Vietnamese former Deputy Trade Minister Mai Van Dau has been proposed to be prosecuted, and the Trade Minister and two deputy ministers to review their responsibility in a textile quota scandal, local media reported Thursday.

The Investigation Agency under the Ministry of Public Security has just proposed the People's Supreme Procuracy to prosecute 17 people, including Dau, his son, and some cadres at the Trade Ministry and corporate officials for such charges as "taking bribes," "giving bribes," "intermediating bribery," and "taking advantage of position and power while conducting official duty," newspaper Youth reported.

Dau signed, as a deputy trade minister, three documents allowing garment and textile exporters to borrow and transfer quotas for exporting products to the United States in 2003 and 2004, which ran counter the government's regulations at that time, and approved applications of a company asking for bigger amounts of quotas than permissible level.

The agency has clarified that Dau had received bribes of 6,000 U.S. dollars. However, local media did not reveal he has been proposed to be prosecuted for "taking bribes," or "taking advantage of position and power while conducting official duty."

The agency has also proposed the government to instruct the Trade Ministry and the Industry Ministry, especially Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen, Deputy Trade Minister Luong Van Tu and Deputy Industry Minister Bui Xuan Khu, to review their responsibility in the quota scandal, since they had, in 2003 and 2004, signed a total of three quota-related notices which ran counter the government's regulations at that time.

Dau was detained in November 2004, and then dismissed from the post of deputy trade minister. In September 2004, Dau's eldest son, an official at the Trade Ministry's Import-Export Department, was arrested for receiving bribes of a local garment company.

Under Vietnam's Criminal Code, the hardest punishment for the charge of "taking advantage of position and power while conducting official duty" includes an imprisonment sentence of 15 years, prohibition of taking certain posts for 5 years and a fine of 30 million Vietnamese dong (nearly 1,900 U.S. dollars), and that for the charge of "taking bribes" is death sentence.

Source: Xinhua