"Must pursue and recover the source of corrupt money"
Lieutenant General Tran Van Do: "Corrupt money must be identified very clearly, the source of that money must be found to have solutions to recover it."
The fight against corruption in 2017 was not only demonstrated by strong statements from Party and State leaders but also by concrete actions, with no forbidden zones or exceptions.
The fight against corruption certainly faces many difficulties and challenges ahead, however, when “the furnace is hot, even fresh wood must burn” is becoming a command, a call for an unshakable determination: that fight will certainly gain many victories, maintaining the people's trust in the Party.
VOV reporter interviewed Lieutenant General Tran Van Do - former Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court, Chief Justice of the Central Military Court (Ministry of National Defense) about this issue.
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| Lieutenant General Tran Van Do (left). |
Lieutenant General Tran Van Do: 2017 marked a development in anti-corruption activities, bringing many corruption cases to justice in many different fields, especially in the banking and oil and gas sectors. This was highly appreciated by the people of the whole country, especially the determination of the Party in the fight against corruption, saying and doing go hand in hand, showing that there are no forbidden zones, people with important positions but when committing crimes are still brought to light to be dealt with before the law.
It must be said that now corruption is not about 1 billion, a few billion dong but up to thousands of billions, or tens of thousands of billions, the consequences are very serious for a country that is not yet rich.
If this problem is not handled promptly and properly, it will cause very serious consequences, not only in terms of assets, state and social management, but more importantly, in terms of people's trust in the regime and the Party's leadership.
PV:Corruption and negativity erode people's trust in the Party, but with the results achieved and the Party's determination to fight corruption in recent times, in your opinion, have we met people's trust?
Lieutenant General Tran Van Do: In my opinion, initially we have aroused people's trust, but the prosecution, investigation, indictment and trial must also be done in a way that ensures compliance with the law, guarantees human rights, and especially recovers corrupt assets.
PV:According to you, how can we limit the number of corrupt criminals on the run and effectively recover corrupt assets?
Lieutenant General Tran Van Do: Corrupt money must be clearly identified, the source of that money must be found to have measures and solutions to recover it. The effective recovery measure is mainly through the judicial process, because only judicial activities have the authority to seize, temporarily detain, and adjudicate that property. Currently, we have a number of mechanisms that are going against, delaying the process of handling cases. Because of the delay, many defendants flee to disperse assets.
And by the time the case is settled, most of the criminal's assets are gone. There are cases where the court makes a ruling, but due to the current mechanism, the ruling is ultimately not enforced.
PV:Looking at the reality of recent times, what concerns do you have in the work of preventing and fighting corruption?
Lieutenant General Tran Van Do: The fight against corruption has started to be effective, but the crime prevention policy is still not very good. Second, the law changing the mechanism to handle corruption is also not very good.
PV:How do we get better prevention mechanisms, in your opinion?
Lieutenant General Tran Van Do:To prevent and fight corruption effectively, the issue is not only to deal with corrupt people but also to prevent further corruption cases or to minimize them. There are many different preventive measures, including economic, social, policy, mechanism and legal measures.
Currently we are mainly applying legal measures, but I think more important is the economic management mechanism, policies for civil servants, policies on personnel work; how to arrange competent, ethical, dedicated and self-respecting cadres so that they do not need, do not want, and are afraid to commit corruption.
PV:It is known that you once proposed to establish a Corruption Investigation Committee to independently detect and strictly handle major corruption cases that are becoming increasingly complicated. What was the basis for your proposal?
Lieutenant General Tran Van Do: Through many years of experience working in the court and monitoring anti-corruption activities, it can be said that the most difficult thing about corruption is to detect and handle it. Currently, we follow a normal mechanism that is extremely long-lasting and ineffective, making corrupt assets unrecoverable. I really want to have a State Anti-Corruption Committee with real power, and in major corruption cases, this agency must immediately seize assets.
PV:To satisfy the people's trust in the Party, there is no other way but to continue to resolutely address this issue in the coming years, sir?
Lieutenant General Tran Van Do: Definitely do it resolutely. Do it resolutely to fight against corruption, resolutely change policies to prevent corruption. The Party and the State must care for the people and trust the people. Uncle Ho said: it is the people who push the boat and it is also the people who capsize it. Especially, in all countries, the strength of the people is very important, so we must mobilize the strength of the people, and to mobilize, we must create the trust of the people.
PV:Thank you, sir./.
