax revenue and poses a risk for further loss of state capital, said the inspectorate.
Specifically, the corporation and certain member companies inefficiently contributed some VND195 billion in state capital to the Vietnam Investment Fund and Vietcombank Fund member No.3, which are now at risk of losing the capital.
The state inspectors also found that there had been many mistakes in the management of capital assets used in a number of projects.
The corporation did not perform the role of investor in the Me Tri-My Dinh township project as approved by the Hanoi People's Committee, but instead handed the job to Sudico and Bitexco without permission. The same thing happened to the Nam An Khanh township project.
As a result, the state inspectors proposed that the Prime Minister handle more than VND10.676 trillion in wrongly allocated state capital, of which VND9.976 trillion was involved in the financial wrongdoings carried out by Song Da and its affiliates.
A source told Saigon Tiep Thi newspaper last month that the Song Da Group is facing difficulties in balancing its capital sources to repay foreign debts due to a bid debt from its affiliate, Ha Long Cement Joint Stock Co.
Earlier, the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance was assigned by the prime minister to provide a guarantee for Ha Long Cement Co to borrow foreign loans.
However, the ministry instead guaranteed the loan of Song Da Corp (now merged as the core in Song Da Group). Then, this corporation signed a contract to re-lend VND3.335 trillion to Ha Long Cement Co, equal to the lending interest rate of foreign banks.
Therefore, the ability of Song Da Corp to repay depends completely on the repayment capacity of Ha Long Cement Co.
However, the cement company has delayed progress for one year and has suffered losses of VND78 billion in 2009 and VND500 billion in 2010. It is now in the original repayment period for foreign banks, about VND400 billion per year, but it is unlikely to repay its debts in due time.
vir
|
