'Where do civil servants with huge assets get their salary from?'

The officials' explanation that they had a large fortune from selling brooms, raising pigs, raising chickens, etc. has reduced people's trust.

The actual number of dishonest asset declarations is higher.

In the Government's report on anti-corruption work in 2017 presented by Mr. Dang Cong Huan - Deputy Inspector General of the Government to the National Assembly's Judicial Committee on the afternoon of September 5, it was said that in 2016, more than 1.1 million people declared their assets, 77 people were verified, 3 cases of dishonesty, including high-ranking officials.

In addition, there have been 4 cases of leaders who were irresponsible and allowed corruption to occur and were disciplined (1 person in Quang Nam, 3 people in Kien Giang).

"However, during the implementation process, there is still confusion in determining the level of responsibility of the superior head for the violations of the head of the subordinate agency or in cases where the violations involve many sectors, many levels, many agencies, units, and departments," said Mr. Huan.

Mr. Do Van An - former Head of Government Cipher Committee.

Reading the above figures, Mr. Do Van An - former member of the Party Central Committee, former Head of the Government Cipher Committee could not help but be skeptical. He said that cases of incorrect and incomplete asset declarations according to regulations like Ms. Ho Thi Kim Thoa's are not isolated cases.

Accordingly, if all assets of officials subject to declaration are made public and verified by superior agencies, he believes the data will not stop at just the numbers in the report.

According to Mr. An, corruption is still considered serious, complicated, and sophisticated. The work of preventing and combating corruption in localities is still weak and uneven. The underlying cause of the above situation is due to people, because the work of cadres in recent times has been lax in many places.

“The work of evaluating and promoting cadres in the recent past has had many shortcomings and inaccuracies, so there are still phenomena of group interests, mutual protection, and the phenomenon of deference and avoidance. The saying that I don’t touch you, you don’t touch me is still quite common,” said Mr. Do Van An.

Illegal assets must be confiscated

In reality, every year, asset declarations are made public, but the number that is verified is very small, and the number that is found to be dishonest is even smaller. Those who are found to have made incorrect declarations have not been punished for their assets, but only for administrative and political reasons.

Meanwhile, many officials have become rich unusually quickly, owning "huge" assets, mansions, expensive cars... worth tens of billions of dong or even more, causing public outrage, but without satisfactory, fair, and transparent explanations. Such information not only affects the reputation of the Party and the State in general, but also affects many clean and honest officials in particular.

“Even though the recognized officials have declared their assets, they cannot fool the people. Because with such a salary as a civil servant, where did you get such a huge amount of assets? It is ridiculous to explain that you have such a large amount of assets by selling brooms, raising pigs and chickens. Such an explanation further reduces the people's trust in the authorities,” said Mr. Do Van An.

Ms. Ta Thi Minh Ly - former Director of the Department of Legal Aid (Ministry of Justice) also said that the declaration of assets and income as well as the public declaration are still formal. The declaration of income, especially non-salary income, accounts for a large proportion of total income but only relies on the self-awareness of the declarant, while there is no strict control mechanism and no strong enough sanctions to handle dishonest declarants.

“To monitor and prevent corruption, a strict financial management system is needed. Specifically, good input management means that each official must register their existing assets, including newly acquired assets, and must explain where those assets came from, when they were purchased, and who the owners are. The root of the problem is that all assets and income sources must be registered and taxes must be paid,” said Ms. Ta Thi Minh Ly, emphasizing that in cases where no explanation can be given, strict action must be taken.

Sharing this view, Mr. Do Van An also said that in order for asset declaration to be effective, the management of cadres and party members must be very strict from the grassroots, especially the leaders; inspection and examination agencies must be clean, honest, serious, without favoritism or evasion.

Annual asset declarations must be monitored, verified, and clearly concluded by the competent authorities. Any assets of unclear origin must be confiscated.

“The Party and State have policies and solutions to fight corruption that are supported by the people, but the implementation must be thorough. First of all, we must control inspection and examination agencies from the central to the grassroots levels, then important agencies that have many opportunities and environments for corruption. If we can do that, I believe we will strengthen the people's trust,” the former Head of the Government Cipher Committee emphasized.

Most recently, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong signed and issued Regulation No. 90-QD/TW on Title Standards and Evaluation Criteria for Senior Officials of the Party and State. Accordingly, these officials must absolutely not be ambitious for power, corrupt, opportunistic, or self-interested, and must resolutely fight to prevent and repel the degradation of political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle, and manifestations of "self-evolution" and "self-transformation" within the organization; resolutely direct the fight against bureaucracy, corruption, negativity, waste, authoritarianism, and group interests...

Previously, the Politburo also issued Regulation No. 85-QD/TW on inspection and supervision of asset declaration of officials under the management of the Politburo and Secretariat.

The above regulations show that the fight against corruption is being carried out with the highest determination, first of all by senior officials of the Party and State. This further affirms the determination to match words with actions, there are no forbidden zones, and anyone who violates, regardless of their position, will be strictly punished./.

According to VOV