The Supreme People’s Procuracy on Thursday laid charges of taking bribes against Huynh Ngoc Si, former director of the management board of the ODA-funded East-West Highway in Ho Chi Minh City.
According to the indictment, Si took US$262,000 from executives of Japan’s Pacific Consultants International (PCI) for awarding design and supervision consultancy contracts to the company.
As the ex-PCI officials, who were prosecuted on charges of bribery and violations of Japan’s anti-competition laws, confessed that Si received their bribes seven times in total, the Ministry of Public Security’s Investigation Agency decided to continue further investigation.
The ex-employees with Japan’s PCI claimed that they gave Si bribes totaling $800,000 in exchange for the provision of consultancy services for the project. The bribes were given between 2003 and 2006, at a time when the project in Ho Chi Minh City was underway.
The East-West Highway project was approved in 2000. It used the Japanese Government’s ODA and Vietnam’s capital.
On September 25, 2009, Si was sentenced to three years in jail on charges of “abuse of power” when overseeing the East-West Highway and HCMC Water Environment Improvement projects.
Si, who is also former deputy director of HCMC’s Department of Transport, and his deputy, Le Qua, misappropriated funds earned from leasing a state-owned house on Nguyen Thi Dieu Street in District 3 to Japan’s PCI.
The money received from the contract between August 2001 and November 2002, estimated at around VND1.2 billion ($66,500), was not submitted to the state budget but disbursed among 87 officials working in the project.
Si took VND52 million and Qua took VND54 million from the contract. The two officials also used VND350 million for “treating guests.”
.jpg "Photo: VNA")