A letter published on Monday by an investor association has questioned the former Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade for appointing his son to a key position in one of Ho Chi Minh City’s largest state-run beverage companies.

Nguyen Hoang Hai, vice president of the Vietnam Association of Financial Investors (VAFI), raised a number of questions in the letter aimed at former Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang’s personnel appointments at Saigon Beer, Beverage, and Alcohol Corporation (Sabeco), one of Ho Chi Minh City’s largest corporations in the field.

In the letter, VAFI said Hoang’s son Vu Huy Hai was appointed by the ministry in 2015, when the man was only 28 years old, taking office as deputy general director, and as a member of the board of directors at Sabeco, representing state shares in the corporation.

According to VAFI’s letter, in the two years that Hai was left in charge of Sabeco, the corporation suffered two consecutive years of losses, VND155 billion (US$6.92 million) in 2011 and VND67 billion ($3 million) in 2012.

The letter mentioned how state media had previously reported the 2011 promotion of Hai to be the general director at Petrovietnam Finance Investment JSC (PVFI) under his father’s Ministry of Industry and Trade.

VAFI raised a number of questions in the letter, including the logic behind appointing the then 25-year-old man to take over office as the general director at PVFI, as well as wanting to know who would take responsibility for the loss of state capital and that of 4,700 shareholders in the company.

The association also pointed out that after having driven the corporation to losses, Hai was re-appointed to the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, which was also under the management of his father’s ministry, climbing quickly to high positions.

The letter questioned the legal grounds of promoting Hai to the rank of deputy general director after only one year of being a civil servant with virtually no experience or knowledge in policymaking, resulting in two consecutive years of losses for Sabeco.

The letter was addressed to Minister Vu Huy Hoang and Deputy Minister Ho Thi Kim Thoa, who was a signatory in Hai’s promotion.

Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper tried several times to make phone contact with former Minister Hoang on Monday to no avail.

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