Vietnam ex-deputy minister on trial over textile quota scam
HO CHI MINH CITY - Vietnam's former deputy trade minister and his son went on trial Tuesday for accepting bribes for quotas to export textiles to the United States, in a major graft case with 14 defendants.
Mai Van Dau, the former minister, faces up to 20 years in jail if found guilty of the charge of receiving a total of 6,000 dollars from garment makers in return for granting them greater slices of the lucrative export market.
Dau, 64, has been in jail since November of 2004, the year when the scandal broke after one of the apparel companies that allegedly paid bribes reported the scam after being duped out of the quota it had paid for illegally.
The trial in Vietnam's southern business hub, expected to last 10 days, is the first of several graft cases to come to court after Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung took office last year, vowing to crack down on endemic corruption.
More than 20 witnesses have been summonsed for the trial, which was being covered by over 30 reporters in the city formerly known as Saigon.
Textiles are Vietnam's largest foreign export sector after oil, but shipments to the United States were capped at the time through quotas as Washington sought to protect its garment industry from cheap imports.
"This is a large and complicated corruption case with serious consequences," said Ho Chi Minh City People's Court judge Nguyen Duc Sau.
Dau was in charge of allocating the quotas under the now-defunct Vietnam-US Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, while his son Mai Thanh Hai, also a trade ministry official, allegedly acted as a mediator in illegally selling them.
The judge said Dau signed three decisions allowing entrepreneurs to borrow and transfer the quotas, spawning an illegal network of industry figures who allegedly paid tens of thousands of dollars to corrupt officials.
"Defendant Mai Van Dau, the then deputy trade minister, signed three documents," said the judge. "Abusing these documents, several enterprises directly or indirectly bought the quotas, causing harm, in 2003 and 2004."
Dau is charged with receiving a total of just 6,000 dollars in bribes from various textile companies, but co-defendant and former Ho Chi Minh City official Nguyen Cuong claims that Dau took more than six times that amount.
Cuong has told police that, as a former senior official overseeing the city's industrial parks, he personally took company representatives to Dau's home six times and that the business people handed over 38,000 dollars.
Under Vietnamese law, the former minister may have faced the death penalty if he had been charged with receiving bribes of more than 18,000 dollars, but prosecutors say they only have evidence indicating he took 6,000 dollars.
Among the other accused is Dau's 34-year-old son Hai, who allegedly took 35,000 dollars, and Le Van Thang, a former deputy director of the ministry's import-export department, who allegedly received 18,000 dollars.
Prosecutors Tuesday did not seek the death penalty for any defendants.
Hai, who has been behind bars since September 2004, is also charged with using a fake university degree to gain his ministry post.
Among the nine business people on trial is Lai Wai Hung, the Chinese deputy director of the firm Sundance Clothing Vietnam, who has been charged with paying bribes and also faces 20 years in jail.
The apparel and textile quota system has now been abolished. Vietnam joined the World Trade Organisation in January, allowing producers in the Southeast Asian country open access to the world's largest consumer market.
Vietnam expects more corruption trials this year after police recently said they wrapped up their probes into graft cases involving the state-run Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation and an infrastructure unit of the transport ministry.
By Le Thang Long - Agence France Presse - March 13, 2007.
Ex-minister on trial in Vietnam
Vietnam's former deputy trade minister has gone on trial, charged with taking thousands of dollars in bribes from textile companies.
Mai Van Dau, who was arrested in 2004, faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted.
Twelve other people are standing trial with him, including his son Mai Thanh Hai and several senior officials.
The case is the latest in a series brought by the ruling Communist Party, against allegedly corrupt officials.
Mai Van Dau is charged with receiving $6,000 in bribes from firms seeking to increase the amount they were allowed to export to the US, above the government-agreed quota.
The alleged scandal came to light when one of the companies involved reported what was happening to the authorities, claiming it had been duped out of the quota it had been promised.
The textile and garment industry is one of the most important in Vietnam - second only to oil.
Garment exports to the US grew from $48m in 2001 to $2.6bn in 2005, Reuters news agency says.
The quota system has now been abolished. Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization in January, allowing its producers freer access to the US market.
The trial is expected to last 10 days, according to state media.
It is the first of several cases to come to court since Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung took office last year, vowing to stamp out high-level corruption.
Many recent cases involve bribery, nepotism and illegal gambling in agencies linked to the transport ministry.
BBC News - March 13, 2007.
|