Hanoi (dpa) - New Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has ordered an investigation of the country's two top government inspectors over bribery allegations, the latest move in a public crackdown on corruption since he took office last month, an official said Friday.
Tran Quoc Truong, the deputy inspector general, has been suspended from his post for three months after being accused of taking bribes from corrupt executives at the state oil company PetroVietnam, according to Nguyen Kinh Quoc, a spokesman for the prime minister.
"The suspension is to ensure the objectiveness of the ongoing investigation into bribery allegations," Quoc said by telephone Friday, adding that the Communist Party Central Committee was likely to confirm the order on Monday.
Truong's boss, Inspector General Quach Le Thanh, will also be investigated over his failure to prevent bribery, though Thanh will keep his job during the review, Quoc added.
Truong has been accused of taking bribes - totaling 4,000 dollars and a bottle of imported liquor - to ignore irregularities at PetroVietnam during an inspection he supervised in 2003, according to Dan Tri (People's Intellectual) newspaper.
Vietnam has been rocked by a series of corruption scandals in the past year, including an investigation into Project Management Unit 18 (PMU18), a state-run construction company suspected of diverting millions of dollars in funds into an illegal football gambling scheme.
Since Dung took office as prime minister last month, state-run newspapers have been touting his corruption-fighting actions.
Anger over state corruption is seen as a threat to the Communist Party's 31-year hold on sole power in Vietnam, and the PMU18 case broke in the months leading to the National Party Congress that named Dung as new prime minister.
Dung last week ordered the suspension of the deputy director of the General Police Department, Major-General Cao Ngoc Oanh, accused of having links to PMU18's jailed director.
So far, four officials have been arrested in the case, including the former deputy transport minister, Nguyen Viet Tien.
A general investigation into PMU18 is expected to be completed late next week.
Tran Quoc Truong, the deputy inspector general, has been suspended from his post for three months after being accused of taking bribes from corrupt executives at the state oil company PetroVietnam, according to Nguyen Kinh Quoc, a spokesman for the prime minister.
"The suspension is to ensure the objectiveness of the ongoing investigation into bribery allegations," Quoc said by telephone Friday, adding that the Communist Party Central Committee was likely to confirm the order on Monday.
Truong's boss, Inspector General Quach Le Thanh, will also be investigated over his failure to prevent bribery, though Thanh will keep his job during the review, Quoc added.
Truong has been accused of taking bribes - totaling 4,000 dollars and a bottle of imported liquor - to ignore irregularities at PetroVietnam during an inspection he supervised in 2003, according to Dan Tri (People's Intellectual) newspaper.
Vietnam has been rocked by a series of corruption scandals in the past year, including an investigation into Project Management Unit 18 (PMU18), a state-run construction company suspected of diverting millions of dollars in funds into an illegal football gambling scheme.
Since Dung took office as prime minister last month, state-run newspapers have been touting his corruption-fighting actions.
Anger over state corruption is seen as a threat to the Communist Party's 31-year hold on sole power in Vietnam, and the PMU18 case broke in the months leading to the National Party Congress that named Dung as new prime minister.
Dung last week ordered the suspension of the deputy director of the General Police Department, Major-General Cao Ngoc Oanh, accused of having links to PMU18's jailed director.
So far, four officials have been arrested in the case, including the former deputy transport minister, Nguyen Viet Tien.
A general investigation into PMU18 is expected to be completed late next week.
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