Ancient wells in Quang Tri attract visitors

Visiting former war sites in the central province of Quang Tri tourists can view a system of ancient wells from the New Stone Age, which related to the wet-rice cultivation of Vietnam.

Professor Bui Huy Dap, researching a project on rice cultivation in Vietnam, said the system consists of 14 wells in Gio Linh, in Vinh Linh district of Quang Tri, dating back about 4,000 years. 

The sandstone-lined wells are linked by a canal. The water flows from the high wells to the lower ones, maintaining an even temperature in summer and winter. 
These wells are also connected to vegetable fields by canals which are also lined with sandstone.

Professor Dap said that new technology in the New Stone Age helped the Vietnamese people irrigate the fields and develop rice cultivation.

The ancient well system, an important historical relic among dozens of war sites in Gio Linh, including the Truong Son cemetery and Doc Mieu firebase in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), is near Ho Chi Minh Highway.

The DMZ is located at the 17th parallel, dividing Hien Luong bridge spanning the Ben Hai river. The zone was set up under the Geneva Accords on Indochina in 1954 and was a military demarcation line between the north and the south of Vietnam in 20 years of the resistance war against the US imperialists, until 1975.

Hanoi to stop licensing high-rise construction

Hanoi authorities will stop granting licenses for multistory buildings in the capital’s central area and will instead give priority to creating more public spaces there, said Nguyen The Thao, chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee.

He made the statement at a conference held yesterday to launch a master plan for Hanoi’s social and economic development by 2030, with a vision towards 2050.

More public spaces, especially green ones, will be made available after a number of agencies, hospitals, schools and polluting plants are relocated to the city’s outskirts, he said.

Works on multistory buildings that have been licensed will be adjusted reasonably, Thao added.

The city’s development philosophy is that economic development must go hand in hand with cultural and social development, he said.

Under the plan, city authorities will mobilize all resources to improve technical and urban infrastructure in the suburban areas to ensure the quality of life of people there and encourage more people in the city’s inner districts to move outside of central Hanoi.

In addition, the city will restore and upgrade cultural works of high value.

The overall plan also includes detailed designs for the re-arrangement of major routes and rural districts, and the reconstruction of dilapidated apartment buildings.

Hanoi Party Committee Secretary Pham Quang Nghi asked all local districts and towns to strictly implement their duties specified in the master plan.

Another Hanoi taxi firm suspended for violations

Government inspectors on Thursday suspended the Le Gia taxi firm after they discovered that the company was failing to meet conditions of the taxi industry.

The suspension came after the inspectors found the firm, which owned just 18 cabs, operating without a business certificate issued by the Ministry of Transport, in addition to breaking other regulations.

The Ministry has inspected eight taxi firms in the capital since November 11, and Le Gia is the third company to be suspended from operation.

Four more taxi enterprises including taxi Noi Bai, Taxi BG, Taxi 123, and Taxi 14 will be inspected in the coming days.

Earlier, two taxi firms, Phu Gia and Mua Xuan, were suspended for operating without proper stations and management boards.

Each company owned only four to five cabs while renting the remainder.

A driver for Phu Gia Taxi was recently arrested for overcharging two Singaporean delegates to the 80th Interpol General Assembly meeting in Hanoi in late October 40 times the usual fare.

According to a source, Hanoi authorities have suspended six taxi enterprises from operation over the last three years.

Meanwhile, 3,000 taxis have been fined for violations since June.

Statistics have shown that 114 taxi enterprises, with around 16,000 registered cabs, are currently operating in the capital city. Of these, 43 per cent had less than 50 registered cabs.

On November 11, the Minsitry of Transport, in collaboration with the Department of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City, began a thorough inspection of taxi enterprises in the country’s two biggest cities.

Young gang nabbed for robbing foreigners

Police in Hue city have arrested a gang of four youngsters who pretended to sell postcards and souvenirs to rob foreign tourists.

The gang includes Nguyen Thi Loc (25), Ho Thi Kim Liem (22), Tran Van Hieu (15) and Nguyen Doan (13).

According to investigators, these young pickpockets often showed up at touristic places and stole money from foreigners.

A couple days ago, Nguyen Doan asked a Frenchman on Chu Van An street to buy him postcards. Noticing money in the tourist’s pocket, Doan managed to grab 600 euros (US$800).

This amount was later split among the gang members.

At the police station, these young pickpockets admitted stealing money and properties of tourists visiting Hue.

ActionAid committed to poverty reduction in Vietnam

ActionAid has committed to accelerate the process of poverty reduction and sustainable development in Vietnam.

The commitment was made in Country Strategy Paper V for the 2012-17 term released by ActionAid Vietnam on November 23.

Accordingly, the international non-governmental organization will maintain its programme in disadvantaged areas in the northern mountainous region, the Central Highlands and the Mekong delta.

It will also expand the programme to deal with new issues of poverty reduction and development in urban areas and climate change.

Tien Giang dog thief dies after falling into ditch

The 26 year-old man who was being chased after stealing several dogs, died after falling into a ditch near the Van Sap Bridge in Vinh Kim commune, Chau Thanh district, in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang last Wednesday.

Previously, Ven and his accomplice Huynh Nguyen Khanh of Vinh Long province rode a bike and potentially used a pulse weapon to kill and steal dogs in the commune.

Locals quickly found out, shouted, and raced after the two.

At Van Sap bridge, Khanh was seized together with his bike, three dogs which had died from the pulse, and a battery accumulator used to kill the animals.

At the police station, Khanh admitted going with Ven to steal the dogs. When they were chased, Ven jumped off the bike to hide, but Khanh did not know where he had gone.
People found Ven’s corpse in the ditch the next morning.

Police in Tien Giang district have inspected the accident scene and are trying to find the causes of Ven’s death.

Veterinary head suspended for quarantine paper sale

Nguyen Van Sang, head of the Veterinary Cam My District Station in Dong Nai Province, has been suspended following an investigation into his selling of quarantine certificates to pig transporters, ignoring all quarantine regulations.

Following Tuoi Tre’s coverage of the scandal, Sang and Nguyen Cong Thang, a veterinary collaborator in Xuan Que Commune, have been suspended for 30 days, Hoang Son Hai, head of the Dong Nai Province Veterinary Department, told Tuoi Tre.

Yesterday, Nov 24, the agency sent an inspection team to the station to investigate Sang’s wrongdoings, he said.

The two men are also required to submit their own reports on their illegal acts.
The department has reported the case to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Agricultural Development, and would strictly punish the wrongdoers, Hai added.

Under current regulations, before pigs, or any other animals, can be transported, the transporters are first required to obtain a certificate of vaccination against foot and mouth disease (FMD) for their animals, and then apply for a quarantine certificate for them.

According to the strict procedures, the breeders must bring their animals to the local veterinary stations or invite veterinary officials to their farms for examination, vaccination and certification.

However, at the station quarantine certificates had been sold to transporters or breeders at fixed prices, with no regard for the required procedures.

The prices were 5-10 times higher than the Veterinary Department’s official fee of VND1,000 (US$0.05) per pig weighing over 15 kg.

Sang told Tuoi Tre, who pretended to be a pig trader, “I issue such certificates. If you want to have certificates for 5,000-6,000 pigs at a time, the price is VND10,000 per pig. But you will have to pay a ‘brokerage fee’ to Thang."

“If you agree, simply let me know the number of pigs, the name of the transporter, and the number plate of the vehicle, and I will provide the certificates for you. No examination of the pigs is needed.”

Can Tho hospital opens tenders with just one bidder

The Can Tho Central General Hospital has been found to have opened many tender packages on chemicals supplies worth billions of dong that attracted just one bidder each.

According to files Tuoi Tre has recently accessed, in 2009 the hospital invited bids for a package to supply 862 testing chemicals worth VND50 billion.

Of these, only 20 products attracted two bidders for each, while the remaining had only one tender.

Even odder is the fact that most of the bid prices were only equal to the tender prices.

For instance, on September 21, 2009, Dang Quang Tam, the hospital’s director and head of the tender panel, inked a contract worth VND16 billion to buy 378 chemicals from the Luc Tinh Trade -Technical Service Co Ltd.

Many of those products had the winning bid price match with the tender price.

For example, both the bid and ask prices of the product coded XN0510 were VND1.3 million a box.

Also on that day, Quang and Ngo Thi Cat Tien, representative of the Vimedimex Pharmaceutical JSC, signed a contract for a supply of 287 different chemicals, worth more than VND16 billion.

Again, many costly products in this contract had the bid price match the ask price.

But what most annoyed other bidders is that those with high “overall scores,” whose calculations are based on their financial and technical ability, were eliminated by the bid panel, while those with lower scores and even higher bid prices won the bids.

In a prime illustration of this, the product coded VT134 of Lam Son Pharmaceutical JSC won the bid for the package of the consumable medical supplies even though its bid price was the highest among the six tenders, and its overall score was also lower than that of two other bidders.

Similarly, Hoang Loc Export Co won the bid with its VT195 product though the company tendered a higher price than two bidders and had a lower overall score than two other ones.

The hospital even signed contracts to buy certain products at a higher price than the tender price.

The National Pharmaceutical Company No 2, for instance, won the bid for testing chemical supplies with its XN0015 product at VND480,831 a liter, while the tender price was only VND450,000 a liter.

Hospital denies irregularities

Commenting on the strange tenders, Nguyen Minh Vu, the hospital’s spokesperson, said the hospital’s tender procedures had been completed in accordance with regulations.

He said the hospital had run the bid invitations in the Dau Thau (Bidding) newspaper for three consecutive publications.

“The tender was opened and closed in compliance with all regulations,” he added.

Regarding the packages that have attracted only one bidder each, he said he “could not explain” the lack of bidders.

“Whether to join the tender or not is the businesses’ decision,” he said.

He also said the matching bid and ask prices of bidders “was just a coincidence, and there is nothing wrong.”

As for the bidders who had higher overall score but failed to win the bid, he said the hospital had stipulated that in case many bidders had an overall score difference of less than two points, the panel was authorized to choose the winner.

“The bid winners’ overall scores were less than 2 points lower than the remaining bidders, so we had the right to choose,” he said.

He said some products won the bid despite their higher prices compared with the tender price because such goods are not common on the market and are “familiar to doctors.”

Quarantine paper available for sale in Dong Nai

Without conducting any examination of the pigs, a veterinary station in Cam My District, Dong Nai Province, sells quarantine certificates to any pig transporters who have pigs to transport and money to pay.

Under prevailing regulations, before pigs, or any other animals, can be transported, the transporters are first required to obtain a certificate of vaccination against the foot and mouth disease (FMD) for their animals and then apply for a quarantine certificate for them.

According to the strict procedures, the breeders must bring their animals to the local veterinary stations or invite veterinary officials to their farms for examination, vaccination and certification.

However, at the Cam My veterinary station quarantine certificates are sold to transporters or breeders at fixed prices, with no regard for the required procedure.

Such prices are 5-10 times higher than the Veterinary Department’s official fee of VND1,000 (US$0.05) per pig weighing over 15 kg.

On November 5 Luong, a pig transporter in Xuan Que Commune, told a Tuoi Tre reporter, who pretended to be a large trader of pigs, “A certificate of FMD vaccination is sold for VND5,000. You can have as many certificates as you want.”

Luong said he needed to buy the certificates for a trader who wanted to transport 100 pigs.
One of the reporters later accompanied him to the house of Nguyen Cong Thang, a commune veterinary officer to negotiate a deal.

“VND5,000 per pig. There are two kinds of certificates: one for each pig and the other for every five pigs. Which would you like?” Thang asked Luong, who replied, “Either is OK. I need them for 100 pigs.”

Thang then gave Luong a wad of certificates and received VND500,000 ($23.8) from him.

Tuoi Tre asked Thang why he had a lot of certificate for sale and he said, “The certificates should have been issued to pig breeders every time a vaccination is made. But because they did not ask me for one, so I have kept them for sale.”

“Don’t you worry that we buy these certificates to transport diseased pigs for sale?” Tuoi Tre asked him.

Without hesitating Thang replied, “These certificates are not related to whether your pigs have contracted a disease or not. Those who transport pigs must be responsible for their animals’ condition.”

“Get as many as you want”

After leaving Thang’s house, Luong told the reporter, “Due to the cumbersome process of certification, many breeders and transporters relied on brokers who could help them get the certificates from the station quickly.”

Luong then phoned a broker, Thanh, who later came and showed him two certificates, for vaccination and quarantine, granted on November 21, 2011, for 30 pigs, and a seal for the vehicle that would carry the pigs. These certificates were signed by Nguyen Van Sang, head of the station.

Luong and Thanh later took the reporter to Sang’s house to discuss a “big deal.”

The official, in a uniform with his nametag on it, told Tuoi Tre, “I issue such certificates. If you want to have certificates for 5,000-6,000 pigs at a time, the price is VND10,000 per pig. But you will have to pay a ‘brokerage fee’ to Thanh.

“If you agree, simply let me know the number of pigs, the name of the transporter, the number plate of the vehicle, and I will provide the certificates for you. No examination of the pigs is needed.”

When Tuoi Tre asked Sang if he had enough certificates to sell, he replied, “You can have as many as you like.”

New law targets foul-mouthed traffic cops

The Public Security Department in southern Vietnam’s Dong Nai province has just unveiled a new regulation about on-duty manners and codes of ethics for traffic law enforcement forces in an effort to prevent their wrongdoings and verbal abuse.

Under the regulation, traffic cops, who have the bad habit of swearing and the use of strong language, will not be assigned patrol duties or any other duties that require them to have regular contact with the public.

Traffic officers are also prohibited from getting involved in transport businesses under any forms and are required to declare their assets as stipulated by the state anti-corruption legislation.

They are also required to sign a commitment to honor the procedure of dealing with traffic offenders. For example, they are not allowed to arbitrarily stop a vehicle when the user has not committed any violation of traffic rules unless they are authorized by a higher authority to do so.

Traffic police are also prohibited from hiding behind trees or electric poles or any object while on duty on the street.

Last May, the Ministry of Public Security issued a new instruction banning the police in the country from smoking while on duty in an attempt to establish “appropriate behaviors” in the police force.

Former justice official gets 15 months in jail

A Hau Giang province court on Wednesday sentenced the former deputy of the Justice Department of the Chau Thanh District, Hau Giang province to 15 months in prison for his violent acts against a traffic police officer in Can Tho City.

Huynh Thanh Thang, 49, was charged with “acting against law enforcement officers on duty,” said the People’s Court of Cai Rang District, where Thang committed his offenses.

The Chau Thanh District People's Committee suspended Thang from his post in early August.

According to the indictment from the Cai Rang prosecutor’s office, Sub-lieutenant Pham Vinh Minh, of the city’s traffic police force, caught Thang speeding while riding a motorcycle in the district on July 26.

Minh wanted to test Thang for alcohol level using a breathalyzer, but Thang refused and snatched a shoulder board, a nametag, and a button off Minh’s police uniform.

Thang also allegedly used indecent language and tried, but failed, to grab Minh’s gun.

Witnesses said Thang appeared to be drunk at the time.

He was later taken to the police station bare-chested, where he continued insulting police officers who were trying to calm him down.

In court, Thang pleaded guilty to his lawbreaking acts and apologized to Minh.

The prosecutor said Thang’s acts were intolerable, since they had been detrimental to the local order and security situation, undermined the image of the justice sector, and had stirred up anger among members of the public.

VNN/VOV/Tuoi Tre