Society

Ex-railway officials prosecuted for wrongdoings in ODA-funded project

Six ex-railway officials, who were found sharing a total of 11 billion VND (504,000 USD) in kickbacks from a Japanese consultant firm in relation to an ODA-funded urban railway project in Hanoi from 2009-2014, have been prosecuted on the charge of “abusing position and power while performing official duties”.
Six ex-railway officials, who were found sharing a total of 11 billionVND (504,000 USD) in kickbacks from a Japanese consultant firm inrelation to an ODA-funded urban railway project in Hanoi from 2009-2014,have been prosecuted on the charge of “abusing position and power whileperforming official duties”.

The accused includePham Hai Bang, 46; Pham Quang Duy, 40, both former Deputy Director ofthe Railway Project Management Unit (RPMU) under the state-owned VietnamRailways Corporation (VRC); Tran Quoc Dong, 51, former Deputy DirectorGeneral of the VRC and former director of RPMU; Tran Van Luc, 57; andNguyen Van Hieu, 53 – both former RPMU directors; and Nguyen Nam Thai,38, former Head of the RPMU’s Project Office 3;

According to the charges, Bang complained about financial difficultiesin executing the projects to the Japan Transportation Consultants Inc.(JTC) which led a consultancy joint venture of Vietnamese and Japanesecompanies, and JTC agreed to provide support. Bang assigned Duy and Thaito receive the money under-the-table from the JTC from September2009-February 2014.

According to Japan’s investigation, the JTC handed a total of 11 billion VND to Duy and Thai on 15 occasions.

Of the amount, Bang kept 4.8 billion VND (220,000 USD), Thai pocketed3.4 billion VND (146,000 USD) and Duy collected 2.8 billion VND (134,000USD).

The officials said they had spent the amounton expenses related to signing contracts, entertainment, externalactivities, meetings, vacation trips for railway staff and others. Allthe spending was not documented. In addition, Luc, Dong and Hieureceived money as gifts from Bang on the occasion of the Lunar New Yearfestival.

After the arrest, they submitted 1.765 billion VND (84,000 USD) and 7,000 USD as a remedy for their offense.

The investigation began after Yomiuri Shimbun – Japan’s biggestnewspaper – reported that Tamio Kakinuma, JTC President, had admitted topaying kickbacks to foreign civil servants in Vietnam, Indonesia andUzbekistan in return for orders for five official development assistanceprojects.-VNA
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