Former Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front: “Corruption is hidden in the political system”

August 6, at the conferenceVietnam Fatherland Front carries out anti-corruption and anti-waste work in the Southern regionFormer Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Huynh Dam said that corruption is an internal enemy, very sophisticated, disguised and hidden in the political system, so it is difficult to recognize and prevent.To promote the role of the Front in anti-corruption work, first of all, the Front must be strong to be able to supervise.

To have a mechanism to monitor power, Mr. Dam suggested that the Vietnam Fatherland Front continue to propose a mechanism to have a vote of confidence in the middle of the term, or once a year for those elected by the People's Council.

"Taking a vote of confidence is a basis for accurately evaluating officials. I have that belief, but speaking generally is never effective," Mr. Dam stated his opinion.

Don't put too much emphasis on individual roles.

Meanwhile, speaking as a scientist, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Dien (Vice Principal of the University of Economics and Law, Ho Chi Minh City National University) is skeptical about the possibility of success of the Anti-Corruption Law that the National Assembly is preparing to pass.

"The way we pose the problem and the method of solving it are not right. The draft Law on Anti-Corruption is still unclear in determining the role of anti-corruption forces, and still emphasizes the role of individuals in this work," he assessed.

According to Mr. Dien, fighting corruption is a battle between corrupt forces and anti-corruption forces. Only large and powerful organizations and forces can win. In other words, to fight corruption, we must promote the role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and social organizations.

"The draft Law on Anti-Corruption needs to be rewritten. If it is passed as it is, it will eventually have the same fate as previous Laws on Anti-Corruption. We need to identify social organizations as the center, not individuals as the central figures in this fight," Mr. Dien said, adding that it is necessary to build social forces well, giving them useful tools and powers to facilitate their participation in this fight.

Preventing policy corruption

Sharing the same view that the 2005 Law on Anti-Corruption, amended in 2012, still has many shortcomings, lawyer Nguyen Van Hau (Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Lawyers Association) said that the draft has not been effective, although it has added many breakthrough regulations, there are still some unreasonable points.

"The nature of corruption is that people in positions of power abuse their power for personal gain. Therefore, to control corruption, we must at least control power. There needs to be a mechanism to monitor the activities of anti-corruption units, investigate and strictly handle corruption violations without exception," said Mr. Hau.

Another very important issue in the fight against corruption, according to lawyer Nguyen Van Hau, is to deal with it at its root.policy corruption- corruption that hinders social development, leads to distortion, unfair competition, monopoly, and affects people's rights.

"Speculators or interest groups collude with individuals and organizations with the authority to draft and approve policies to create policies that benefit them," Mr. Hau said.

To combat this type of corruption, it is necessary to change management thinking and awareness of the role of policies and laws. From there, we can anticipate the consequences when drafting, preventing the impact and distortion of policies by speculators.

Meanwhile, Professor Dr. Tran Ngoc Duong - Chairman of the Advisory Council for Democracy and Law (under the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front) said that in our country, the mechanismPeople control state powerineffective and formalistic. The 2013 Constitution has been in effect for nearly 5 years, but the constitutional foundations for building and perfecting this mechanism have not really played their role.

According to Mr. Duong, the authorities need to continue to improve this mechanism to contribute to the fight against corruption, including renewing the thinking and awareness of social supervision and criticism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front.

Management systems do not automatically detect corruption.

Speaking at the conference, Ho Chi Minh City Party Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan pointed out that very few corruption cases are discovered within the system. However, at meetings with voters, people said they were very upset and had sent complaints about corruption cases. This has also been widely reported in the press.

"There are many risks of corruption, but the problem lies in the limited division of responsibility for handling them," said Mr. Nhan, adding that the City Party Committee has a mechanism for handling information about ideological degradation.

SpecificallyRegulation 1374on the process of handling feedback related to groups and individuals with political ideology, lifestyle ethics, and violations of Party regulations and laws.

Regarding this issue, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City To Thi Bich Chau added that in the first 6 months of the year, this agency received and processed 7 petitions, complaints and denunciations related to organizations and individuals with violations according to the law.Regulation 1374.

However, Ms. Chau acknowledged that the coordination with organizations to monitor the communication attitude and performance of public duties of civil servants, especially at the top, has not been regular.