“The court will close and officials in the PCI corruption case have already pleaded guilty. I don’t want to have comments about the upcoming developments, but Japan is looking at Vietnam’s actions. Because ODA is from Japanese’s tax payment, Japanese are closely keeping track of this case and they are waiting to see how Viet Nam handles this case,” said the Japanese Ambassador to Viet Nam Mitsuo Sakaba on Thursday.

In a meeting with the media yesterday, the Japanese Ambassador said Japan is working with Viet Nam to complete a new ODA grant procedure to prevent corruption.

He said a new selection process of consulters will be applied, under which many companies will be allowed to join the selection on an equally competitive process.

“We also want to have a cautious and more transparent inspection system over consulting activities to avoid such a case like PCI,” he said.

The Japanese Ambassador said the two sides almost reached an agreement, but there are some tasks that need to be done to soon have a new mechanism on consultancy.

About the operation of the Joint Committee on Prevention of Corruption Related to Japanese ODA-funded Projects in Vietnam, the Ambassador said: “The committee conducted two working sessions. I hope that we will reach an agreement. We want to have a more competitive process to choose really good consultants.”

“I can not tell you the details, but I would say that we discussed a new transparent process for selecting contractors. We will review all documents related to the selection process of consultants towards the way that the selection must satisfy various conditions and the one who makes the decision has to answer the question why the consultant is chosen.”

During a briefing on January 8, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Le Dung, said Vietnam and Japan are cooperating closely to address all issues related to the provision of Japanese ODA to Viet Nam.

He announced that the committee convened its second meeting in Hanoi on December 19, 2008 to discuss measures to tackle any acts of corruption involving the misuse of Japanese ODA.

“The Vietnamese Government is tough in the fight against corruption,” Dung said, expressing hopes that, as a result of such close coordination, Japan would soon resume its provision of ODA to Vietnam in accordance with the two countries’ agreement to develop their relations towards a strategic partnership. (VNN)