The People’s Supreme Procuracy on Monday approved an investigation into allegations that the former head of a infrastructure project funded with Japanese aids in Ho Chi Minh City accepted bribes from a Japanese company.

The accusations were made by four former PCI executives at a trial in Tokyo on November 11, 2008. They were then standing trial for violations of the Unfair Competition Prevention Law, which bans the bribing of foreign government officials.

The scandal led Tokyo to temporarily suspend official development assistance (ODA) loans to Vietnam in December the same year. It announced the resumption of aid later after Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security launched an investigation into the case.

However, it was only after the translation of 4,000 pages of materials, mainly in English, received from the Japanese agency, was completed that the inspectorates place Si under investigation.

Si and Qua were sentenced to jail-terms of three and two years respectively last October for abuse of power in pocketing $67,300 in rent while illegally leasing an office to PCI from August 2001 to November 2002.

Prosecutors later demanded longer jail terms of between 10 to 15 years each, saying the consequences caused by the violations were far more serious than the punishments reflected.

Reported by Ngoc Duc – Thai Son