State inspection expected to shed light on secret deal of Vietnam’s Mobifone
State inspection expected to shed light on secret deal of Vietnam’s Mobifone
It is hoped that the hidden secrets of a deal in which Vietnamese mobile carrier Mobifone acquired a 95 percent stake in a local pay TV operator will be exposed after a state inspection is carried out following a government order.
The state inspectorate should “launch an urgent and complete inspection” of Mobifone’s purchase of the shareholding at Audio Visual Global (AVG), the government said in a fiat signed on Monday by Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh.
In January the giant mobile network operator announced its acquisition of AVG, the operator of the An Vien Television payment television service.
The service was later renamed MobiTV, but both sides would never disclose the value of the deal.
Local experts said this is the reason why the government has tasked the state inspectorate with inspecting the deal, as it is the responsibility of a state-run company like Mobifone to publicize its investment and financial activities.
Mobifone, which is entirely owned by the state, has been put under the management of the Ministry of Information and Communications since December 2014.
According to experts, state companies are funded by taxes so members of the public have the right to know how their taxes are spent.
A government decree stipulates that state companies have to “publicize all information related to their investment or business to ensure transparency of their activities,” an official from the corporate finance agency under the Ministry of Finance told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
The official said state enterprises can only keep secret a deal or business plan if it is crucial and may affect state secrets or national security.
“However, even in such cases, the enterprises still have to report to the ministry that manages them or the local administration of the province or city where they are located why they cannot disclose details about that plan or deal,” he added.
“Only when they have secured approval from these authorities are the companies allowed to keep the deal secret, but only for a limited period of time.”
According to the Vietnam Association of Financial Investors, it is obvious that an acquisition of a pay TV operator does not have anything to do with state secrets or national security.
Mobifone has obtained no approval from the Ministry of Information and Communications not to publicize the AVG deal’s details.
“Consequently, the Mobifone-AVG deal meets no conditions to remain undisclosed,” the association said in a statement.
Some other experts said there are also many irregularities in the acquisition.
