Transport officials to present accounts of alleged bribery

Mar 27, 2014 / 10:15 AM

The Transport Ministry has ordered 10 of its officials to present written accounts of their involvement in the early stages of the Hanoi city urban railway construction project (Line 1), which has become mired in controversy and bribery allegations.

The figures under investigation include seven working officials and three retirees, according to a ministry statement issued on March 26.

Among them are acting General Director of the Vietnam Road Administration Nguyen Duc Thang and former Transport Deputy Minister Le Manh Hung.

The move came after a Japanese newspaper reported an investigation into a Tokyo-based railway consultant firm that admitted to paying 80 million JPY (about 780,000 USD) to win a 41 million USD contract in Vietnam, funded by the Japanese Government's official development assistance (ODA).

The accused company, the Japan Transportation Consultants, Inc (JTC), was selected to work on the project, the ministry confirmed.

In the March 20 article, JTC President Tamio Kakinuma admitted to paying "kickbacks" to foreign civil servants in Vietnam, Indonesia and Uzbekistan in return for orders for five ODA projects.

Starting in 2008, the nine-year project is to build the Ngoc Hoi – Yen Vien sky train system at a cost of over 19.4 trillion VND (920 million USD), nearly 14 trillion (660 million USD) of which is sourced from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

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