The level of tolerance for corruption among the Vietnamese people is increasing.

This is the result of a survey by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) focusing on improving the Provincial Public Administration and Governance Performance Index (PAPI), which was announced on August 10th.

At a meeting chaired by the Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, Tran Vinh Tuyen, the UNDP announced several interesting figures from its study "Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index in Vietnam - Measured from the Practical Experience of Citizens".

Accordingly, from 2009 to 2015, nearly 75,000 people from 63 provinces and cities nationwide were surveyed. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City had three times the number of survey participants compared to other localities.

"Bribery" for obtaining land ownership certificates: Higher in Ho Chi Minh City than in Hanoi.

The survey results show that regarding the index on controlling corruption in the public sector, in Ho Chi Minh City in 2015, more than 28% of respondents said they had to pay bribes to complete the procedures for obtaining land use right certificates.

The average "bribe" amount is nearly 14.5 million VND per visit. This cost is lower in Hanoi, averaging only about 1.2 million VND per visit.

Over 30% of people surveyed in Ho Chi Minh City said they had to pay unofficial fees to medical staff at district-level hospitals and city hospitals to receive better care. This rate has decreased by half compared to 2011 (nearly 60%).

The unofficial cost for medical services is approximately 730,000 VND per visit. In Hanoi, the amount of "gratuity" given to hospitals is five times higher, reaching over 3.5 million VND per visit.

Specifically at the primary school level, the amount of money that parents had to pay to teachers/school administrators in public schools in Ho Chi Minh City (extra fees) in 2015 was nearly 853,000 VND/semester, an increase compared to only 510,000 VND/semester in 2011.

This allowance in Hanoi in 2015 was lower than in Ho Chi Minh City: approximately 630,000 VND/semester (in 2011, this allowance in Hanoi was 824,000 VND/semester).

According to public opinion, the recruitment of civil servants and public employees is largely based on personal connections rather than genuine competence.

More than 50% of those surveyed said that they had to pay bribes to get jobs in government agencies.

The level of "tolerance" for corruption is increasing.

According to the survey results, while in 2011 in Ho Chi Minh City the average amount of bribes that led to citizens reporting bribery was 5.8 million VND, in 2015 citizens only reported bribery when the average amount of bribes demanded reached 34.8 million VND.

In 2015, only about 2.3% of those who were extorted reported the bribery by government officials, compared to 12.5% ​​in 2011.

In Hanoi, the rate of people reporting corruption is virtually non-existent: 0% in 2015 and 0.2% in 2011.

Ms. Do Thi Thanh Huyen, a policy analyst at UNDP, commented: "The above figures show that people's tolerance for corruption is trending upwards, even though corruption persists and tends to increase at the provincial level, and there have been decisive directives from the highest levels to minimize corruption."

The percentage of people surveyed who believe that officials are using public funds for personal purposes has also increased. While only over 21% agreed that this was happening in 2011, it had risen to over 25% in 2015.

According to TTO