HANOI -- Vietnam's Central Investigation Agency has uncovered corruption that caused losses of more than a half billion dollars to government agencies in the past six months, state media reported Thursday.

The state-run Viet Nam News reported the government's investigation agency found 0.6 billion dollars in losses in the past six months caused by wrongdoing in ministries and other bodies. The agency did not name the agencies involved.

The Vietnamese government on Thursday held a meeting to review the fight against corruption over the past six months.

At the meeting, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung admitted some shortcomings in the anti-corruption drive, such as ineffective land and asset management, delays in exposing corruption cases and limits on punishing leaders of corrupt agencies.

Vietnam is facing rampant corruption that the communist party considers a threat to its survival.

The most recent corruption case related to the Ministry of Transportation whose officials were accused of misusing 820,000 dollars from Japanese official development aid.

The case led to a suspension of Japanese aid to Vietnam but was resumed after the Vietnamese government in February agreed to Japan's measures to closely monitor its aid to Vietnam.

(Source: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1488696.php/Vietnam_investigators_find_big_losses_in_government_agencies_)