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Vietnam on Tuesday said it had suspended four railway officials following allegations a Japanese firm paid bribes to win a contract linked to a rail project for Hanoi.
Japan's leading Yomiuri newspaper reported that the head of Japan Transportation Consultants (JTC) admitted his company had paid kickbacks of 130 million yen ($1.3 million) to civil servants in Vietnam, Indonesia and Uzbekistan to win work tied to projects funded by Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA).
The report said Tamio Kakinuma, 65, told prosecutors in Tokyo last week that among the illicit payments were 80 million yen paid to officials at Vietnam Railways for a project worth 4.2 billion yen.
The scheme was for part of an overground rail link across Hanoi, partially financed by the ODA.
Prosecutors were preparing to launch a criminal probe, the newspaper added, while JTC said it had set up an internal committee to look into the claims.
In response Vietnam's Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong told AFP Tuesday the four senior railway officials "are temporarily suspended from their daily work to concentrate on clarifying their involvement in the project" in Hanoi.
Vietnam and Japan "have agreed to... cooperate in our actions to quickly solve the case", Dong said.
Late Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also urged "serious punishment" for anyone found guilty, the government's website said.
Japan is Vietnam's largest ODA donor with a pledge of $2.6 billion last year.
In December 2008, Japan suspended ODA to Vietnam for four months during a similar scandal that led to a 20-year jail term for Ho Chi Minh City's transport department's deputy head Huynh Ngoc Sy.
Sy was accused of taking up to $262,000 in 2003 from Tokyo-based Pacific Consultants International company in connection with a major infrastructure project -- a highway linking the east and west of the city -- backed by Japanese aid money.
Vietnam is rated one of the world's most corrupt nations and graft is a top concern for many ordinary Vietnamese.
To defuse public anger over the issue the nation's leadership is desperate to show it is tackling graft.
The one-party state has been rocked by a number of high-profile corruption scandals in recent years, with graft and huge debts at giant state-run companies accused of fueling the country's economic woes.
© (c) 2014 AFP
6 Comments
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JeffLee
But it was the Japanese who paid the bribes, and not just in Vietnam but in other countries as well. Furthermore, Japanese were caught doing the same thing in 2008. So this incident is really about Japanese corruption.
knowitall
Well, it is about Japanese agreeing to the unofficial terms of doing business there.
Sure, they shouldn't have paid the bribes. But if they didn't, I bet that the contract would have gone to the Chinese, German, American or other company that did pay the bribe. You're pretty much screwed if you do and screwed if you don't.
Elbuda Mexicano
I do not like these bribes but I do not want to sound to naive here, but my guess this is happening all around the world 24/7!!
Thunderbird2
Elbuda, I suspect you may be right... they use different words for the same thing.
stavros69
It's a way of doing business in Vietnam. There is the expression "In Rome do as the Romans do."
Bear27840
Bribes are the way of doing business EVERY WHERE in the world and if some one does not agree to this then that person has never had to conduct sales business through out this world.