VietNamNet Bridge - Serving investigation of bribery allegations related to a Japanese contractor, the Vietnam Railway Administration has suspended Tran Van Luc, Director of the Railway Project Management Unit.



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Luc was suspended to allow the agency to focus on issues related to the bribery allegations at the Hanoi urban railway project, which occurred during the time he was the director of the Railway Project Management Unit.

Luc was temporarily replaced by his deputy director, Mr. Doan Tang Ong, starting on April 30.

This is the second time Luc has been suspended for his involvement in the bribery scandal. However, this time the suspension notice did not state a specific duration. Earlier, Luc was suspended for 15 days, from March 24.

On March 21, the Yomiuri and many Japanese newspapers reported that Mr. Tamio Kakinuma, Chair of JTC Corporation, voluntarily declared to the police that his company had bribed senior officials of the Vietnam Railway Administration in exchange for winning ODA projects. In testimony, he gave details about the dates and amounts of the bribes.

The move came after the Tokyo tax authorities detected irregular in the expenditures of JTC, worth about 130 million yen, related to five ODA projects of Japan. The money was spent on 40 separate occasions during the period from February 2008 to February 2014.

JTC has been present in Vietnam since 1993 and has participated in over a dozen different projects related to the railway sector. The clients of JTC in Vietnam are mainly the Vietnam Railway Administration, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and some other units.

JTC is also involved in many other advisory partnerships in a number of projects funded by Japanese ODA, such as the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien subway and the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau railway project.

Na Son