Vietnamese police have summoned an official of the Organization Commission under the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee (CPVCC) to clarify his relations with some alleged corrupt transport officials, local media reported Thursday.

The Investigation Agency under the Ministry of Public Security has asked the commission's cadre Nguyen Van Tung to work with investigators on Thursday morning about his connection with several people in the case of Bui Tien Dung -- the detained general director of the Project Management Unit No. 18 (PMU 18) under the Transport Ministry, Youth newspaper said.

It has been rumored that Tung has been involved in the case of giving and taking bribes and intentionally acting counter to state regulations in economic management at the PMU 18.

Since March 21, deputy transport minister Nguyen Viet Tien has had to work with the Investigation Agency an the case of Bui Tien Dung. Tien was the PMU18's general director in the 1994-1998 period, when Dung got frequent promotions at the unit.

The Investigation Agency has recently asked relevant institutions to inspect quality of some transport projects implemented by the unit after receiving denouncements of poor quality in the transport works.

Dung was detained in January for gambling via a transnational soccer betting ring, and then prosecuted by the agency for three charges, namely gambling, giving bribery, and intentionally acting counter to state regulations in economic management, resulting in severe consequences.

Dung has instructed his subordinates to use 10 billion Vietnamese dong (629,000 U.S. dollars) to bribe relevant people to solicit the less severe punishment for him, the newspaper quoted the Investigation Agency as saying. The agency is calling for the people, some of them work in the police sector and several other state organizations, to hand in the money.

According to initial investigation, Dung made total bets of nearly 2.4 million dollars within two months via the betting ring run by Bui Quang Hung, driver of the director of the Hanoi Traffic Police Bureau. The general director has allegedly used state assets like cars wastefully and for personal purposes.

After arresting Hung, who ran branches for illegal lottery and soccer betting in major localities in Vietnam and had contacts with foreign bookmakers, in mid-December 2005, local police detained two of his customers, Dung and the unit's office vice manager, and summoned a vice general director of the Vietnam Expressway Corporation under the Transport Ministry.

Like other kinds of gambling, except for casinos designated for foreigners and overseas Vietnamese, soccer betting is illegal in Vietnam. Dozens of local bettors and bookmakers are detained during major national and international soccer tournaments.

Source: Xinhua