Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court began Friday a four-day trial of a former city official who was involved in a corruption case that led to the Japanese government suspending aid to Vietnam in 2008.
Huynh Ngoc Si, the former deputy director of the HCMC Transport Department, was charged with taking bribes totaling US$262,000 from a Japanese consulting company in exchange for the provision of consultancy services for a Japan-funded project.
Si, who doubles as the former director of the Japan-funded East-West Highway and the Water Environment Improvement projects in HCMC, was sentenced to three years in prison with “abuse of power” charges by the HCMC People’s Court after a two-day trial on September 25 last year.
Si’s ex-deputy, Le Qua, received two-year sentence with similar charges.
Si and Qua rented a house in HCMC’s District 3 to executives from Japan’s Pacific Consultants International (PCI), who paid US$5,000 a month to use the property as an office.
PCI officials paid a total $80,000 in rent in 2001 and 2002.
The house was owned by the project, but the executives were found guilty of pocketing the ‘rent money’ instead of passing it on to the project management board.
Four months after the trial, the Ministry of Security announced they laid “taking bribes” charges against Si under Article 279 of the Criminal Code.
A conviction on the charge can result in a jail sentence of seven years to death penalty.
The new trial was held at the request of the HCMC People’s Procuracy, which said the sentences given to the two officials were too lenient.
In December 2008, the Ministry of Public Security began a corruption investigation into the two infrastructure projects, estimated to cost $760 million, after an official request by the Tokyo prosecution agency.
According to the agency, PCI executives admitted in a Tokyo court they had given $820,000 between 2003 and 2006 to the former director of the projects to win consulting contracts.
At Vietnam’s request, Japan sent 3,050 pages of document regarding the PCI case to the Supreme People’s Procuracy in both English and Japanese late last year.
But it wasn’t until recently that the Vietnamese procurators announced they had finished the translation.
According to Vietnamese investigators, they found evidences that Si accepted $262,000 from PCI in May 2003, so they decided to lay “taking bribes” charges against him.
Si, who oversaw the two projects in his capacity of deputy director of HCMC Transport Department, was suspended from his post and all Party activities by the department’s Party Committee after the scandal.
In December 2008, Japan suspended its aid funding to Vietnam until the government took "meaningful" steps to eliminate corruption in public works programs.
Japan’s ODA program to Vietnam was resumed in early April last year.
At the new trial, 13 witnesses have been summoned, of which 10 are former officers of the East-West highway project. The three others are former officers of PCI.
Around 40 local and foreign reporters attended the trial.
Ho Chi Minh City has asked the central government to stop the construction of 20 hydropower plants along the Dong Nai River.
A private firm in Ho Chi Minh City has filed suit against Vu Huy Hoang, the Minister of Industry and Trade, saying that his lack of responsibility has caused losses of billions of dongs to the company.