'Many major corruption cases are masterminded by leaders and group interests'

The Government's report frankly pointed out this and emphasized that the rate of recovery of corrupt assets is still much lower than the amount of assets misappropriated.

The 2016 Anti-Corruption Report submitted by the Government to the National Assembly Standing Committee clearly shows that in recent years, the rate of recovery of corrupt assets has increased every year but is still much lower than the amount of assets misappropriated. In some cases, corrupt assets have been dispersed, uncontrolled and unrecoverable.

Group interests, cover-up

The objective cause leading to the above situation is assessed as being that corruption has broad, diverse and complex connotations, related to many policies, laws and most areas of operation of the state apparatus, cadres, civil servants and public employees.

In addition, the solutions to prevent corruption in recent times have only focused on the public sector and on people with positions and powers. Meanwhile, the economic and social relationships that give rise to corruption are very complex, not limited to this sector.

Government Inspector General Phan Van Sau speaks at the 3rd session of the National Assembly Standing Committee on September 21. (Photo: Pham Kien/VNA).

However, according to the Government Inspector General Phan Van Sau, subjective causes are still the main ones. Accordingly, some places have shown signs of neglect, slow implementation, and lack of regular monitoring, supervision, and inspection; many major corruption cases have been discovered in which the leaders are the masterminds, accomplices, and interest groups, covering up corruption.

The work of developing and perfecting policies and laws on anti-corruption has not yet met the requirements. Many regulations have revealed limitations and inadequacies during the implementation, preliminary and final reviews, but the revision, supplementation and correction are still slow. Along with that, the mechanism, measures and responsibilities for monitoring and evaluating the situation of corruption and anti-corruption work lack feasibility.

Corrupt assets were dispersed due to slow seizure

The National Assembly's Judicial Committee assessed that the inspection, audit, and complaint and denunciation settlement work in 2016 achieved remarkable results. Thereby, it discovered and recommended the recovery of tens of thousands of billions of VND and tens of thousands of hectares of land for the State budget. The work of urging and checking the implementation of inspection and audit conclusions on asset recovery and handling was higher than in 2015.

However, the report of the auditing agency also stated that the recovery of assets through inspection conclusions and audit recommendations is still low; recommendations for handling responsibilities still mainly focus on administrative and disciplinary actions, with few recommendations for criminal actions.

Through auditing and handling complaints and denunciations in 2016, no cases were transferred to the investigation agency. Through inspection work, 94,512 decisions on administrative penalties with the amount of 11 billion 929 million VND were issued, but only 53 cases/77 subjects with signs of crime were transferred to the investigation agency for handling.

Chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee Le Thi Nga.

“It is worth noting that the time limit for transferring files of corruption cases with signs of criminality to the investigation agency is still slow. There are cases that are transferred more than a year after being discovered, causing many difficulties in the investigation process, especially in collecting evidence and recovering corrupt assets…” – Chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee Le Thi Nga said.

Regarding the issue of recovering corrupt assets, Mr. Nguyen Mai Bo - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee on National Defense and Security requested the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People's Procuracy, the Supreme People's Court, especially the Ministry of Public Security, immediately after initiating prosecution, to apply the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code to seize assets of corrupt subjects.

“Currently, I see that the application of seizure measures is not common in corruption cases. Therefore, during that time, the subject has already managed to disperse the assets,” said Mr. Nguyen Mai Bo.

Government Inspector General Phan Van Sau said that through summarizing and absorbing recommendations from the grassroots, the Government has also specifically directed the content of the orientation for the implementation of the draft revised Law on Anti-Corruption to submit to the National Assembly for consideration; directed to strengthen international cooperation on anti-corruption, especially the implementation and internalization of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and international cooperation in recovering corrupt assets./.

According to VOV