The Vietnamese government has asked relevant agencies to speed up process of investigating four major scandals involving some corrupt state officials, local media reported Friday.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has recently urged the agencies, including the Ministry of Public Security, to rapidly complete the investigation into the four cases relating to gambling and corruption at the Project Management Unit No. 18 (PMU18) under the Transport Ministry, bribery in the oil and gas industry, and two frauds involving some state officials, People's Army newspaper reported.

The PMU18's General Director Bui Tien Dung has recently admitted he made a total bet of some 1.5 million U.S. dollars on about 40 international soccer matches, from February to October 2005.

He also admitted that the money came from three sources: his own savings, loans when he mortgaged two houses, and cash offered by organizations having working contacts with the PMU18 which is in charge of implementing and overseeing major transport projects nationwide. Local investigators are probing into the origin of the cash.

Local media have recently said Dung's underlings had attempted to use some 500,000 dollars to bribe some influential figures so that they would campaign for slighter charges against him.

The prime minister has asked the relevant agencies to report new investigation results about the PMU18 case within September.

In July, the prime minister suspended the State Inspectorate's deputy chief Tran Quoc Truong from his post for three months for allegedly receiving bribes of 3,000 dollars and 10 million Vietnamese dong (VND) (629 dollars) from a local oil and gas company so that he would issue inspection reports in favor of the firm.

Initial investigation results show that three officials of the inspectorate's Economic Inspection Department No. 2, including the department's director and two of his deputies, had also received 16,500 dollars and 288 million VND (18,100 dollars), and a 600- square-meter plot of land from some local enterprises, affiliated to the state-owned Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation.

The prime minister has asked the relevant state agencies to report the final investigation results about the bribery case in the oil and gas industry to him before Sept. 20.

He has also required the agencies to soon complete the investigation into the two frauds conducted by two businesspeople with support of some state officials at post offices and departments in several provinces. The two fraud cases have caused total losses of dozens of millions dollars to the state budget and some local firms.

Source: Xinhua