Vu Dinh Thuan, former deputy head of the Government Office and head of Project 112

The former head of a government office was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday for abuse of power in a failed e-government project.

The Hanoi Prosecution Office had proposed a jail term of 7-8 years for Vu Dinh Thuan, head of Project 112, a program that attempted to computerize the country’s administrative system.

While he was in office, Thuan pocketed VND275 million (US$14,893) from awarding project contracts to IT companies for kickbacks, according to the verdict announced at the Hanoi People’s Court.

Companies involved included ISA, Toan Cau, and Nhat Vinh, prosecutors said.

He was also found guilty of signing contracts with the Judicial Publishing House and Vietnam Book Corporation without holding a required bidding.

Thuan’s scam was estimated to cause VND4.6 billion ($249,052) in losses to the government budget.

Although Thuan played the main role in the scam exposed in 2007, he received a more lenient sentence given his contributions to society, local newswire VietNamNet quoted the judges board as saying at the trial.

His subordinate, Luong Cao Son, meanwhile, received a six-year prison sentence for the same offence, instead of the 7-8 years proposed by prosecutors.

Son, who pocketed kickbacks of VND749 million ($40,552), also actively enticed others to commit crimes, the board said.

According to the verdict, Son received VND360 million from Nguyen Thuy Ha, former director of the ISA Informatics Technology Company, after contracts between the project’s management board and the company were signed.

Son then gave Thuan VND200 million and gave another official who has since died, referred to only as Ngoc, VND80 million, before pocketing the rest, said prosecutors.

He also took VND140 million from contracts awarded to Judicial Publishing House, and VND550 million from contracts with Nhat Vinh and Toan Cau companies. Both Thuan and Son were first charged with embezzlement and abuse of power, but the embezzlement charges were dropped.

Nguyen Thuy Ha, former director of ISA Informatics Technology Company, was also sentenced to six years in jail as an accomplice to Thuan’s crime, causing losses to the exchequer of VND1.3 billion.

Six other defendants in the scam, including Son’s two younger brothers, Luong Cao Phong and Luong Cao Phi, got sentences ranging from a few months to about three years, instead of the 36-42 months proposed.

The court also handed down suspended sentences to 12 others, and two more received two-year probations.

Launched in 2001, Project 112 aimed to install integrated software at administrative offices nationwide, train officials in IT, and link all agencies through one shared network.

Its management was entrusted to officials from the Government Office, a central bureau overseeing various administrative tasks.

However, following financial, technical and legal problems like flawed software, wasteful spending, and poor planning, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung scrapped the project in April 2007, saying it had “failed to meet its target.”

Source: Thanh Nien, Agencies