10 more Vietnamese officials to make written accounts over bribery allegation

Ten more people have been asked to present written accounts to serve the investigation of a bribery allegations relating to the capital Hanoi's urban railway construction project Line 1.

Among the ten officials, seven are taking posts at units under Vietnamese transport ministry and three are retirees, said a statement of the ministry issued Wednesday, following the suspension in work of four transport officials.

Earlier last Thursday, Japanese press Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the president of Japan Transportation Consultants (JTC) confessed his firm had paid a total of 80 million Japanese yen ( over 782,600 U.S. dollars) in return for winning an Official Development Assistance (ODA) bid worth 4.2 billion Japanese yen in Vietnamese railway system.

Four Vietnamese officials in Vietnam Railways Corporation (VRC) were suspended from work for 10-15 days for inspection.

The suspicious case relates to a nine-year project to build the Ngoc Hoi-Yen Vien sky train system in Hanoi, which started in 2008 at a cost of over 19.4 trillion Vietnamese dong (920 million U.S. dollars), of which nearly 14 trillion Vietnamese dong comes from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has directed Vietnamese related agencies to promptly investigate and closely coordinate with the Japanese side during the investigation.