Police in 32 provinces and cities in Vietnam have pressed charges against 506 individuals from vehicle registration and inspection centers nationwide for allegedly making illegal gains while on duty.

The statement was released by To An Xo, spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security, at a press briefing in Hanoi on Tuesday afternoon.

According to investigation results, these suspects, including auto testing officers and technicians, colluded with 73 companies in 18 provinces and cities to offer vehicle registration and inspection services to nearly 40,000 autos during the 2018-22 period.

They were found to have granted certifications to a host of vehicles that were ineligible to run on the road.

Such practices posed a risk of traffic accidents and negatively affected society, Xo said.

Commenting on congestion confronting auto testing centers after many of them were forced to shut down to serve investigations, Xo said the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of National Defense had dispatched technicians to support the affected centers.

An auto must undergo a series of 55 checks during a five-step testing process as per prevailing regulations.

Meanwhile, a number of technicians earlier performed just several steps and allegedly received bribes from vehicle owners.

Auto testing centers are now asked to provide the full testing process, thus causing congestion at many testing facilities, Xo explained.

Following these investigation results, the ministry said that the state management in vehicle registration and inspection was slack, leading to an imbalance between the number of auto testing centers and that of vehicles in need of the services.

Auto testing centers sprang up due to substantial profits they could earn in the field.

For centers with poor sales, they lowered their service fees and accepted bribes in order to compete with their rivals, Xo added.

Since December last year, local police have raided multiple auto testing centers in Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta region.

Ho Chi Minh police probed over 15 auto testing centers and filed charges against more than 90 individuals, including two former heads of Vietnam Register, Dang Viet Ha and Tran Ky Hinh.

Police officers in Hanoi, Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, and many other localities also pressed charges against hundreds of technicians over bribe-taking allegations.

These technicians were found to have turned a blind eye to vehicles which are ineligible to run on the road and granted them certifications.

They received VND50,000-200,000 (US$2.1-8.5) in bribes for each vehicle.

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