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The article on “Der Spiegel". | VietNamNet Bridge – According to an issue dated March 19-25 of Germany’s reputed magazine “Der Spiegel”, during the investigation process of the corruption scandal of Siemens group, the Munich Procuracy suspects that Intercom, a subsidiary of Siemens in Switzerland transferred hundreds of thousands of euros to a Vietnamese official.
The foundation for the Munich Procuracy’s suspicion is a report dated November 9, 2006 of the auditing company KMPG, entrusted by Siemens. The report lists suspicious transfers in the form of payment for consulting contracts. On March 30, 2006, nearly Eur250,000 was transferred into the account in Singapore of a Vietnamese man named Le Tan Cuong.
Munich investigators want to know that whether this man is the leader of the same name in a ministry of Vietnam. In November 2005, Siemens received a big order from the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) to connect 400 communes and villages in the rural and remote areas of Vietnam into the wireless fixed telephone network. According to KPMG, Le Tan Cuong seems to have an important role in large payments of Intercom, a subsidiary of Siemens in Switzerland. This company was investigated by Swiss investigation agency last year. Investigators guess that Intercom is the screen for laundering money for Siemens.
The Swiss Procuracy on October 13, 2006 checked two other projects of Siemens with VNPT worth Eur43.63 million and Eur33 million. Swiss investigators suspect that around Eur3 million of bribery was transferred to an account of the LGT Bank in Liechtenstein in the name of payment for consulting contracts. The article said that Siemens refused to comment about this issue.
Just an accident?
Asking Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc about the possible connection of Mr Le Tan Cuong, Chief of the Industrial and Export Processing Zone Management Department, Mr Phuc said: “I think this is an accident. We have verified information about the possible connection of Mr Cuong to Siemens’ projects in Vietnam and concluded that Mr Cuong has no relation”.
Mr Cuong is appointed as chief inspector of the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) in August 2003. According to Minister Phuc, the function and mission of the inspection agency of the MPI is not related to tender approval so Mr Cuong couldn’t make any influence to tender results.
Mr Cuong was born in 1951 and studied in East Germany from 1984 to 1987. He has been the chief of the Industrial and Export Processing Zone Management Department since January 1. Before becoming the MPI’s chief inspector, he worked at the Investment Assessment and Supervision, in charge of the agriculture and light industry areas, which is not related to heavy industry and telecom projects.
According to Minister Phuc, Mr Cuong faced the same name mistake in a case in the past, in which a defendant named Le Tan Cuong was sentenced 20 years in jail for swindling.
The Ministry of Post and Telematics also said that it has no chief of department named Le Tan Cuong.
So far, the scandal at Siemens has made its President Heinrich won Pierer resign. CEO Klaus Kleinfeld has stated that he will leave his position when his contract expires this September. Johannes Feldmayer, a member of the Corporate Executive Committee, has been arrested. Investigation agencies accuse that Siemens has set up a black fund to bribe officials to win contracts in many countries. It is estimate that in the past seven years, around Eur420 million (around US$570 million) was spent in bribery.
Munich procurators are urgently investigating the Siemens corruption scandal. In this scandal there is a case in which Siemens won a contract to build a power plant in Serbia worth Eur50 million by bribing a project official of the European Union. Contracts for the Olympic Athens 2004 in Greece are under investigation. Around Eur100 million is detected to be transferred through Dubai, to a Caribbean country and come back to a Swiss bank to serve a senior official of Siemens in Greece for winning lucrative contracts serving the 2004 Athens Olympics.
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According to VNPT’s Investment and Development Department, Siemens and VNPT in October 2005 signed a contract for a bid to build a telecom network with over 7,000 subscribers in 396 communes of ten provinces in the central region.
This contract is part of a project to develop the rural telecom network in central provinces that was approved by the government in 1998 and adjusted in 2001. The project has a total investment of more than VND1,700 billion, including VND384 billion of reciprocal capital of VNPT and the remaining borrowed from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).
Siemens is considered one of the leading equipment providers in Vietnam in the fields of automation, telecom, energy, health, and transport.
In the telecommunication area, Siemens has taken part in developing the data transmission line linking Hanoi and other provinces at the speed of 140Mb/s. In 1995, Siemens began its cooperation with VNPT through the founding of two joint venture companies, Focal and Teleq. Siemens is also the major provider of equipment for VNPT’s VinaPhone mobile phone network. |
(Source: Tuoi Tre) | 
