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To: shades who wrote (50618)	5/5/2006 6:37:34 AM
From: shades	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

World Bank To Probe Corruption Fears In Vietnam Road Proj . DANANG, Vietnam (AP)--The World Bank will send a team to Vietnam soon to investigate concerns about corruption in road projects it was financing, a bank official said Friday. Vietnam's transport ministry has come under intense scrutiny after a ministry official who headed a division known as PMU18 that managed multimillion dollar infrastructure projects was arrested in January for placing $7 million in bets on European soccer matches. The scandal led to the resignation of Vietnam's transport minister and the arrest of his deputy, sparking a police investigation into whether millions of dollars set aside for public infrastructure projects, much of it development aid from international donors such as the World Bank and Japan, had been siphoned off. "We will have a team coming out in two weeks' time from Washington that will look into two projects we have with PMU18," Klaus Rohland, the World Bank's country director in Vietnam, told reporters. Rohland said the main project involves the construction of rural roads in more than 40 provinces with the investment of $100 million in loans from the World Bank. More than 80% of the money has been disbursed in that project, while the other road project just began and no money has been spent, he added. The team will look at the status of the projects and examine the bank's provisions that "the roads were well built and that the technical quality of the roads was generally good, up to standard," Rohland said. Vietnam's communist government has toughened its stance toward corruption, recently arresting scores of people including senior officials in key industries such as oil and gas, telecommunications, transport and trade. (END) Dow Jones Newswires May 05, 2006 06:15 ET (10:15 GMT) Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 06 15 AM EDT 05-05-06