Officials at PCI Arrested on Bribery Charges
TAMA, Japan - The former president of Pacific Consultants International (PCI), and three other company officials, have been arrested on suspicion of paying approximately 90 million yen in bribes to a Ho Chi Minh City official in return for securing a contract, prosecutors said.
PCI's 62-year-old former president, Masayoshi Taga, was arrested in Japan on suspicion of violating Viet Nam's Unfair Competition Prevention Law, undertaken with official development assistance from Japan. Arrested along with Taga were former road technology division manager Haruo Sakashita, 62, former Hanoi office head Tsuneo Sakano 58, and former managing director Kunio Takasu, 65.
Investigators suspect that the entire firm may have been involved in the bribery scheme. Taga was previously indicted on charges of improper billing practices on a Japanese government consulting project where PCI helped dispose of chemical weapons abandoned in China by the Japanese Imperial Army in the final days of World War II.
The current charges allege that in 2001, the four PCI officials met with an executive from the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, a municipal organization, to secure a contract for services related to road and tunnel construction for Saigon's east-west highway. The four PCI officials allegedly conspired to pay a bribe to the official, Huynh Ngoc Si, representing approximately 10 percent of the total contract value in exchange for being selected for the project.
Ngoc Si admitted to receiving the cash when questioned by Vietnamese law enforcement authorities, according to Kyodo sources. PCI was awarded contracts totaling approximately 3.1 billion yen in fiscal 2001 and 2003, which were financed by Japanese official aid. A Mainichi Daily report said the official was paid bribes totaling about 300 million yen.
PCI is a Japan-based provider of architecture, engineering, and construction consulting to corporate and public sector clients, offering services in the areas of transport development, resource development, socio-economic development, architecture, information technology, and environmental management. PCI is part of the Pacific Consultants Group. The firm has provided services on more than 90,000 projects in over 120 countries since 1958, and has approximately 1,600 staff, including 1,300 professionals.