Combating waste: A positive sign.
Looking back at the anti-corruption efforts over the past years makes this clear. I believe that when the head of state pays attention and directly directs the effort, the entire system will actively participate in eradicating the problem of waste. That's a positive sign...
Nhat LanNovember 25, 2024
NIn the early days of November 2024, many social media pages and personal Facebook accounts enthusiastically shared information about the meeting of the Central Steering Committee on preventing and combating corruption, waste, and negative phenomena on October 30, 2024, along with General Secretary To Lam's directive to "determine that preventing and combating waste has an equivalent position to preventing and combating corruption and negative phenomena."
An older colleague also shared his feelings about this on his personal Facebook page. When asked, he confided: "The General Secretary's comments on the state of wastefulness are very accurate. Wastefulness causes far greater damage to the country than corruption, and it is rampant everywhere..."
He opened the article for me to see.The General Secretary chaired a meeting of the Central Steering Committee on preventing and combating corruption, waste, and negative phenomena.According to an article on the website of the Central Inspection Commission dated October 30, 2024, the General Secretary stated: “Wastefulness is a very big problem, with a very wide scope, and the damage is many times greater than that of corruption and negative practices; many policies and solutions have been implemented to address this issue, but they have not been effective.” He also directed: “While continuing to strengthen the fight against corruption and negative practices, we must also pay attention to directing the strengthening of the fight against wastefulness; recognizing that the fight against wastefulness is of equal importance to the fight against corruption and negative practices.”
Looking back in time, there have been many policies and solutions to prevent and combat waste. A very relevant example is the Report No. 330/BC-ĐGS issued by the National Assembly's Supervisory Delegation on October 11, 2022, regarding the results of monitoring the implementation of policies and laws on practicing thrift and combating waste during the 2016-2021 period. Following this, on November 15, 2022, the National Assembly adopted Resolution No. 74/2022/QH15 to strengthen the implementation of policies and laws on practicing thrift and combating waste.
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In Resolution No. 74/2022/QH15 dated November 15, 2022, the National Assembly assessed the results of implementing policies and laws on practicing thrift and combating waste during the 2016-2021 period, pointing out shortcomings, causes, and specific directions, tasks, and general solutions for practicing thrift and combating waste; it also provided detailed information on groups of projects and works that caused wastefulness.
In Nghe An province, for example, the National Assembly announced that 95 projects and works have been delayed for many years, "not only affecting the rights, lives, and livelihoods of those whose land has been expropriated, but also causing losses to the state budget and waste in land use." Among them, the Ban Mong water reservoir project is included in the list of 51 projects and project clusters using public investment capital and other state capital that are ineffective or wasteful during the 2016-2021 period.
Furthermore, in the list of projects and constructions that did not put land into use or were slow to put land into use during the period 2016-2021, there are many projects that are "very familiar" to the press, such as: Cau Cau mixed-use tourism, service and resort area (Thanh An commune, Thanh Chuong district), BMC commercial center, office for rent and high-end apartments (Quan Bau ward, Vinh City); Market and Commercial Center (Nghi An commune, Vinh City), BMC Commercial Center and high-rise apartment complex (No. 92, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, Hung Binh ward, Vinh City)...
It is noteworthy that since the National Assembly issued Resolution No. 74/2022/QH15 on November 15, 2022, two years have passed. However, similar to the Ban Mong Reservoir Project (which commenced in 2010 with an initial capital of 3,744 billion VND from the state budget, requiring an additional 1,808 billion VND in 2017, raising the total investment to 5,552 billion VND), not only has it continued to be identified as behind schedule, causing significant waste of state budget funds, but on November 1, 2024, the Police Investigation Agency of the Ministry of Public Security initiated criminal proceedings against eight defendants for investigation into the offenses of "violating accounting regulations causing serious consequences" and "violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences".
Or consider the Cau Cau mixed-use tourism and resort area, the BMC commercial center and high-rise apartment complex… Despite public outrage and media coverage, they remain unchanged.
Discussing these issues with colleagues, there were some concerns, but he felt confident that positive changes would occur when the General Secretary assessed the work of preventing and combating waste as "ineffective" and directed that "attention must be paid to directing and strengthening the prevention and combating of waste; determining that the prevention and combating of waste has a position equivalent to the prevention and combating of corruption and negative phenomena."
He said: "Just look back at the anti-corruption efforts over the past years, and it's clear. I believe that when the head of the country pays attention and directly directs the effort, the entire system will actively participate in eradicating the problem of waste. That's a positive sign..."
