Vietnamese PM urges early settlement of transport ministry scandal

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has instructed relevant state agencies to rapidly handle wrongdoing of people, including officials at the Transport Ministry, who have involved in mismanagement and gambling, local media reported Thursday.

Dung, on Wednesday, asked the Investigation Agency to identify sources of the money Bui Tien Dung, general director of the ministry's Project Management Unit No. 18 (PMU18), spent on making soccer bets via an international gambling ring, said Youth newspaper. The prime minister also urged the early trial of the ringleader named Bui Quang Hung.

He also instructed the Ministry of Public Security and related agencies to seriously handle individuals who have supported the wrongdoers and hindered the investigation process, regardless their posts. Some influential figures, officials in several state agencies, are thought to have attempted to campaign for slighter charges against Bui Tien Dung.

According to the Investigation Agency, Dung spent over 2.6 million U.S. dollars and 36 million Vietnamese dong (nearly 2,300 dollars) on betting from September to December in 2005.

Dung, who was detained in January for gambling, and then prosecuted for four charges, namely gambling, deliberately running counter to management regulations, giving and receiving bribes, lost most of the bets and won two times to the tune of 151,500 dollars. He made bets via the ring led by Hung, driver of the director of the Hanoi Traffic Police Bureau.

Late last month, the National Assembly of Vietnam, the country's top legislature, relieved Transport Minister Dao Dinh Binh, who had resigned earlier, from his post partly for his slack responsibility for the scandal at the PMU18 which is in charge of implementing and overseeing major transport construction projects nationwide.

Deputy Transport Minister Nguyen Viet Tien has been detained for his mismanagement and his responsibility for the scandal.

After arresting Hung last December, local police detained two of his customers, Dung and the PMU18's office vice manager. Like other kinds of gambling, except for casinos designated for foreigners and overseas Vietnamese, soccer betting is now illegal in Vietnam.

Source: Xinhua