Le Quang Hao, Deputy Director-General of Vietnam Expressway Corporation.

Le Quang Hao, Deputy Director-General of VEC, was also the head of the committee in charge of conducting quality inspection of Quang Nam-Da Nang expressway, which was put into operation in September 2018. Reports quickly emerged regarding the road's questionable construction quality, with potholes and cracks developing shortly after its opening that required urgent maintenance.

Hao was charged with “violating construction regulations, leading to serious consequences” under the Vietnam Penal Code 2015.

According to the Investigation Police Agency, Hao’s wrongdoing involves faulty pre-acceptance testing of the construction project of the expressway (specifically, the 65km Tuy Loan-Tam Ky section) that is not in line with regulations and provisions of the law, not in compliance with the approved standards, technical instructions, and the project design requirements, resulting in unqualified works being put into use, causing very serious consequences.

The police are expanding the investigation and consolidating the case to clarify the role of each of the suspects involved in the case.

Previously, Vietnamese police detained and investigated eight people, including the former director of the Da Nang-Quang Ngai project management unit and other senior executives of sub-project management units.

The expressway has a total length of over 139.2km, running through Da Nang City, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces, which constitutes a major part of the central key economic region of the country.

With construction beginning in 2013, the expressway's total costs came to upwards of VND34.5 trillion (US$1.64 billion), including $798.5 million in loans from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and over $590 million from the World Bank (WB), with the remainder sourced from the Vietnamese Government's budget. VNS

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