No graveyard in our backyard: public tells detained official

Thousands of people in Hanoi on Friday detained a local official to protest the establishment of a graveyard in their locality.

The incident took place at around 8 a.m. when Vuong Van But, deputy chief of secretary of Soc Son District’s Communist Party, and several officials came to meet with authorities of Minh Phu Commune to discuss the construction of the Thien Duong graveyard.

Many locals gathered at the place and dragged But and a few other officials into two rooms of the headquarters of the Minh Phu People’s Committee.

They asked But to sign a report on an altercation between police officers and children that had left four of the children injured, the Phap Luat TPHCM (Ho Chi Minh City Law) newspaper quoted local people as saying.

Locals also asked But to stop construction of the graveyard in the commune, saying that it would critically affect local water sources.

As of 10 p.m., But was still detained, while other officials were released when they showed signs of exhaustion.

Police forces, meanwhile, were mobilized to the site to deal with thousands of people who'd surrounded the headquarters.

A Soc Son police official told Thanh Nien that the two parties held peaceful talks. The detained official promised to report local people’s opinions and concerns to Hanoi authorities.

The Thien Duong graveyard project was approved by Hanoi’s People’s Committee in January.

It is planned cover 100 hectares and apply burial methods causing no effects to the environment, according to investor Hoa Sen Investment Joint-stock Company.

The project's first stage, with the investment of some VND300 billion (US$15.4 million), was expected to be completed in the third quarter of next year.

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Prosecutors seek life sentence for ex-official in corruption trial

Prosecutors on Saturday said there was enough evidence to find a former official guilty of accepting bribes to award contracts in major road project.

They've asked a court in Ho Chi Minh City to punish the official with a life sentence.

Huynh Ngoc Si is accused of taking US$262,000 in bribes from officials of Japanese consultant firm PCI while he oversaw the East-West Highway Project in the city.

According to prosecutors, three PCI officials have admitted that they gave him the money on May 28, 2003.

Two of them also said that Si let them know about the criteria for the selection of contractors so that PCI could have the best bid for the project.

The trial started on Friday and is expected to last until Monday.

On Friday, Si denied the bribery charge, saying he “did not take any money” and “did not do anything to benefit PCI.”

Si is currently serving a six-year jail term for an “abuse of power” conviction involving the same case

Four PCI officials pleaded guilty in a Tokyo court in 2008, saying they had paid a total $820,000 in bribes to Si.

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Former transport official jailed for life for taking bribes

Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court sentenced a former transport official charged with “taking bribes” in a Japanese-funded road project to life imprisonment, on October 18.

Huynh Ngoc Si, former head of the management board of the East-West Avenue project, was accused of taking bribes of up to 262,000 USD from executives of Pacific Consultants International (PCI), a Japanese company hired as the project’s consultants.

Si, 53, who is also a former Deputy Director of the city’s Transport Department, is currently serving six years in prison for “abusing his position and power while performing official duties”. The court also ordered the confiscation of the money that he received in bribes.

The case was brought to light, after the Japanese Government provided a number of documents to Vietnam , including the testimonies of several PCI officials made in a Tokyo court, who admitted paying bribes to Si so that the company could win the contracts.

Vietnam ’s police investigated the case and collected evidence according to the country’s Code of Criminal Procedures and the Law on Legal Assistance.

According to the judges, Si’s bribery case casts a shadow on Vietnam 's image in the international community and its fight against corruption. It has also hampered Vietnamese Government’s efforts to attract development loans from foreign partners, they said.

“The extent of Si's crime is especially serious and the amount of money paid in bribes is huge,'' the judges stressed.

The Prime Minister had decided to accept foreign bids for the project, but Si had nominated the contractor himself. He paid a deposit to PCI before receiving the final project report, at 20 percent amount higher than the original estimate.

Si also agreed on higher salaries for foreign specialists than the negotiated level and at the same time lowered the salaries of domestic specialists. In turn, he received 262,000 USD from PCI on May 28, 2003 at the project’s management office.

The judges said that Si’s crime was just one of his six acts of bribery and the police will investigate further.

They urged the Ministry of Public Security’s Investigation Agency and the Supreme People’s Procuracy to conduct further investigations to bring Si’s offences to trial./.

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No excessive spending on Hanoi anniversary: official

Speculation that trillions of dong have been spent for Hanoi’s millennial celebrations is not true, news website VnExpress has cited an official as saying.

Ho Quang Loi, head of the Hanoi Party Committe’s Department of Propaganda and Training, said although official figures hve not been released, spending for the celebration could not have reached that level.

He said the fund for activities to celebrate Hanoi’s 1,000th birthday came from various sources, including government budget and business contributions.

Loi also rejected rumors that dozens of people were killed by the firework explosion at My Dinh Stadium last Wednesday. He said that there were only four deaths and the explosion was caused by “techincal mistakes”. 

The city canceled fireworks displays at all planned venues except at the stadium, donating the funds to central provinces hit by floods.

In a report sent to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Hanoi People’s Committee said the anniversary celebration was organized economically. The 10-day celebration wrapped up last Sunday.

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Party official slain, mother and daughter in critical condition

A district Party official was stabbed to death and two women were seriously injured in a grizzly murder plot that unfolded early this week in Ho Chi Minh City.

Police say suspects have confessed to the crime, which, they claim, stemmed from a work-related grudge.

The murder took place around noon on Monday (September 20) at the house of 51-year-old Bui Ngo Thi My, head of Phu Nhuan District’s Natural Resources and Environment Agency. My and her 24-year-old daughter were seriously injured. Dang Thi Thu Hong, 47, vice secrectary of the Phu Nhuan Party Unit died from fatal stab wounds.

Nguyen Trong Nhan, 30, and Luong Hoai Sang, 20, were caught red-handed in the house.

Nhan, an employee at an online gaming company and Sang, a motorbike parking attendant at the Nguyen Tri Phuong Apartments in District 10, had planned to force My to let Nhan’s wife off the hook for public corruption.

The municipal police held a press briefing on Tuesday to announce their initial investigation findings. On Wednesday they asked that prosecutors charge both men with murder.

(L-R) The accused murderers, 30-year-old Nguyen Trong Nhan, employee of an online game company, and 20-year-old Luong Hoai Sang

According to investigators, Nhan asked Sang to accompany him to My’s house to ask her to spare his wife, 28-year-old Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, from punishments from official censure. Hien, who supervises a division of land surveyors and housing inspectors, had illegally collected money from some households, police say.

When Nhan heard of his spouse’s troubles, he decided to take matters into his own hands, police say.

Nhan prepared a taser, a knife and a pair of gloves and told Sang to accompany him and attack My if she refused to spare his wife.

On Monday, they waited near My’s house in an alley located off Huynh Van Banh Street until the official arrived home during the noon break. When they encountered her, she allowed them to enter her home. Once inside My refused their demands and the pair launched their attack.

Sang didn’t know how to use the taser and electrocuted himself, while Nhan tried to suffocate My before hitting her with a tennis racket.

My’s daughter, Huong, heard her mother’s cry for help and came downstairs only to b e struck by Nhan.

While the assault was in progress, Party official Hong arrived to visit the home for lunch. Nhan stabbed Hong to death, on the spot. Police say he then turned

the knife on mother and daughter before some militiamen stationed nearby heard their cries for help.

Around 100 police and militiamen were mobilized to the site.

While accounts on what happened next differ, one unnamed source told Thanh Nien that Nhan and Sang hid in a pair of upstairs rooms until authorities found them and placed them under arrest.

My and her daughter both sustained life-threatening injuries to their necks and were taken to Cho Ray Hospital for emergency treatment. Their conditions have shown signs of progress, doctors say.

Colonel Phan Anh Minh, head of the municipal investigation unit, said they would continue to consider the precise motives behind Sang and Nhan’s deadly assault.

“So far, no apparent motive exists aside from Nhan’s fear that his wife would be censured,” he said. “Hong’s official position does not appear to be a motivating factor.”

Hong is a senior official at Phu Nhuan District Party Unit and the city Party Unit is about to hold a congress this year.

Col. Minh also said there had been no disciplinary measures taken against Hien, My had only detected her indiscretion and instructed her to prepare a report.

Both of the arrestees have clean records and Col. Minh rejected the notion that this murder may have been a robbery-gone-wrong. Nhan’s in-laws also work at the HCMC Party Unit’s office.

“Hong arrived there accidentally. It seems that she had met Nhan when she was working as chairwoman of Ward 15’s People’s Committee [in Phu Nhuan District] and Nhan killed her to conceal his crimes,” he said.

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Trial set for jailed transport official in Japanese graft case

A court in Ho Chi Minh City will open trial proceedings against a former transportation official for accepting US$262,000 in bribes from a Tokyo-based company seeking contracts for a major roadway project.

The trial of Huynh Ngoc Si – former head of the East-West Highway Project in HCMC and vice director of the city’s Department of Transport – is scheduled to begin on September 28 and last for three days, the court said on Tuesday (September 14).

On September 9, the Supreme People’s Procuracy, Vietnam’s highest prosecutor’s office, issued an indictment against Si, accusing the ex-official of committing crimes that could attract the death penalty.

Si, who is currently serving a six-year jail term for "abuse of power," has denied all wrongdoing.

According to the official indictment, Si was assigned to oversee the East-West Highway Project on September 26, 2000. Over VND14 trillion (US$718.5 million) in foreign and domestic funds had been set aside for the project.

In January 2001, the project’s management board invited five companies, including the Tokyo-based Pacific Consultants International (PCI), to bid on the project.

According to prosecutors in both Japan and Vietnam, PCI’s officials bribed Si in an effort to win a consulting and supervision role on the project. The indictment further alleges that Si took steps to ensure that PCI was treated generously after they had been selected for the job.

Prosecutors say that after several meetings, PCI agreed to pay Si 11 percent, or $1.7 million, of a supervision contract, and 10 percent, or $900,000, of a consulting contract.

Officials from the Japanese Ministry of Justice claim that on May 28, 2005, Si accepted $262,000 from Sakano Tsuneo, chief representative of PCI in Vietnam, and Takasu Kunio, former managing director of PCI, at his office.

On November 11, 2009 while standing trial in Tokyo, PCI leaders testified that they had bribed Si on six additional occasions. Japan prosecuted the officials for offering $820,000 in bribes.

Si is being brought to trial in Vietnam for the $262,000 bribes while other allegations are being investigated further. The deadline for the initial investigation has ended, according to prosecutors, creating something of a time crunch.

Si was convicted this March for illegally leasing office space to PCI from August 2001 and November 2002 and pocketing VND1.2 billion (currently $62,959) from the deal.

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Trial set for jailed transport official in Japanese graft case

A court in Ho Chi Minh City will open trial proceedings against a former transportation official for accepting US$262,000 in bribes from a Tokyo-based company seeking contracts for a major roadway project.

The trial of Huynh Ngoc Si – former head of the East-West Highway Project in HCMC and vice director of the city’s Department of Transport – is scheduled to begin on September 28 and last for three days, the court said on Tuesday (September 14).

On September 9, the Supreme People’s Procuracy, Vietnam’s highest prosecutor’s office, issued an indictment against Si, accusing the ex-official of committing crimes that could attract the death penalty.

Si, who is currently serving a six-year jail term for "abuse of power," has denied all wrongdoing.

According to the official indictment, Si was assigned to oversee the East-West Highway Project on September 26, 2000. Over VND14 trillion (US$718.5 million) in foreign and domestic funds had been set aside for the project.

In January 2001, the project’s management board invited five companies, including the Tokyo-based Pacific Consultants International (PCI), to bid on the project.

According to prosecutors in both Japan and Vietnam, PCI’s officials bribed Si in an effort to win a consulting and supervision role on the project. The indictment further alleges that Si took steps to ensure that PCI was treated generously after they had been selected for the job.

Prosecutors say that after several meetings, PCI agreed to pay Si 11 percent, or $1.7 million, of a supervision contract, and 10 percent, or $900,000, of a consulting contract.

Officials from the Japanese Ministry of Justice claim that on May 28, 2005, Si accepted $262,000 from Sakano Tsuneo, chief representative of PCI in Vietnam, and Takasu Kunio, former managing director of PCI, at his office.

On November 11, 2009 while standing trial in Tokyo, PCI leaders testified that they had bribed Si on six additional occasions. Japan prosecuted the officials for offering $820,000 in bribes.

Si is being brought to trial in Vietnam for the $262,000 bribes while other allegations are being investigated further. The deadline for the initial investigation has ended, according to prosecutors, creating something of a time crunch.

Si was convicted this March for illegally leasing office space to PCI from August 2001 and November 2002 and pocketing VND1.2 billion (currently $62,959) from the deal.

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UN official pushes poverty reduction efforts in VN

Vietnam should make more efforts to ensure sustainability of poverty reduction achievements it has made during the past 20 years, said a UN official.

At a press briefing on August 31 after her nine-day working visit to Vietnam, UN Independent Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty Magdalena Sepulveda praised Vietnam’s plan to build a new social security strategy for the 2011-2020 period.

She noted that to make the strategy effective, the government needs to ensure its comprehensiveness and integration with other social policies as well as its funding.

She also called for further support from donors and international community for Vietnam’s response to climate change as it is a big challenge to Vietnam.

It is necessary to add financial support relating to climate change to the official development assistance that Vietnam is receiving, the expert said.

During her stay in Vietnam, from August 23, Sepulveda was received by Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem and visited several disadvantaged localities in Bac Kan and Quang Nam provinces and Hanoi./.

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Ex-official faces bribery charge in Japanese graft case

Vietnamese investigators are seeking bribery charges against a former senior official in a scandalous graft case related to a Japanese ODA-funded project, an official said Thursday.

Huynh Ngoc Si, former head of the East-West Highway in Ho Chi Minh City, accepted US$262,000 in bribes from Tokyo-based Pacific Consultants International (PCI) in 2003 to help the company win contracts under the project, according to Pham Quy Ngo, chief of the Ministry of Public Security’s Police General Department.

Vietnam began looking into the case in December, 2008 after four former PCI executives said they gave Si $2.6 million in bribes in a quid pro quo bid to secure contracts.

According to Tuoi Tre newspaper, Si will face further charges, once the Ministry of Public Security concluded on further allegations from former PCI executives’ that they bribed him on six additional occaisions--apart from the alleged $262,000.

Investigators in Vietnam are currently awaiting more information from Japanese authorities with whom they are cooperating on the case, it said.

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s investigators sought the charge against Si, because the deadline for the investigation has ended, according to the news source.

The accusations were made on November 11, 2008 as PCI leaders stood trial in Tokyo for violations of the Unfair Competition Prevention Law, which prohibits the bribing of foreign government officials.

Japan later prosecuted the officials for offering $820,000 in bribes.

The scandal led Tokyo to temporarily suspend official development assistance (ODA) loans to Vietnam in December the same year. They resumed in February.

However, it was only after 3,050 pages of materials received from the Japanese agency were translated that authorities placed Si under investigation in January.

Si, former vice director of HCMC Department of Transport is now serving six-year jail term for “abuse of power” for illegally leasing office space to PCI from August 2001 and November 2002 and pocketing VND1.2 billion (current $62,959) from the agreement.

In September 2009, Si was sentanced to three years in jail.

Following an appeal heard by the HCMC Supreme People’s Court in March, Si's sentence was doubled.

Si’s subordinate Le Qua was sentenced to five years in prison on the same charges.

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