The first meeting of Joint Vietnam-Japan Committee will be held in Hanoi on April 3 in a bid to clarify issues related to bribery allegations against Japanese railway consultancy firm JTC.

The transport project bribery allegations surrounding, Japanese railway consultancy firm JTC  are now the target of a powerful joint investigation by the Vietnamese and Japanese governments.

At a March 28 meeting between Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang and Japanese ambassador to Vietnam, Fukada Hiroshi in Hanoi, they agreed upon bold initiatives need to be undertaken to restore the public trust in the honesty and fairness of the construction bidding process and expanded to encompass measures that need to be put in place to prevent corruption from occurring in future projects.

The formation of the investigation task force demonstrates that the two governments are committed to stamp out corruption and actively cooperate to that end.

In another move, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong returned to Vietnam after a two-day working session in Japan. The results of the trip have not been unveiled yet.

Earlier, the Ministry of Transport distributed a list of ten key targets the investigation is narrowing in on including some officials, civil servants who are heads of some departments under the ministry, in addition to former Transport Deputy Minister Le Manh Hung.

Apart from establishing an investigation team, a working group has been set up to verify information provided by the Japanese embassy and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Especially, a hot line of 098 609 39 79 has been also established to receive the information on JTC case.

The working group and investigation team are currently focused on following up on concrete leads related to the Vietnam Railways and projects which JTC has involvement in, especially the Hanoi urban metro project No 1 – the first phase.

Nguyen Van Huyen – chief inspector of the Ministry of Transport and also head of the working group said that he is working directly with individuals on the list of investigation to ask them report on their responsibilities related to the projects to insure the reports are complete and accurate.

Japan requests strict punishment in JTC scandal

The Japanese side is currently launching its investigation into the bribery allegations and the investigative results will be released after getting government permit.

The Ministry of Transport on March 29 announced the initial results of Transport Deputy Minister Nguyen Ngoc Dong’s working visit to Japan from March 25-28 to clarify information by Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper regarding accusations of bribery of several Vietnamese transport officials by Japan Transportation Consultants, Inc. (JTC).

At a recent working session with Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Deputy Minister Nguyen Ngoc Dong briefed on the Vietnamese Government and Transport Ministry’ viewpoints, direction and actions regarding the mentioned-above information.

Dong asked Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and JICA to clarify the information run by the Japanese newspaper, provide information on the investigation of the case and co-ordinate with Vietnamese related agencies to combat future corruption.

The Japanese agencies took note of Vietnam’s viewpoints, quick response and drastic measures, saying that the Japanese Diet and people have paid special attention to the case.

The two agencies added that both sides will clarify the case in transparent and public manner and co-ordinate to take drastic measures to combat corruption and unhealthy competition in the implementation of ODA projects while investigation work has been conducted in Japan.

Japan also asked Vietnam to deal severely with the individuals in the case. At the same time, Vietnam’s ministries and agencies should closely cooperate with the Japanese embassy and JICA in Vietnam to agree on the information contents that will be provided to the public and establish a dialogue mechanism for anti-corruption.

The Ministry of Transport also suggested the Government assign the Ministry of Public Security to increase co-ordination with Japanese relevant agencies to verify the information reported by the media.