Nguyen Thai Hoa is under police investigation for alleged bribery charge

Police in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on Sunday caught a bridge construction supervisor in the act of accepting a bribe from a supplier.

The raid followed Kien’s complaint to the police that Hoa kept asking him for money and threatening not to sign for the materials unless and until Kien paid up.

According to Kien, the extortionist demanded he pay him VND7,000 for each cubic meter of stone that Kien supplied, or VND78 million ($4,378) in total.

A cooperative Kien told police he had given Hoa VND10 million last month.

Construction of Can Tho Bridge, which is being funded with Japanese government aid, started in September 2004. The Vietnamese government has ordained that it be finished by March next year.

The $300-milllion bridge will connect Can Tho City to Vinh Long Province across the Hau River.

The work for Package No.1, which went to the Japanese-owned Nippon-Koei-Chodai Joint Venture, is 88 percent complete. The project’s other two packages are also underway.

Source: Thanh Nien, Agencies