Can Tho leaders rebuked for financial scams
29 December 2007 - The leader and deputy leader of Can Tho have been reprimanded for massive financial scams that occurred on their watch.
The Central Inspection Committee said Friday Vo Thanh Tong and Pham Phuoc Nhu, respectively chairman and vice chairman of the city People's Committee, were admonished for “dereliction of duty.”The central government also said Friday it would consider further action against the two.
US$394,000 land scam
Police in Can Tho pressed charges last month against a former director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Tran Cuong, for abetting a private firm and a state-run company, skimming VND6.3 billion (US$394,000) worth of public money in a deal to sell a piece of land and a bowling alley.
In the affair, Nhu was rebuked for failing to prevent the illegal transfer of land.
Investigators unearthed the fraud in May last year when they arrested Pham Quoc Thanh, director of the Tan Thanh company, for conniving with an Electricity of Vietnam subsidiary to siphon off the money.
Thanh's company had signed a deal with Korean-owned Chong Ho company to buy a bowling alley for VND6.7 billion ($417,000).
Cuong, in his capacity as director of the department, passed the deal.
But investigators found that a month before buying the property, Tan Thanh had already agreed to sell it to the Electricity Telecoms Center (ETC) belonging to the Electricity of Vietnam.
The bowling alley changed hands again, this time at an astonishing VND13 billion.
Tan Thanh's owners and ETC officials are suspected to have pocketed the difference of VND6.3 billion from the deal.
Again Cuong ratified ETC's decision to buy the property and the police concluded he was in on the deal between Tan Thanh and ETC.
Other scams
Vo Thanh Tong and Pham Phuoc Nhu were also found to have wrong-fully allotted a land lot to a joint venture company in 2003.
Though the plot had been zoned for recreation purposes, the two had allowed the Nam Vinh company to sell a big portion of it and make a profit of VND40 billion ($2.5 million).
Regulations prohibit selling, transferring, upgrading, pledging, or partitioning any house or land zoned for public projects.
The two officials were also blamed for misspending around VND5.3 billion ($331,000) meant for incentives for public officials in 2004 and 2005.
The transactions, which also implicated the Departments of Finance and Planning and Investment, the Taxation Agency, and the Lottery Company, had not been not transparent, investigators said.