A farmer in Dong Nai Province search for fish as untreated wastewater discharge by Vedan has killed their fish source in the Thi Vai River

Public outrage has prompted organizers to deny awards granted to major river polluter Vedan with the corollary that if they did, it was a mistake.

Vedan shot into infamy last year after it was found to have discharged untreated wastewater for 15 years into the Thi Vai River in Dong Nai Province through pipes concealed under the ground.

It has also been in the news since for offering meager compensation for farmers whose livelihoods have been badly affected by the pollution caused by its illegal actions.

Earlier, the public and affected farmers were stunned as the media reported that the Taiwanese-invested monosodium glutamate maker was among 50 firms honored on Vietnam Entrepreneur’s Day (October 13) for producing one or more of the top 100 products safe for public health

Nguyen Thi Sinh, director of the HCMC-based quality and brand development consultant Natusi Patent Standard Agent (Natusi) that co-organized the award, said that her employees had printed the certificates according to the list of nominated firms, not of the firms to be awarded.

The other agency involved in granting the award was the southern office of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Sinh said her unit has sent a note apologizing to Vedan for the mistake and asked the company to return the three certificates that “her employees” had sent.

She said the MC at the awards granting ceremony had also made a mistake in naming Vedan as a firm receiving the honor. “We organizers knew it but could not stop it because the celebration was being broadcast live.”

Also on Tuesday, Yeh Sheau Yeh, head of the general director office of Vedan Ltd., said the company was waiting from the note from Natusi but added it would be impossible that the company returns the certificates because it would damage its reputation.

However Ngo Quy Viet, director general of the Directorate for Standards and Quality under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said “Vedan doesn’t have enough reasons not to return the certificates.”

Viet said the ministry has nothing to do with the organizers of the honor. “Only who set up the organization board are responsible in the case,” he said.

Official suspended

Trinh Quan Huan, Deputy Minister of Health on Tuesday asked Hoang Thuy Tien, deputy head of the ministry’s Food Safety and Hygiene Department who signed the certificates issued to Vedan, to stop working temporarily and report on his action in the case.

Health Minister Hoang Van Phong had sent a note to the organizers on Monday asking that the certificates be revoked. Phong said he will strictly punish all officials involved in the case.

Sinh had insisted the same day that Vedan had not been honored, adding that Vedan’s application had been turned down based on its environmental record. She produced the list of 50 awardees signed on October 5 by Bui Van Quyen, head of the southern branch of the Ministry of Science and Technology, another organizer of the award, without Vedan.

However, she failed to explain the three certificates of merit given to Vedan, copies of which were shown on local media on Tuesday. “We’ll check again carefully and if Vedan is really having the certificates, we will make an announcement to revoke them,” Sinh said Monday.

The certificates to Vedan carry only one signature, that of Tien from the Health Ministry, while it also needs a signature from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Quyen said.

Quyen also denied that Vedan had been being awarded. “They are seriously guilty, how can they be awarded?” He also said that no representative of Vedan went to the stage that day to receive any certificate.

Nguyen Quan, deputy minister of Science and Technology who was present at the award-giving celebration, was quoted by the newswire Vnexpress Tuesday that the video of the day will be watched carefully again. “If it doesn’t show Vedan being granted the certificates, the company must have received them illegally and those giving those certificates must be penalized.”

Quan said after this scandal, the ministry will order sub-agencies not to participate in unofficial awards to save the ministry from needless embarrassment.

Tran Van Quang, vice chairman of the Farmer’s Association in Dong Nai Province where farmers were hardest hit by Vedan’s wastewater discharge, said Vedan’s products might be qualified in terms of cooking safety standards but their manufacturing had polluted the environment.

Tien claimed the award was based on the quality of a product, not the production as a whole.

“It’s unacceptable that the award didn’t deal with the consequence that Vedan has caused to thousands of farmers,” Quang said.

Yang Kun Hsiang, general director of Vedan, told Thanh Nien on Monday that it was normal and easy to understand that Vedan was honored for high quality products.

Hsiang said Vedan is paying the price for its wrongdoing, but the company shouldn’t be criticized for every other activity.

‘A joke’

But Nguyen Dinh Hoe, lecturer at the University of Natural Sciences under Vietnam National University in Hanoi, said the award was a “joke”.

“The organizers seemed to only care about the product and didn’t pay any concern to the process by which the product was made.”

Hoang Van Thong, head of Dong Nai Environment Protection Department said the award organizers should have consulted concerned agencies in the province.

Farmer Vo Van Giac of Dong Nai said he was “disappointed by the officials that gave the award to Vedan when it was yet to meet the farmers’ compensation demand.”

Another local farmer, Tran Thi Son, said: “I cannot understand that Vedan is still being awarded this and that while it has delayed compensating the farmers for almost a year.”

Lawyer Nguyen Van Hau from HCMC Bar Association said “the award was careless and only increased the pain that local farmers have been suffering.”

At least 11,584 families affected by Vedan’s sewage discharge in Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Provinces and HCMC have lodged complaints asking for more than VND4.263 trillion (US$239 million) in compensation.

Reported by Thanh Nien staff