Vietnam's deputy trade minister arrested in textile graft case
Vietnam's deputy trade minister arrested in textile graft case
Agence France-Presse, Hanoi
Vietnamese Deputy Trade Minister Mai Van Dau was arrested on
Thursday following an investigation into a cash-for-quota scandal
over textile exports to the United States, police said.
Dau, 62, the most senior of four deputy ministers, was charged
with "abuse of power" and taken into custody after a search of
his office and home in the capital, the Hanoi Investigative
Police Department said.
He is the highest ranking official to have been arrested
following a police inquiry into the alleged sale of quotas by
ministry officials to Vietnam-based companies wishing to export
garments to the United States.
Four other trade ministry officials, including Dau's son, and
around a dozen businessmen and state employees have already been
arrested in connection with the case.
The textile sector is the communist nation's second biggest
foreign exchange earner after crude oil, but clothing exports to
the United States, its most important market, are capped by
Washington.
One of Dau's responsibilites was approving the allocation of
quotas by the ministry's import-export department.
Last month the ministry's Communist Party committee ordered
him to write a letter of self-criticism for the corruption within
the department.
"Mai Van Dau must be held responsible because he had an
important role in the negative case of garment quota allocation,"
the official Vietnam News Agency said on Thursday.
The minister stopped working after his son's arrest on Sept.
30.
The government's image has been badly tarnished over the past
year by a series of damaging graft scandals.
In June agriculture minister Le Huy Ngo was sacked over a big
corruption case implicating a ministry-controlled company, whose
director was sentenced to death.
The communist regime has vowed to punish corrupt officials
within its ranks, but critics say the crackdown is highly
selective and some high-ranking cadres have acquired de facto
immunity from prosecution.
Last month Prime Minister Phan Van Khai announced that an
anti-corruption agency would be established to address growing
public concern about the self-serving nature of government, party
and state employees.