Officials in Ha Tinh Province are trying to avoid punishments after the mass fish deaths in coastal provinces with only one official receiving a reprimand.

Mass fish deaths in four central coastal provinces

Ha Tinh People's Committee has asked the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, environmental police and the management board of provincial economic zones along with the Department of Industry and Trade to review and submit the results about the incident by August 15.

However, only the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, which must take the most responsibility, carried out a review of their employees and only Dang Ba Luc, head of the Environmental Protection Agency was reprimanded.

Even though many people suggest that Vo Ta Dinh, the department's director, must be the first to be blamed, he said he would “learn from the experience”.

Pham Quang De, inspector at the provincial Department of Internal Affairs said, "I said that Dinh should be at least reprimanded. But he said his two vice directors hadn't taken responsibility so he must think about it first. This was a serious disaster and the leaders only promised to learn from experiences is just wrong and a reprimand is too light. We have demanded them to review their responsibilities again."

After receiving all reports about individual responsibilities, the Department of Internal Affairs will report to the provincial people's committee and decide on the punishments.

"Depending on positions and regulations, we'll see if the suggested punishments are good enough and may demand they rethink their punishments," De said.

On June 30, the Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Limited Company admitted responsibility for the mass fish deaths in four central coastal provinces. The government also asked local authorities to review individual responsibilities but the process has been slow.