Control power to fight against vested interests

(Baonghean) - Recently, in the press and public opinion forums, the issue of "group interests" has received much attention. It is considered a negative phenomenon in state agencies, occurring when power is abused by groups of people for local and personal interests. The formation of group interests is related to administrative procedures and public ethics. Fields of operation that have to go through many cumbersome and opaque administrative procedures are the land for group interests to develop. Officials and civil servants who have degraded public ethics are negative elements that join together to carry out group interests.

The more cumbersome administrative procedures are, the more degraded public ethics are, the more group interests develop. When the leader is not exemplary, gathering staff members with the same faction will form a very dangerous interest group. An interest group can sometimes be within the scope of an agency, or it can be a connection between members in many agencies to carry out an administrative procedure. There are many ways to form an interest group: connecting those with the authority to approve important contents; creating a network to run projects, run capital, run licenses; creating teams in bidding and auctions; taking advantage of familiar relationships to gather groups and factions for the purpose of profiteering...

The abuse of power to pursue group interests leads to many consequences: implementing unqualified projects, using land for the wrong purpose, granting licenses to the wrong subjects, manipulating bidding, negativity in civil service recruitment... The influence of group interests can lead to violations of the law, many corruption cases occur due to the influence of group interests. When the principle of democratic centralism is violated, the leader is not exemplary, the interest group dominates the whole group, even leading to abuse of power. The manipulation of interest groups makes it difficult for the group to lead, difficult for superiors to operate, internal disunity and the group is gradually weakened from within.

To combat group interests, many synchronous solutions are needed, the most important of which is to control power: Party committees must inspect and supervise leaders and key officials; superior leaders must regularly inspect and supervise subordinates; when delegating power to deputies, heads must also inspect and supervise. When group interests appear, everyone in the group knows, but because of respect and avoidance, they do not dare to criticize. Therefore, promoting the spirit of self-criticism and criticism is the best way to combat group interests. Reality shows that wherever the principle of democratic centralism is properly implemented, the leadership role of the group is promoted, and individual power is controlled, group interests do not occur.

Controlling power to combat group interests requires close coordination among organizations in the political system. In monitoring activities, People's Councils at all levels need to publicly monitor the phenomenon of group interests. Steering Committees for administrative reform at all levels need to closely inspect administrative procedures that pose a risk of forming interest groups. There must be a mechanism to control the power of those assigned authority to combat the gathering of interest groups. In addition to monitoring power, it is necessary to increase the transparency of administrative procedures, creating conditions for businesses and people to monitor the performance of public duties by officials and civil servants. Implementing the above well is fundamental to combating group interests.

TRAN HONG CO