The Ca Mau People’s Court has sentenced a local official to 15 years in prison for receiving bribes from the contractor for a local cemetery project in 2011.
Nguyen Trung Tam, 44, a senior finance official at the provincial Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs was convicted at a trial Thursday for taking a bribe of VND200 million (US$9,030) from Phuong Nam Consultancy and Construction Company.
In August 2014 the court had sentenced Tam to 17 years in jail for the same crime.
But the Supreme People’s Court last year overturned the verdict and ordered a fresh probe.
Also Thursday the court sentenced the company’s director Le Thanh Phuong, 34, to 13 years in jail for giving bribes.
Phuong gave Tam the bribe to win the contract to upgrade Nam Can War Martyrs Cemetery.
Both men pleaded not guilty, but the court said it had enough evidence, including audio recordings in which Phuong admitted to paying the bribe to Tam.
When the case broke, Tam confessed to his deputy director Nguyen Tuan Sinh that he had taken the bribe and asked for leniency, the court said.
The court has ordered Tam to hand over the money to the authorities.