Vietnam launches graft probe into 2003 SE Asia Games stadium project
HANOI - Vietnam has ordered a corruption probe into a multi-million dollar stadium project for the 2003 Southeast
Asian Games amid a mounting public outcry over the tendering process, the police daily Cong An Nhan Dan
reported Monday.
The investigation comes amid accusations in the official media that a Chinese consortium, which was this month
named favoured bidder for the 40,000-seat stadium project, received an illegal advantage over technically
superior European and US rivals.
Officials allowed the Hanoi International Stadium Group (HISG) to change its original design and technical
specifications in the face of widespread criticisms of its tender, the trade union daily Lao Dong (Labour) said.
"How has HISG been able to win such special treatment in violation of the law?" the paper asked.
Challenged about the accusations by Cong An Nhan Dan, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai vowed that any
official found of wrongdoing in the tendering process would be severely punished.
Sports officials also insisted that Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem's June 2 decision to favour the
Chinese bid was not final.
Officials from the construction ministry, the state Commission for Gymnastics and Sports, and the council of
architects would meet on Wednesday, after which the prime minister would take the final decision.
Khiem's original decision has sparked widespread criticism in the official media.
The president of the Vietnamese Architects' Association, Nguyen Truc Luyen, complained that his association
had not been consulted about the technical specifications of the bids despite the scale of the project.
The Chinese tender, at just under 53 million dollars, was three million dollars cheaper than its nearest
competitor.
But it fell far short of its European and US rivals on architectural and technical grounds, a Western diplomat
told AFP.
A bid from German firm Philipp Holzmann, which came in at just over 56 million dollars, had as its main
architect Claude Constantini, one of the designers of the Stade de France, the futuristic Paris stadium built for
World Cup 1998.
Bids from French firm Bouygues and US firm Lemna-Keystone, which came in at 56.35 and 68 million dollars
respectively, were also seen as technically superior.
The Western diplomat questioned the purpose of Vietnam automatically choosing the cheapest bid regardless
of quality when the whole point of hosting the South East Asian Games was to put across a modern image of
Vietnam to the region.
"The Chinese design is like a concrete card-box, and it's coming at less than 10 percent cheaper than a design
which carefully mixes Vietnamese and modern architectural elements," he said.
Agence France Presse - June 25, 2001.
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