Vietnamese bird flu scam

Vietnamese Police Widen Investigation Into Bird Flu Scam



HANOI (AP)--Police in southern Vietnam are widening an investigation into a scam in which tens of thousands of dollars in government funds earmarked to fight bird flu may have been misappropriated, police and officials said Monday.



State inspectors have discovered that Ha Ngoc Chien, director of the Health Department in Bac Lieu province, and some of her staff inflated the prices of masks, protective suits and other equipment by 1 billion dong ($62,500), said provincial chief inspector Dang Xuan Tinh.



Tinh said all documents relating to the case have been handed over to police.



A provincial police officer who identified himself only as Mau said police are widening their investigation into the case.



Online newspaper Vietnamnet quoted a report by provincial inspectors as saying the health department bought 5,100 masks at the price of 50,000 dong, but the market price for the masks was only 15,900 dong, while the price of a protective suit was inflated to 68,000 dong from the market price of 30,800 dong.



The prices were inflated in early 2004 when bird flu outbreaks were ravaging poultry farms across Vietnam and Asia. The outbreaks in Bac Lieu province alone cost poultry farmers 40 billion dong ($2.5 million) that year, the newspaper said.



Vietnam, where 42 people died of bird flu, has reported no outbreaks among poultry this year and no human infection since November.



Source: Dow Jones Newswire