The People's Court of Ninh Kieu District (Can Tho City) on April 2 sentenced defendant Nguyen Thai Hoa, former consulting engineer of the Can Tho Bridge construction project, to 5 years in prison for bribery.
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| Defendant standing before the court. |
According to a report from the People's Procuracy, Nguyen Thai Hoa, 29 years old, from Thanh Hoa Province, was recruited to check and supervise the quality and quantity of the construction's raw materials.
During his supervision, Hoa discovered that sand from a private company, Minh Phu, provided for Dong Nai Thai Son Joint Stock Company, did not meet the required standards (the smooth module level was only from 1.15 to 1.6, while to meet the standards it had to be 1.9), but still accepted for the sand to be used in the project 3 times with a total volume of 4,000 cubic metres.
On September 4, 2009, while the sand was brought into construction, Hoa demanded Do Trung Cuong, project manager of Dong Nai Thai Son Joint Stock Company, to pay him VND 78 million (4,045 USD), otherwise Hoa would not sign the acceptance report allowing the work to be continued.
On September 6, 2009, Hoa was busted while receiving Cuong's VND 15 million (778 USD) at Kim Phuong Vy coffee shop on Tran Van Kheo Road, Can Tho City.
