The Ministry of Public Security’s (MPS) investigating agency on Monday initiated a nation-level search for the former general director of Petrochemical and Textile Fibre Joint Stock Company (PVTex).

PVTex is a textile unit under the state-owned Viet Nam Oil and Gas Group (PVN).

PVTex’s former general director Vu Dinh Duy, 42, fled the country on October 22, 2016, while being investigated for violating the State’s regulations on economic management and causing significant financial losses to the company.

All citizens have the right to arrest and take Duy to the nearest police station, procuracy or People’s Committee office, the search warrant states. Anyone who gets hold of Duy is required to immediately report it to the ministry’s investigating agency, which is headquartered at No 47 Pham Van Dong Street in Ha Noi’s Cau Giay District. Citizens can also reach investigator Dinh Quoc Thien on 0692322579/0912397689.

Duy served as general director of PVTex from July 15, 2009, to February 2014, during which time its subsidiary Dinh Vu Polyester Fibre Plant, which cost an investment of VND7 trillion (US$311 million), remained in a poor financial state and at a high risk of bankruptcy. It finally shut down in October 2015.

PVTex’s operations and production were to resume in the first quarter of 2016, but so far it has stayed shut, incurring losses of VND1.3 trillion ($55.5 million) in 2015, according to a PVN report.

Recently, several mistakes made by PVTex in project selection, contractor selection and contract signing came to light, following investigations by the Government Inspectorate. The inspectorate then requested that the MPS continue the probe.

Duy and four other PVN executives have been under investigation since June 2016. The other four suspects include Tran Trung Chi Hieu, former chairman of PVTex managing board; Vu Phuong Nam, PVTex’s chief accountant; Dao Ngo Hoang, former director of PVTex’s chamber of commerce contracts; and Do Van Hong, chairman of managing board and general director of Kinh Bac Petroleum Construction and Investment Joint Stock Company (PVC-KBC).

Following his poor performance at PVTex, Duy was appointed a board member at the Viet Nam National Chemical Corporation (Vinachem) in April 2016. However, since October 24, 2016, he has been absent from office, according to a report by Vinachem and a working group of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

The MPS’ Immigration Management Department discovered that Duy left Viet Nam on October 22, 2016, and has not returned to the country since then, according to the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper. — VNS