Vietnam graft-buster arrested for corruption in PetroVietnam probe
HANOI - A senior Vietnamese anti-corruption inspector has been arrested on charges of bribery and abuse of power, as part of a continuing probe into the state-owned oil and gas giant PetroVietnam, police said on Wednesday.
They arrested Bui Xuan Bay, who was then deputy head of the anti-corruption taskforce, on Tuesday. Several other senior inspectors were also arrested as part of the same scandal.
Bay had allegedly changed the contents of the inspection and received 27 million Dong (1,600 dollars) as bribes.
Bay has also been suspended from Communist party membership.
In October, the head of the taskforce, Luong Cao Khai, was also arrested in the same case.
PetroVietnam has been shaken by several graft scandal in recent years.
Last October, seven officials received sentences ranging from four years to life imprisonment for falsifying a 17-million dollar contract that resulted in millions of dollars in losses to state coffers.
The communist regime has vowed to stamp out rampant corruption. Critics, however, say that many high-ranking officials have acquired de facto immunity from prosecution.
Agence France Presse - February 22, 2006.
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