Railway official dismissed, arrested for alleged corruption
Railway official dismissed, arrested for alleged corruption
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The Viet Nam Railways Corporation has dismissed Tran Van Luc from his post as director of the railway project management unit.
The decision follows the investigation into the suspected misuse of Japanese government aid.
According to Tien Phong newspaper, Deputy General Director of the corporation, Tran Quoc Dong was taken into custody for further investigation into his involvement in alleged bribes by the Japan Transportation Consultants (JTC) for an ODA project in Viet Nam.
Last March, Luc had been suspended for 15 days during an investigation after a Japanese newspaper reported that a Tokyo-based railway consulting firm had admitted to paying JPY80 million, or about US$780,000, as a bribe to win a bid for the Ha Noi urban metro route No.1 project. He was also temporarily removed from his post.
Two Deputy General Directors of the corporation, Ngo Anh Tao and Tran Quoc Dong, were suspended for ten days during the probe into their management of the projects.
The accused firm, JTC, was involved in the ongoing Ha Noi City Urban Railway Construction Project (Line 1), according to the transport ministry.
In a March 21st article, the Japanese newspaper with the largest circulation, Yomiuri Shimbun, reported that JTC President Tamio Kakinuma had admitted to paying "kickbacks" to foreign civil servants in Viet Nam, Indonesia and Uzbekistan in return for five ODA projects.
According to the newspaper, the illegal payments were made on some 40 occasions between 2008 and February of this year, and totaled JPY130 million, or about $1.27 million.
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