The Vietnamese Ministry of Transport has set up a team, along with a hotline, to look into a case in which the leader of a Japanese consultant firm admitted to paying over US$780,000 in bribes to win an ODA-funded project in Vietnam.

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The team is comprised of eight members led by Nguyen Van Huyen, chief inspector of the ministry, according to a decision signed on Thursday by Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang.

The unit will investigate a recent accusation that Japan Transportation Consultants, Inc. (JTC) paid kickbacks to become the consultant for the Yen Vien-Ngoc Hoi railway route project, a Japanese ODA-funded project in Hanoi, Huyen said.

The accusation came last week, when the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that Tamio Kakinuma, JTC’s president, confessed his company had paid ¥80 million ($782,640) in bribes in return for an ODA (official development assistance) project order worth ¥4.2 billion ($41,088,600) in Vietnam.

During the investigation, Huyen said, the team will ask the state-owned Vietnam Railways Corporation to provide all information related to the Yen Vien-Ngoc Hoi railway project, including the list of officials directly involved in it and the details of what JTC had done for the project as a consultant.

The team will also verify the information related to the alleged bribery, which was provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam on March 23 to the transport ministry, the chief inspector said.

A hotline, at (+84) 0986 093 979, has also been set up to receive information related to the alleged corruption scandal, Huyen added.

“Through the hotline, we will receive any information, even from citizens, related to the case and will process and verify it,” the official said.

Huyen also added that transport ministry inspectors already began inspecting all JTC-related projects on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Thang has requested that VRC halt disbursements expected to be made under a contract signed with JTC for this project and suspend other planned financial negotiations connected to it with the Japanese firm.

So far fourteen Vietnamese officials and ex-officials have been ordered to write reports on their responsibility in the suspicious project, with four of them even being suspended.

In a new development, the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City has directed the city Urban Railway Management Board to examine all projects with JTC’s involvement, Vo Van Luan, chief secretariat of the committee office, said in a recent press conference.

According to initial reports, all these projects have been implemented in accordance with applicable regulations, Luan said.