Former state officials arrested for contriving compensation fees
Three top ex-officials of a state-run corporation were nabbed Wednesday as they allegedly fabricated housing compensation documents, causing a loss of around VND2.3 billion (US$144,000) to the state coffer.
The police detained Le Dinh Dien, former chairman cum CEO of the Sugarcane II Corporation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and his two subordinates, ex-vice CEO Nguyen Cao Hung and the former corporation’s office chief Do Hai Trieu.
The three arrested individuals could face charges of “power abuse, “ the police said.
The trio allegedly schemed with corporation employees to fake documents raking in compensations worth around VND2.3 billion ($144,000) from state-provided houses subjected to site clearance.
In 2002, as the Ho Chi Minh City government began work on a water project in District 4, households stretching across the Tau Hu-Ben Nghe-Doi Te canals - including a building owned by the corporation - were designated for relocation.
The building was in line to receive a compensation sum of VND100 million ($6,250), as it was owned by the state.
The compensation figure, however, could be much higher if the structure’s apartments were individually owned.
Capitalizing on the regulation, Dien and Hung instructed Trieu to make up documents verifying that three apartments in the building had been allotted to corporation employees despite the fact that the firm had already provided housing for them in other areas.
The fabricated records inflated the compensation amount to some VND1.26 billion ($78,900).
Adopting the same ploy, the trio stamped the “state-provided” status on seven other houses set to be relocated in a bridge overhaul project also located in District 4 several years ago.
These seven houses allegedly received reimbursements of around VND1 billion ($63,000) via the scheme.
The trio would be detained for three months pending further investigations, police told Thanh Nien, but investigators stopped short of confirming whether the arrested officials had pocketed the compensations.
Authorities also informed that they would launch further probes against corporation employees involved and take action against those found violating the law.
Other alleged wrongdoings
Tien Phong newspaper reported that the corporation was found misusing state facilities for profitable endeavors.
In 2005, the HCMC administration leased a 7,100-square-meter land lot in District 4 for the corporation with soft prices of VND18,000 per square meter meant for displaying and storing corporation goods.
Tien Phong correspondents, however, discovered that in a note to the HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the corporation admitted it had released the facility to other private firms at higher rent.
Police also promised to investigate the matter.
(Thanh Nien News)