Businessman Tran Dam in Ho Chi Minh City court.
One of the defendants shocked the court during his testimony by saying that "you could easily smuggle an atomic bomb into this country".
by Vu Kim Chung
All 74 defendants in Vietnam's biggest corruption and smuggling case were convicted on April 29, 1999, with two sentenced to death and six to life in prison, a court official said the same day. The presiding judge needed more than two hours to read the nearly 100-page verdict in a packed Ho Chi Minh courtroom where the trial began March 25.
The judge ruled that the Tan Truong Sanh private trading company had colluded with corrupt customs officials in Ho Chi Minh City, Thua Thien Hue province and Can Tho province to sneak electronics, consumer goods and cars into Vietnam from 1994 to 1997. The high-tariff items were declared as goods subject to a five percent import duty or less. With the goods worth an estimated $71.3 million, the government estimates it lost millions of dollars in taxes. Tan Truong Sanh allegedly used nine state-owned import-export companies to complete import documents and used army and police warehouses in Ho Chi Minh City to store the smuggled goods.
Tran Dam, who allegedly masterminded the scheme, and Phung Long That, former chief of Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department's anti-smuggling investigation division, were sentenced to death. Dam was convicted of smuggling and bribery, That of receiving bribes. Among the 74 defendants were 33 Customs officials and several of Dam's relatives. All were given five days to appeal their convictions.
Two sentenced to die in smuggling case
This was a showcase trial held as part of the government's get-tough campaign on rampant corruption in Vietnam. The country's biggest smuggling case, involving 74 defendants, has exposed the enormous extent of corruption among officials, especially within Customs, where bribery has become almost routine.
| Businessman Tran Dam in Ho Chi Minh City court. |
Tran Dam, 60, received the death sentence for masterminding the operation
which smuggled in more than 900 billion dong (HK$71.3 million) worth of
automobiles, electrical appliances and other goods between 1994 and 1997.
Phung Long That, chief of the anti-smuggling investigation division of the
Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department, was also condemned to death. Standing
with their heads bowed, wearing stripped prison garb, neither condemned man
showed any emotion as sentence was passed, an observer said. Some of Dam's
family were also given prison sentences, including his wife, daughter, son
and daughter-in-law. Observers say murky Customs laws and the low wages of
Customs officials lie at the heart of the problem.
One of the defendants shocked the court during his testimony by saying that "you could easily smuggle an atomic bomb into this country". |
Officials acknowledge that the death penalty has done very little to stem the rising tide of corruption, which has spread to every level of society, including the uppermost echelons of the Communist Party, particularly since early 1997.
"We have found that greater penalties, including the death sentence, have not reduced the incidence of crime," National Assembly office director Vu Mao said.
The court sentenced Thai Dien, the head of Can Tho Port Customs Department, to life imprisonment, as well as Le Minh Xu, director of Dat Viet, a state-owned company controlled by the Ministry of Public Security. Duong Hoang Dung, chief of the anti-smuggling division of Can Tho Customs Department also received a life sentence, as did three others.
The case generated enormous media attention and the sentences were broadcast live on Ho Chi Minh City television the morning of April 29, the first time a trial has received such coverage.
Another high-profile corruption case was to be held in Ho Chi Minh City next week when 77 people go on trial over the Minh Phung-Epco scandal - a web of fraud which caused massive losses, much of them from state coffers. A third investigation is being conducted on the corruption surrounding the implementation of an Asian Development Bank financed water resources development project under the auspices of Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Asian Development Bank-financed Irrigation and Flood Protection Rehabilitation Project investigated for corruption and irregularities
In a related issue, authorities continue to investigate corruption related to an Asian Development Bank-financed project to rehabilitate the Hanoi Dykes and irrigations systems in Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces. Early in 1997 it came to the attention of the National Assembly that there were irrigularities in the tendering and contracting of construction contractors to rebuild some of Hanoi's aging dykes along the Red River. Furthermore there was considerable evidence of serious corrupt interference in the management of the construction contracts and enforcement by officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of certain conditions in the selection of and management of subcontractors to the project to rebuild the Bai Thuong Dam in Thanh Hoa Province. According to some officials who have been questioned in the investigations one of the Canadian firms retained by the Government of Viet Nam as consultants to the project has been involved in assisting in a number of cover-ups and taken a blind eye to activities that the National Assembly feels "have compromised the ffectiveness and structural and technical integrity of the project".
This investigation has the potential to become a landmark corruption case which will prove to be particularly embarrassing to the government because this project was one of the first significant development projects for Viet Nam that was financed externally and as well as by the ADB. Moreover, it involved the first International Bid Competition (ICB) contract for the re-construction of the Bai Thuong Dam.
Questions have already arisen as to how much of the state's budget is diverted due to corrupt contracting activities in development projects. Some estimates suggest as much as 30 percent is lost. The top echelons of the regime feel that corruption is undermining the revolutionary faith of the people in the government as well as the political and economic stability of Viet Nam, hence this case has the potential of making a good example of the seriousness associated with the eradication of corrupt practices in Viet Nam.
In all fairness, government investigators say, another Canadian firm in the consortium of consultants to the project did identify problems and irregularities, particularly as it related to technical and contractual items, early in 1997 and tried to warn and advise of the problems to senior ministry officials. They have considerable documentation to assert this. However, some of these officials, including some senior officials at the sub-project office in Thanh Hoa, were involved in the schemes and cover-ups.
Witnesses within the ministry and some records indicate the first Canadian firm's representative, a Viet Kieu, actively assisted certain Ministry officials to try to cover up the Canadian engineer's findings and assisted through preparing recommendations to have that Canadian engineer in effect expelled from Viet Nam by ensuring his work visa was not renewed. Authorities soon plan to interrogate the replacement engineer particularly with respect to the financial aspects of the contract between the engineering consultant and the ministry mainly surrounding unexplained and inordinately expensive charges for goods and services. However, as the construction management advisor, the consultant will also be asked to explain irrigularities in the management in the construction of the infrastructure projects associated with this ADB project.
The National Assembly hopes to have enough evidence soon to have the case brought to trial. In a move that is unusual in other regional cases such as this where the situation is a matter for the foreign consultant to be deemed in not having control in the outcome of the financial aspects of development projects, the Government of Vietnam said it would also prosecute the consultnant engineers and/or their firms if it can be proven they were involved in the irregularities or that they made no attempt to stop, identify or otherwise bring in the open any activities that threatened the financial position of the project or comprise it in technical and contractual terms.