Vietnam accuses party leader of corruption
NAN-F-4
Corruption
Hanoi, Sept. 19, 2017 (dpa/NAN) The leader of Vietnam’s third largest city and site of the 2017 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference has been hit with corruption allegations, state media reported on Tuesday.
Nguyen Anh, boss of the ruling Communist Party in Da Nang and de-facto mayor, “holds the main responsibility” for numerous violations by the Central Inspection Commission.
The allegations include Anh accepting two houses and two cars as gifts from private companies, the Vietnam News Agency reported.
Anh, who is also on the party’s elite Central Committee, may also have misrepresented his education credentials according to the VN Express news site report.
While he claimed to have earned an MBA from the California Southern University in 2006, the university was not yet accredited.
The inspection commission has recommended disciplinary measures against Anh as well as Huynh Duc Tho, the city’s chairman.
Their punishments have not yet been announced, although the precedent in Vietnam is for leaders to step down once accused of corruption by the state.
Nang is set to host the APEC summit in 2017, which will bring leaders from around the Pacific to the city for talks. Among the expected guests is U.S. President Donald Trump.
Vietnamese authorities have initiated widespread probes into corruption in 2017 targeting high level individuals.
In April, Ho Minh City party boss Dinh Thang was forced to step down over corruption scandals related to his time at the helm of Vietnam’s state oil and gas company PetroVietnam. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Felix Ajide