Transport ministry requests plan to exit hospital
The lack of board members has led to improper function at the Transport Hospital while conflict over ownership percentage has made private investors look for the way out.
The Ministry of Transport has asked the State capital management committee to soon move its ownership of the Transport Hospital JSC to the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC).
In a letter sent to the Committee for Management of State Capital at Enterprises, the ministry said the Transport Hospital JSC is short of members for the boards of managers and directors.
That leads to the hospital’s improper operations and the delay of its annual shareholders’ meeting, which is pending for the transport ministry to complete handing its power to another agency.
Therefore, the committee should have a plan to help the Ministry of Transport exit the hospital and give the ownership to the SCIC, the ministry said, so that the annual meeting is organised and the structural organisation of the hospital is completed.
“SCIC will discuss the hospital’s development plan with the representative monitoring the State capital at the firm and other ministries to make sure the plan is feasible,” the ministry said.
The Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh on July 23 agreed on the plan that allows SCIC to replace the transport ministry as the State capital controller at the hospital.
“The committee, the transport ministry, SCIC and related stakeholders are responsible for making the replacement plan feasible and make sure the post-transition hospital operates following high quality standards in the future,” the deputy prime minister said.
In June 2020, the Ministry of Transport said in a letter to the Prime Minister that the ministry was developing a plan to assign State-funded transport hospitals to provincial authorities and disassemble its Health Department to comply with Resolution 19 released in late October 2017 by the Party’s Central Standing Committee on the reform and improvement of State-funded agencies.
As its health department was about to be dissolved, the transport ministry would no longer take charge of the hospitals so handing over its power in healthcare facilities to the SCIC would meet the Government’s principles to separate State management from business operation.
“SCIC will boost the performance of the Transport Hospital with its experiences in finance, staff and administration management,” deputy minister Nguyen Van Cong said.
In November 2019, the hospital raised charter capital to more than VND391 billion (nearly US$17 million) from VND168 billion.
After the capital hike, the State shareholders increased their stakes to more than 27.8 million shares or 71.13 per cent of the capital from nearly 5.5 million shares or 32.73 per cent of the capital.
Other shareholders, including T&T Group, saw their stakes fall to 28.87 per cent from 67.27 per cent, though the amount of shares remained unchanged at 11.3 million.
The change of ownership displeased private investors and made T&T Group exit the hospital and stop all assistance, putting the hospital's operations in trouble.
The transport ministry then proposed the Government buy back the shares from T&T Group.
T&T Group became the second largest shareholder at the hospital in late 2015 after buying 8.64 million shares. — VNS
