Asset declaration: Only 5 out of a million officials are dishonest (?!)

More than one million civil servants, leaders, and managers at all levels have just completed the declaration of assets and income in 2016 according to the Anti-Corruption Law and Decree 78/2013 of the Government on transparency, assets and income. However, when asked about the effectiveness of the declaration, many people frankly commented that it was "still too much of a formality".

Million people declared

Like many others, Mr. Luu Binh Nhuong, a member of the 14th National Assembly, just spent nearly an hour completing his 2016 asset declaration and submitting it to the Delegation Work Committee, under the National Assembly Standing Committee. What makes this National Assembly member ponder is that the asset declaration takes a lot of time, but the results are still low, and it is mainly a formality. “Declaring and submitting, but sometimes no one supervises whether my declaration is correct or not, whether it is honest or not. Therefore, I feel that there is something unfair. If all declarations are clarified as to right or wrong and anyone who is dishonest is dealt with, then it can be effective,” Mr. Nhuong said.

Mr. Dinh Van Minh, Director of the Institute of Inspection Science under the Government Inspectorate, also said that he had completed the declaration of his assets and sent it to the competent authority. However, Mr. Minh also admitted that this regulation is still a formality. “Civil servants and managers do not live alone, but mostly live with their wives, children, and parents. If they move their assets to put their children, friends, and relatives in their names, it will be difficult to detect and handle them under current legal regulations. Therefore, the important issue is that in addition to declaration, we must have measures to manage the assets and income of the whole society,” said Mr. Minh.

The National Assembly's Judicial Committee's assessment of anti-corruption work in 2016 also affirmed that the declaration of assets and income, and the public disclosure of asset and income declarations are still formal, and many cases of incomplete and dishonest declarations are due to the provisions of the law on the basis for verifying assets, and the scope of public disclosure of asset and income declarations is still narrow. There are no regulations requiring the verification of declared assets before promotion or appointment; there are too many focal agencies assigned the authority to verify declarations.

According to the Judiciary Committee, income declaration, especially non-salary income, accounts for a large proportion of total income, but it only relies on the self-awareness of the declarant and there is no strict control mechanism and no strong enough sanctions to deal with dishonest declarants. In addition, some officials, civil servants, public employees and people are afraid of conflict and fear of being persecuted, so they do not dare to report when they know that people with positions and powers declare assets and income dishonestly.

... only found 5 dishonest people!

According to the Government’s report on anti-corruption in 2015, the number of people required to declare their assets and income was over one million, but only five people were found to be dishonest. According to the Government’s anti-corruption report in 2016, out of 1 million declarations, authorities verified 414 people but no violations were found.

According to Mr. Dinh Van Minh, all of the above shortcomings show that it is necessary to amend the Anti-Corruption Law soon. However, Mr. Minh believes that the declaration of assets of civil servants must be part of the overall social governance, the economy through banking transactions, the issue of using cash, tax policies... "As in other countries, not only civil servants but also people are under control and the state can control, that is the important thing. But as it is now, assets and income are like communicating vessels, if we block one place, it will flow to another, it cannot be effective", Mr. Minh said.

Another current shortcoming is that the disclosure of asset declarations is carried out in two forms: posting at the headquarters of agencies, organizations, and units or announcing at meetings after the annual summary. This narrow scope does not effectively promote the supervision of the masses and public opinion. Therefore, National Assembly delegate Luu Binh Nhuong believes that when amending the Anti-Corruption Law in the near future, there must be a mechanism to promote the role of the people in participating in and supervising the declaration of assets.

According to Kinhtedothi.vn