[Vacets-local-dc] [Vietnam's telecoms sector paralysed by graft scandal]

[Hai Tran]

Hello,
 
Viet-Nam needs an independent auditing organization like the U.S. General Accounting Office for investigating these scandals ...
 
----------------------------- 
 
HANOI : Vietnam's lucrative telecoms sector has been virtually paralysed over the past few months by a huge corruption scandal that has enveloped one of its biggest state-owned companies and threatened the career of a government minister.

The affair, which has been widely documented in state media, has shaken the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corp (VNPT) to its core and prompted widespread speculation that telecoms minister Do Trung Ta will be axed.

It has also triggered a massive slowdown in VNPT's activities, to the point that its two mobile phone subsidiaries, Mobifone and Vinaphone, are struggling to keep their networks operational.

"All investment decisions are blocked. If that continues, the networks will be saturated," said one foreign observer.

This was echoed by Pham Quang Hao, deputy director of Vinaphone, who said new investment has been put on hold.

"Our network risks being saturated in four or five months if new investment is not put in place," he was quoted as saying in Friday's Lao Dong newspaper.

Hao also warned that the company might have to temporarily suspend new subscriptions.

In addition to the cell phone sector, the issue of building and launching the communist nation's first satellite has ground to a halt. Foreign investors are bidding for the construction contract worth at least 200 million dollars.

"The person in charge of the decision (Ta) is currently under fire for other projects," said a diplomat. "Inevitably, that will have consequences on the timing of the decision."

Since September last year, state inspectors have been probing VNPT's operations and last month they accused the company of widespread violations in the awarding of contracts for telecommunication projects.

According to state media, 90 percent of the contracts handed out between 1998 and 2003 were to favoured suppliers, contravening rules governing the formal tendering process.

Among those singled out in the inspectors' report was Ta, who was formerly chairman of VNPT's executive board. In his former capacity, he allegedly awarded a number of contracts to a company run by his son-in-law.

Earlier this month Prime Minister Phan Van Khai set up an inter-ministerial working group to conduct further investigations and report back in June.

Their remit includes examining the renegotiation of a contract between a VNPT subsidiary, Vietnam Mobile Telecommunications Service Co. (VMS), and its Swedish partner Comvik International Vietnam, part of the NASDAQ-listed Millicom International Cellular SA group.

According to state media, the new contract, which was signed by Ta, robbed state coffers of over 47 million dollars.

Last week Ta was forced to publicly defend himself. 

"There probably were some wrongdoings among the things I have done, but I have to confirm that I did not deliberately do anything that was supposed to harm VNPT and the state," he told the Thanh Nien newspaper, adding the inspectors had not found "any evidence of corruption and embezzlement."

But not everyone was convinced.

"It should be said that no Vietnamese person can accept a minister with this way of thinking," the Tuoi Tre daily said Wednesday in a front page editorial.

"When joining a state agency, every official must understand that he or she will always have to contribute to the country and to serve people, not to do his own business or to pocket himself."

In a country where all media is under the control of the state, his political future already appears to be jeopardized. Criminal charges could also be pressed against him, according to some observers.

The scandal comes at a time when the communist regime is desperately trying to repair its corruption-tarnished reputation with both the population and foreign investors.

Last year, three top Communist Party officials were jailed for their involvement with a Ho Chi Minh City mafia network.

And in April, two deputy agriculture ministers had their jail terms suspended on appeal in a corruption case that resulted in the director of a state-owned company being sentenced to death.

The scandal also forced the minister himself to tender his resignation.

- AFP 




=====
You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
		
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70/year
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.saigon.com/pipermail/vacets-local-dc/attachments/20040524/c170c53d/attachment.htm