People in power show signs of corruption, people know immediately

Anti-corruption is one of the top priorities that the Government needs to pay attention to in order to meet the aspirations of the people as well as the requirements of national development.

After 10 years of implementing the Law on Anti-Corruption, this work has achieved certain results: nationwide, 918 leaders and deputies have been disciplined for lack of responsibility for corruption, of which 118 cases were criminally prosecuted and 800 cases were disciplined.

Up to now, the rate of timely declaration of assets and income has reached 99.5%, the rate of public declaration has reached 98.3%. Over the past 10 years, more than 4,800 cases have been verified, and 17 people who declared assets dishonestly have been disciplined.

In 2018, corruption continued to be contained and tended to decrease, and institutional building and improvement continued to be promoted. Administrative reform had many changes, the state apparatus was increasingly consolidated and improved, and inspection, auditing, investigation, prosecution, and trial work were enhanced.

The detection and handling of corruption have had positive changes. Many serious and complicated violations and corruption and economic cases that caused great losses of state assets have been detected and strictly handled, consistently demonstrating the viewpoint of "words must go hand in hand with actions, there are no forbidden areas, no exceptions, regardless of who the person is", thereby continuing to create consensus in society, party members and the people.

Appreciating the work of preventing and combating corruption in recent times, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh - Deputy Head of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption directed all levels, sectors and localities from the central to local levels to continue promoting the advantages and positive results achieved, while resolutely and determinedly overcoming limitations and weaknesses, especially those related to the responsibility of directing, organizing implementation, reviewing, evaluating, and accelerating the development and completion of legal policies and mechanisms to overcome loopholes in socio-economic management, especially in areas prone to corruption.

“Ministries, sectors and localities, according to their assigned functions and powers, must step up the review and improvement of mechanisms, policies and laws, and overcome loopholes in socio-economic management. Competent authorities must urgently study and develop a synchronous anti-corruption legal system with strict sanctions, no forbidden areas and no one excluded,” Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh directed.

The fight against corruption will be highly effective if all party members and cadres, first and foremost leaders, take the lead as role models, are self-aware, highly unified in will and action, not afraid of losing prestige, not afraid of shortcomings, and must be open so that the people know, support and supervise.

According to Lawyer Nguyen Van Hau - Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, promoting the responsibility of leaders goes hand in hand with increasing the effectiveness of corruption prevention and control. "Recently, the Party has mentioned negative aspects, embezzlement, and corruption in many Resolutions, so we must be more determined, resolute, and drastic; when subordinates make mistakes, leaders must take responsibility" - the lawyer shared.

A reality that has been repeatedly reflected in the media, making people and businesses angry, is the need to lobby when going to government agencies to resolve work.

This situation requires the Government to further promote administrative reform and promote the implementation of e-Government. Only when the system of procedures related to people and businesses is improved, simplified, and made more transparent will the risk of people being harassed and demanded be reduced.

Therefore, this is one of the solutions that the Government apparatus needs to pay special attention to in the coming time.

Dr. Hoang Ngoc Giao - Director of the Institute for Policy, Law and Development Studies (under the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations) said that administrative reform is a breakthrough to promote socio-economic development, an important step contributing to the fight against corruption to build a clean and strong State.

“Administrative reform is very important, but the problem is how responsible officials are in handling their work, especially the procedures for issuing administrative decisions... It is the issuance of such regulations that creates conditions for law enforcement officials to arbitrarily abuse their power, issue wrong privileges, wrong content, and even issue illegal documents,” said Dr. Hoang Ngoc Giao.

The important thing in the work of preventing and fighting corruption that experts all affirm is that all solutions must be under the supervision of the people and rely on the people.

Mr. Dinh Van Minh - Director of the Institute of Inspection Science (Government Inspectorate) said that implementing democracy well at the grassroots level so that people know, people discuss, people do, people inspect, along with organizing well the work of receiving people, establishing mailboxes and hotlines to receive feedback and handle petitions denouncing corruption are also measures for people to actively participate in this work.

“More than anyone else, people have daily and hourly relationships with public agencies, so through acts and manifestations of corruption, people immediately know. Another way that state agencies do not have is for people to monitor party members and officials, people with positions of authority in their places of residence. Because people eat and live together, they immediately grasp any abnormal manifestations, rapid wealth or moral degradation of officials and report them through very good channels. In reality, there are also many major corruption cases that start from people's denunciations. Of course, people's denunciations are initial information, but many times they are extremely valuable,” said Mr. Dinh Van Minh.

Hopefully, with the Prime Minister's determination and the strong participation of the entire government system, our country will truly have an honest government, a public apparatus that says no to corruption, wholeheartedly serves the people, and creates momentum for the country's reform and development process./.