Need to do a good job of recovering corrupt assets

(Baonghean) - The fact that the security investigation agency has just arrested Giang Kim Dat, former Head of the Business Department of Vinashin Ocean Shipping Company Limited, who embezzled 18.6 million USD and fled to Singapore several years ago, shows the persistence and determination of internal affairs agencies in the fight against corruption.

This arrest has surprised many people and raised many questions, as to why a very young official, with a "mediocre" position at the department head level, could embezzle such a large amount of money. He alone could not have "embraced" such a huge amount of money and there must have been a whole "network" working together to be able to do it...

That will certainly be investigated and clarified by the authorities. And the most important thing is how to recover that amount of millions of dollars. This is, of course, a very difficult task. Because the criminals are people with positions, powers, qualifications, and legal knowledge, they often have tricks to deal with, cover up, and conceal their criminal acts as well as corrupt assets. Moreover, when intending to appropriate public assets, people never take ownership of those assets of unclear origin but instead transfer them to relatives such as wives, husbands, children, parents, etc. to take ownership. Therefore, up to now, the investigation, detection, and determination of assets appropriated or damages caused by corruption have not been complete compared to reality, or the amount of assets and money that have been embezzled or appropriated has been determined but not confiscated. This leads to a low rate of recovery of corrupt assets in reality. That situation gives rise to the idea of ​​“sacrificing the father’s life to strengthen the son’s life”, accepting punishment, refusing to declare, and concealing corrupt assets to benefit. That is also a form of “motivation” that pushes people to be corrupt.

Therefore, in addition to the work of preventing, monitoring, investigating and detecting corruption, there should be measures to fully and accurately identify corrupt assets to recover them for the state budget. In the immediate future, the internal affairs sector should take this 18 million USD case as a "pilot" to gain experience and then replicate it on a large scale. The most difficult point in recovering corrupt assets is when the assets are purchased abroad. Vietnam and that country have not signed a mutual legal assistance agreement. Singapore is different, they have joined the UN Convention against Corruption like us. This Convention includes provisions on recovering and seizing assets of corrupt people at the request of the country where the corrupt person flees to, or freezing assets in the banks of that person or their relatives at the request of that country. Therefore, seizing or freezing assets in Singapore is not difficult. As Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, Deputy Head of the Central Internal Affairs Commission, hopes, this will be the premise, the breakthrough shot in recovering corrupt assets.

If we think carefully, we can see that if we do a good job of recovering corrupt assets, we will not only avoid the loss of public assets, but it is also the most effective way to prevent corruption. Simply put, corruption, if discovered, will not only result in imprisonment but also confiscation of all assets obtained through corruption, which is clearly a “loss of both the lead and the net”, so few people have the courage to commit corruption. Therefore, we need to do a good job of recovering corrupt assets.

Duy Huong