'If there is a procedure, there will be trouble and feasting'

Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute Tran Dinh Thien emphasized: “We are over-indulging this country to the point where it cannot grow. There are too many procedures, procedures are tied to interests, having procedures means making things difficult, there is over-indulgence.”

Explaining to the Prime Minister's working group about customs officers receiving envelopes from businesses as reported by the press at the specialized inspection of import and export goods this morning, Director of Hai Phong Customs Department Nguyen Tien Loc said that recently the press took pictures of customs officers receiving money from businesses.

Hai Phong Customs has extracted surveillance cameras of civil servants. There is no basis to determine and invite the Inspectorate of the General Department of Customs to verify and report to the Prime Minister.

Minister and Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung inspected specialized procedures for import and export goods in Hai Phong.

“Management, especially public service management and civil servant behavior management, is very difficult in our administrative system. Hai Phong Customs has a solution of using cameras to monitor the public service behavior of civil servants.

At the same time, we have promoted the channel of information and criticism, and signed a coordination regulation with business associations with VCCI, including a mechanism for handling problems to minimize harassment in the public service activities of civil servants, making the team cleaner," said Mr. Loc.

The Director of Hai Phong Customs also said that he had reported to the City Party Committee and the Ministry of Finance to implement a project to monitor and inspect automatically on the electronic system, following the entire monitoring cycle from the time imported goods are transported into the seaport until they leave the customs supervision area as well as exported goods entering the customs supervision area and exporting abroad. Thereby minimizing the direct impact of customs officers. It is expected that on December 31, it will be evaluated and widely deployed throughout the industry.

Are there any hidden costs?

Minister Mai Tien Dung requested the Hai Phong Customs Department to respond to the reflection of the Business Association: There is an implicit regulation to collect fees when handling procedures requiring submission of 50,000 VND per declaration form for 1 container in the green lane, and 100,000 VND for the red lane.

“I request the Director of Customs to let me know whether it is true or not. If it is, it must be immediately announced to cancel,” the Head of the Government Office emphasized.

Hai Phong Customs Director Nguyen Tien Loc affirmed: “There is no such policy or secret regulation. All acts of harassing businesses and illegally demanding money from outsiders will be handled at two levels.”

Mr. Nguyen Tien Loc, Director of Hai Phong Customs Department.

However, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management Nguyen Dinh Cung said: "We asked many people, and they all answered relatively the same. Maybe you don't have such regulations, but through this space, it is easy to implement. In fact, there are many informal costs in reality."

Mr. Cung suggested that we should check more, but immediately reacting "I have nothing" is not satisfactory.

Mr. Loc immediately reaffirmed: "There are no hidden regulations and we still have many ways to check."

Where there is procedure there is feasting.

According to Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute Tran Dinh Thien, the most important growth potential for Vietnam today is not money but institutions, but the mechanisms are binding.

“We have overindulged this country to the point where it cannot grow. There are too many procedures, procedures are tied to interests, having procedures means making things difficult, there is overindulgence,” Mr. Thien emphasized.

Director of Vietnam Economic Institute Tran Dinh Thien.

The Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics believes that information technology is different now, so disclosure is also different and suggests: "Through this period, we will have an overall view of the institutional system based on a completely new technology platform and principle mechanism."

According to him, currently some ministries and sectors maintain the mechanism of asking for and giving, pulling procedures towards themselves, pushing social risks. They say they are strictly checking but do not check at all, ultimately pushing risks to society. If we do this, we are pushing the responsibility onto the state, which cannot be held," he warned.

Mr. Thien noted two issues. One is to use an approach of norms and standards, to let businesses do things publicly, take responsibility, and have the state supervise.

Second, specialized information must be connected to each other. After one person checks, another person comes down to "meet privately" for convenience, which is difficult.

“This is a story that needs to be re-evaluated. It is difficult to make public dishonest business practices, but society implicitly understands that it is very common,” said Mr. Thien.

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Trong Thua also acknowledged that there are too many procedures and it takes too much time, so many businesses want to quickly eliminate them.

According to Vietnamnet.vn