Pulling out 'corruption weeds' but must promptly plant trees and grow good rice

Fear of responsibility

At the conference summarizing 10 years of anti-corruption and anti-negativity work (2012-2022 period), Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Procuracy Le Minh Tri said that, along with strengthening discipline and strictly handling corrupt officials, it is necessary to issue many legal policies to create development motivation, attract resources, encourage dynamism and creativity, ensure safe legal corridor regulations, and limit risks for those who implement them.

“If there is a gap, bad people will take advantage of violations; but if there is no legal corridor to ensure safety, good people will be afraid of risks, not dare to be proactive and creative, and will not have the motivation to strive in performing their duties,” said Mr. Tri.

Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Procuracy Le Minh Tri.

Therefore, he recommended that the General Secretary, the Politburo and the Central Committee consider and assign the National Assembly and the Government to review and promptly issue necessary legal documents to ensure two requirements: strict discipline and a safe legal corridor, limit risks and create development momentum.

Mr. Le Minh Tri's proposal is not without basis, because the reality of recent times shows that, in addition to strengthening discipline, order, and strictly handling those who intentionally commit wrongdoings, causing great damage to the State, there is currently an emerging "disease" that, although not yet widespread, is very noteworthy, which is the disease of "fear of responsibility" in performing public duties of a number of cadres and party members.

Some say that some officials nowadays are afraid of making mistakes in everything they do. Even after they have done something, they still don't know if they made a mistake or not. If they make a mistake, they don't know where it went wrong, and even doing nothing can lead to mistakes.

This situation stems from many causes, among which the subjective cause is the limited capacity and qualifications of a number of officials, who do not promptly update relevant legal regulations to avoid making mistakes; passive working spirit, fear of responsibility, so they wait for instructions from superiors, while those with decision-making authority do not dare to trust their subordinates.

Besides, the objective reason is that the legal regulations have some points that are not specific, not consistent, do not clearly define responsibilities, and do not have legal regulations on protecting those who dare to think, dare to do, dare to break through, and dare to take responsibility for the common interest.

Therefore, there are suggestions to amend relevant legal provisions to make them clearer and more transparent; at the same time, individualize the responsibility of each individual; and legalize the Party's policy in Conclusion No. 14 of the Politburo on protecting those who dare to think, dare to do, and dare to take responsibility for the common good.

Legalization to protect officials who dare to think and dare to do

Mr. Ho Duc Phoc - Minister of Finance, when speaking at the Conference to review the inspection and supervision work in the first 6 months of the year and deploy tasks for the last 6 months of 2022 of the Central Inspection Committee, also said that in the process of supervision and inspection, in addition to detecting mistakes and imperfections in policies and guidelines to plug loopholes, it is necessary to detect factors that have good, positive and creative actions that bring about common benefits.

Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc.

“Practice always comes first, law always comes later. There are things that have the role of “breaking the rules” but bring public benefits, so there needs to be a regulation to promote the development process,” said Mr. Ho Duc Phoc.

During the inspection process, in addition to strictly handling those who have "lost prestige" and are greedy, according to the Minister of Finance, it is necessary to be lenient and protect good people, people with prestige but due to negligence and lack of knowledge in work leading to mistakes, while at the same time creating conditions for officials to have the opportunity to overcome the consequences.

In handling cadres' responsibilities, it is necessary to consider the circumstances and historical context of the birth of political policies and laws, between laws and practices, between ethics and legality. At the same time, develop positive factors, praise good people and good deeds.

“Fighting corruption and negativity is like killing weeds. If we pull out this layer of weeds without planting rice or fruit trees, other weeds will grow and encroach. Therefore, after pulling out the weeds, we must plant rice, which means detecting and developing good factors, and at the same time regularly inspecting and checking. Violations that reach the level of being handled must be handled,” the Minister of Finance analyzed.

Emphasizing the view that it is necessary to legalize the protection of cadres who dare to think and dare to do, Mr. Le Viet Truong - former Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly's National Defense and Security Committee said that the highest principle and also the characteristic of the Socialist rule of law state is that everything must be regulated by law, and the law must be supreme.

“The Party’s policy is to protect cadres who dare to think and dare to do, so there needs to be a legal corridor to protect cadres. For example, if there is a flooded road, and people want to pass through it without being flooded, we must install buoys and signs so that people know where they can walk, wade and where they cannot,” Mr. Le Viet Truong gave an example, while emphasizing that legalizing the Party’s policy in Conclusion No. 14 will create a solid political and legal basis to encourage and motivate cadres who are dedicated and responsible for their work, and protect those who dare to innovate, create, think, do and break through for the common good.

According to the former Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's National Defense and Security Committee, when officials are assigned to head a certain sector or organization, when reading the Law, they will know what their duties and powers are, how to do it, and to what extent, especially finances need to have regulations on the content of expenditure, expenditure norms, and decision-making authority. Even the act of "daring to do" must be within the framework of State regulations. Because people are allowed to do everything that the law does not prohibit, but State officials are only allowed to do what the law allows.

In the newly issued Regulation 69 of the Politburo, there is a noteworthy point: Party members who implement proposals on innovation and creativity according to Conclusion No. 14 of the Politburo, are permitted by competent authorities but cause damage, the competent authorities must clearly determine the objective and subjective causes, and make an objective and comprehensive assessment; if they have implemented the policy correctly, have pure motives, and are for the common good, they will be exempted from discipline or have their responsibility reduced.

Appreciating the Party's new regulations as a political basis to encourage and protect cadres, Mr. Le Viet Truong said that when considering handling cadres from the State's perspective, there still needs to be legal regulations, otherwise this will be a "gap" and cannot be handled./.