The point of the matter is that Vietnamese Engineers , since Can Tho, have been required to abide by Japanese recommendations in regards to projects. The unfortunate instance in Can Tho could have been prevented had the Vietnamese Engineers heeded Japanese recommendations , which they outright failed to implement in regards to scaffolding requirements, and improper calculation of specified variables.
You're beating around the bush again. Who appointed those vietnamese engineers and subcontractors? Who was supervising the whole project? It just makes it worse if a Japanese consultant knew something was wrong but no action were taken.
But in the spirit of responsibility and understanding, Japan absorbed full responsibility (economic, legal).
OK. "Spirit of Responsibility and Understanding."
Is that the new motto of Japanese corporation? lol
Anyways, one bad incident should not be used as judge, afterall, over 1,900 Japanese-led / funded projects have proven successful. An incident in 1 out of 1900 is not that bad. Meta-analytically speaking, of course.
This is not a one-off incident. In terms of corruption and colluding with corrupted Viet officials, there are many cases where company officials get caught for giving bribe to get a ODA project signed. Here is one in 2008:
AmCham Vietnam | Vietnam police launch probe in Japan ODA corruption case: state media
Police in Vietnam have now launched a probe into PCI’s claims against Huynh Ngoc Sy, the Ho Chi Minh City senior transport official named in the Tokyo trial, who was suspended from his post last month, state media reported.
Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun daily newspaper in November reported that four former PCI executives had admitted paying 820,000 dollars in bribes to Sy.
Sy was deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City transport department and oversaw the East-West Highway Project, the city’s largest infrastructure development with 22 kilometres (14 miles) of roads and tunnels.
The ambassador of Japan, the largest bilateral donor to Vietnam, said official development assistance (ODA) loans would be frozen until Vietnam took “effective and meaningful measures against corruption.”
Notice the strong words from the Japanese ambassador about corruption. Cheap talk. It happened again in 2014:
English - VietNamNet News
The alleged graft was uncovered when Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported in March that Tamio Kakinuma, president of JTC, had admitted accusations that the firm paid ¥80 million (over $785,000) in bribes in return for an ODA project order worth ¥4.2 billion (over $41.2 million) in Vietnam.
The newspaper also said JTC allegedly bribed civil servants in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan with ¥130 million (over $1.27 million) from February 2008 to February of this year in order to receive orders for five Japanese ODA-funded projects in these countries.
Notice the allegation that bribes was also used from 2008-2014 in Indonesia and Uzbekistan. Where are the flowery words from JICA now?
Like I said, Japanese ODA mechanism is flawed and produce an excellent environment for corruption to flourish.
- Local govt and JICA discusses and evaluate a potential project (the public has no say, the media can only complain against the project but nothing else)
- If both the local govt and JICA agrees to go ahead with the project, then JICA (not an independent Vietnamese local govt agency) will issue a tender for contractors to bid.
- Only Japanese companies can make a bid. Moreover, only Japanese companies that has met certain conditions can bid. JICA oversee this process and make sure only "qualified" companies has made a bid.
@Nihonjin1051 can paste all the flowery words about JICA. But the truth is these "tenders" are a sham. Bid-rigging is rampant:
http://www.nindja.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2
Bid-rigging in ODA projects is running rampant, with more than 80 percent of the successful bids for 71 construction projects coming within 1 percent of the estimated costs, an investigation by The Yomiuri Shimbun has showed.
The problem of fixed bids for projects funded by nonrefundable official development assistance grants is a continuing one, according to general contractor employees.
Domestically, a government crackdown has resulted in a decline in the successful bidding ratio--the percentage of successful bid prices to initial estimates. But the ratio remained high for ODA projects, even as recently as fiscal 2004.
Last year, the Finance Ministry demanded that construction firms correct their bidding methods. However, evidence has surfaced that the directive has gone unheeded...
Employees of several general contractors well versed in ODA bids said, in order to win contracts at the highest possible prices, the bidders agreed in advance to rig the bidding process by offering prices higher than the initial estimates so predetermined construction firms could be selected for the contracts.
The whole process is a scam. From the initial evaluation with the local govt to the "tender" for contractors, plenty of spaces are left open for backroom deals. These are just recent corruption examples from 2000 onwards. I dont even want to talk about worse corruption cases with Japanese ODA and it's dealing with the Indonesian Suharto, Filipino Marcos and probably worse of all, during the early years with PRC.
The question is, why do the Japanese govt keep these ODA mechanism running which allows corruption to take place right up to 2014? If I was
@NiceGuy, I have every right to be mad because it is his tax money (and his children) that the corrupted local officials and JICA is playing with.
Finally, these kind of ODA, as argued by other members, only encourages and keep corrupted officials in power, instead of forcing them to make an improvement on effective governance. It is bad for the recipient countries.