The State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) has had to justify its wages and staff bonuses for 2015 after public dismay.

State Capital Investment Corporation explains its wages and staff bonuses

The SCIC is the sovereign wealth fund of Vietnam established in 2005. The establishment is aimed to enhance the efficient use of state capital.

The SCIC manages over 500 enterprises that are operating in various sectors, such as financial services, energy, manufacturing, telecommunications, transportation, consumer products, health care, and information technology.

A recent report from the SCIC on July 6 stirred public controversy because of extremely high salaries paid to top managers in 2015. General Director Lai Van Dao earned USD63,600, four vice directors earned USD59,000 and control supervisor earned USD50,000.

Last year, total payment for 273 employees at SCIC amounted to USD5.5m of which a huge proportion, USD3.2m, was for top managers.

According to the SCIC, the salaries in 2015 were much higher than the previous year because they claimed they had achieved a tremendous growth in revenue. The company's revenue reached USD481.8m, an increase by 45% over 2014. Post-tax profit was USD363.6m.

In December 2014, the Ministry of Finance issued Decision 3369 about new financial regulations so SCIC decided to group the payments of 2014 and 2015 together. According to SCIC, the wages and bonuses are paid in accordance with the law. The salaries included some payments in 2014 that hadn't been paid.

SCIC said the total payment for each employee contained basic wages, medical and social insurance, union fees, unemployment insurance, lunches, telephone bills and some pre-paid payments.