Transport official temporarily suspended from Party

The Communist Party on Friday suspended the membership of Huynh Ngoc Si, former head of the East-West Highway and Water Environment Project, who was arrested Wednesday on charges of “abuse of power.”

Si and his deputy Le Qua, who was also arrested on Wednesday, have been charged with wrongdoing in leasing and spending rent collected for a house in HCMC’s District 3.

The house was leased to Tokyo-based Pacific Consultants

Unit of Ho Chi Minh City Transport Department  International (PCI) from August 2001 to November 2002, according to an official from the Supreme People’s Procuracy, Vietnam’s highest prosecution agency.

Si and Qua oversaw the East-West Highway Project in which PCI had been selected as the consultant contractor.

Reported by Minh Nam