According to information from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam and Japan have agreed on new measures to further strengthen the fight against corruption in Japan's ODA projects in Vietnam.

Vietnam and Japan have agreed to further strengthen anti-corruption
activities in ODA projects. Photo: Internet.

Increasing transparency of ODA projects

In 2008, there was a case of offering and receiving bribes in a loan project in Ho Chi Minh City, and in 2014, there was the case of offering bribes in the project ‘Construction of Hanoi Urban Railway (Line 1)’. These casesraised concerns and madethe two countries lose confidence in ODA projects.

After the firstcase was detected, Vietnam and Japan established the "Japan-Vietnam Joint Committee for Preventing ODA Corruption" to clarify the case and prevent recurrence; as well as identification of measures to prevent corruption.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the two sides have agreed to further strengthen anti-corruption activities.

Accordingly, on the Vietnamese side, the first solution is to build and strengthen the relapse prevention mechanism. Specifically, there will be increased sharing of information about ODA projects within the Vietnamese government.The MPI coordinates with the Ministry of Finance and the Government Inspector to organize regular meetings to share information within the Government of Vietnam on the implementation of ODA projects in Vietnam.

The Government Inspectorate clarifies to quickly detect, and handle law violations related to corruption in ODA projects; the case that is not under the authority will transfer or it will guide agencies, organizations and individuals related to the competent authority to request a resolution.

The anti-corruption work is also done through amending relevant laws, increasing the inspection based on ODA audit guidelines; amending regulations related to ODA management. The Government of Vietnam assigns a suitable and qualified agency to directly manage construction projects implemented by the Vietnam Railway Corporation.

The Government of Vietnam also agreed to strengthen monitoring of the project, strictly applying measures to increase the transparency of bidding procedures of projects, including prevention of fraudulent swapping of proposals;expanding third party participation in ODA project procurement evaluation procedures and enhancing post review. At the same time, pushing to build a compliance mechanism for businesses.

Eliminate negative enterprises from bidding

On the Japanese side, they will strengthen the role of the focal point to receive negative information about corruption. Accordingly, JICA establishes a division in charge of anti-corruption with the participation of outside experts and processes negative information regardingcorruption.

In addition, strengthening regulations regarding measures towards businesses related to corruption, accordingly, it will exclude businesses related to corruption from bidding for a certain period of time.

At the same time, strengthening measures related to offering bribes, specifically, regulatingthe time to implement sanctions; not approving the enterprise that is the subject of this measure to participate in the capital cooperation project of JICA as a subcontractor.

Penalties for negative behavior related to technical cooperation projects and survey work have also been increased. Accordingly, for projects on Technical Cooperation and Surveying where the Japanese side (JICA) is the contracting agency, the contract stipulates to collect an amount equivalent to 10% of the total contract value as a fine for breaking the contract with the contractor when confirming that the contractor has engaged in negative behavior.

In addition, in the future, it will issuea fine equivalent to 20% of the contract value in case of confirming the act of offering bribes to foreign civil servants.