People's trust in inspectors is 'shaking'

People's trust in inspectors is "shaky" when inspection conclusions are slow and not transparent.

Inspection and examination are an important step in the leadership, management and operation of the heads of Party and State agencies. Through inspection and examination, leaders and superior managers can see weaknesses, shortcomings, inappropriate points, and lack of synchronization in order to correct them in a timely manner. However, the results of the current inspection work are only limited to numbers.

As reported by the Government Inspector General Le Minh Khai at the 4th Session of the 14th National Assembly, through inspection work, over 5,000 administrative inspections and over 190,000 specialized inspections were conducted, recommending the recovery of nearly 20,000 billion VND, recommending administrative disciplinary action against nearly 1,600 groups and many individuals; transferring 83 cases and 176 subjects to the investigation agency for criminal prosecution....

Government Inspector General Le Minh Khai. Photo: National Assembly Portal

Most of the new areas are listed in numbers, without discovering pressing issues and shortcomings, from which to propose corrective measures. This is also a concern that inspectors of ministries and branches have mentioned at many meetings.

At the 2017 inspection conference of ministries and branches, Major General Pham Le Xuat, Deputy Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Public Security, frankly stated that current administrative and specialized inspection activities only focus on assessing material matters. Management and rectification work has not been mentioned and analyzed in depth.

“We have only assessed the material, how much money has been recovered, how much money has been processed. Through this inspection, we also need to detect some inappropriate regulations, even deviations, through the inspection, we also need to detect and make recommendations. We have only mentioned administrative sanctions. The Government Inspectorate also needs to study and say more,” said Major General Pham Le Xuat.

Recently, public opinion has been skeptical about the delay in publicizing inspection conclusions, a typical recent case is the conclusion of the property inspection of the family of Mr. Pham Sy Quy, Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Yen Bai province. It is worth mentioning that the Government Inspectorate concluded the case in July 2017, after more than 3 months, but still has no answer to the public about the inspection results, continuously delaying the announcement of the inspection conclusions.

Mr. Ngo Sach Thuc, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, said that people's trust in inspectors is "shaky" because the inspection conclusions are slow and not transparent. This is also one of the reasons why the current anti-corruption work has not achieved the desired results.

“We call the anti-corruption “sword” publicity. In my opinion, it is not good enough to do publicity. There are still many psychological factors, making public the inspection conclusions is complicated. If it is not made public, the Front and mass organizations will look at it and see whether it is correct or not. Making public the results of inspections and examinations is a legal requirement, we must do this strongly,” Mr. Ngo Sach Thuc stated.

Obviously, the inspection and examination work is in need of change, not only in terms of openness and transparency in the implementation of work, but also in terms of changes in the performance of tasks to promptly detect loopholes and shortcomings in the inspection and examination work. Only then can the state management work be effective, especially in sectors and fields prone to corruption and negativity. This was also pointed out by Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh at the conference to review the inspection work in early 2017.

Politburo member, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh speaks at the Government Inspectorate.

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh stated: “Inspection is not only for handling violations. That is only one aspect, if there are violations, they must be handled. Inspection must be public, transparent, fair, and in accordance with the law, but at the same time, it must detect incomplete and imperfect issues in the state's policy mechanisms, loopholes in management work, investment projects... that lead to the situation of unjustified possession of benefits, affecting the people. At the same time, it is necessary to create livelihood conditions for people to harmonize development. That is the purpose, and also to build a strong and clean inspection team to serve the people.”

During his lifetime, when comparing "Inspectors are the eyes and ears of superiors and friends of subordinates", President Ho Chi Minh profoundly pointed out that inspection not only has the role of helping leaders and managers review the guidelines, policies and laws set forth by the Party and State whether they are being implemented or not, how and to what extent; but also has the role of helping to review their own guidelines, policies and laws to see whether they are correct or not.

Therefore, improving the effectiveness of inspection work has been and is posing a responsibility to the Inspection sector to promptly detect and handle pressing social issues, contributing to building an open and transparent society for the sustainable development of the country./.

According to VOV