Central Inspection Committee member was once "bribed and threatened"

In the two years since the 12th Party Congress, the Central Inspection Commission has made many conclusions that have attracted public attention, disciplining a series of high-ranking officials, both incumbent and retired.VnExpresshave an interview with himHa Quoc Tri -Member of the Central Inspection Commission, around this content.

"The hardest thing is to clarify right and wrong"

- A large amount of work has been done by the Central Inspection Commission in recent times. What can you share about that result?

- Over the past two years, the Party's inspection work has undergone strong and profound innovation with theProactively develop annual and term-wide programs and plans; clearly define goals and requirements and propose implementation solutions, focusing on inspecting party members and lower-level party organizations when there are signs of violations.

The content and scope of inspection are primarily party members and officials under the Central Committee's management; focusing on inspections of areas and fields prone to violations such as economic, financial, banking groups, enterprises... The Committee also assigned each functional Department to inspect 1-3 party members under the Central Committee's management and 1-3 party organizations directly under the Central Committee during the year.

There are many areas for inspection and supervision but few inspection forces, so the Committee must arrange and assign tasks reasonably to be effective. Currently, our agency only has 165 staff, more than 100 people do professional work, the rest work in the office, research, organization, magazine,... so we have to choose the inspection areas very carefully.If done indiscriminately, the quality will be low and it will not be possible to do everything.

In the recent past, the Central Inspection Committee has selected the right areas for inspection and selected key areas. Therefore, the results have been very good. Both inspections of signs of violations and disciplinary actions last year were 33 cases, of which 24 cases and 3 party organizations were inspected for signs of violations.

Previously, Resolution 4 of the Central Committee pointed out that "a large number of cadres and party members have degenerated and become corrupt", but people kept asking "where is the large number of them"? The recent results of the Central Inspection Committee have shown that a large number of people in a number of agencies, including the highest agencies, are those who have been inspected and found to have committed violations and must be disciplined.

-When dealing with high-ranking officials and complicated issues, what difficulties does the inspection agency encounter, sir?

- It is difficult to choose the inspection target, because there are many so we have to consider. Choosing who to select and who to inspect is also a story. Because the organizations and individuals being inspected are people with positions and authority, inspecting them is difficult.

First, they disagree or react. The most difficult part of the inspection process is to clarify right and wrong. Because those being inspected rarely admit their shortcomings and mistakes right away. Therefore, we have to fight with the party members themselves, using evidence, verification results, documents, and evidence to make them admit their shortcomings.

This is a combination of criticism and self-criticism, self-awareness and compulsion. The nature is self-awareness, but when not self-awareness, evidence must be provided to force acceptance.

In addition to fighting against the shortcomings and violations of others, we also have to fight against the temptations that are placed before us.

"Discipline is to deter and educate, not to punish each other"

- How were you tempted during your mission?

- When they go on inspections and discover violations by organizations or individual party members, they also ask for help. There are people who first ask to meet privately to present their wishes, I have to answer frankly that I cannot meet privately because the operating principle of the inspection team is that when working, there must be at least two people; to avoid trouble for the team and the organization.

When they expressed that they could not meet, they turned to their attitude, using this or that person with position and authority to put pressure.

They said "why is it so difficult, if we do something wrong, you give us a break first"; even threatened "do you want to do it next term or not?" I said I had acknowledged his feelings, but the organization assigned me the task, if you think I'm wrong, just say so.

Inspecting when there are signs of violations is the highest task among the 6 tasks of the Central Inspection Committee. First of all, it is because of the high requirements, pressure on time, on relationships, and social influence. Therefore, it requires inspectors to have the courage to overcome pressure, especially political pressure.

The Chairman of the Central Inspection Commission, Tran Quoc Vuong, always reminded us to work impartially and objectively, to maintain the qualities of an inspector, especially the courage to overcome pressure. At the same time, above and beside us, there is the Committee's collective solidarity, sharing difficulties; brothers and colleagues are always by our side, ready to fight to protect us if we are right. That is the support that helps us overcome temptations and threats.

- Besides the achievements of the Central Inspection Committee in recent times, there are opinions that the disciplinary level in some cases is not strict. What do you think?

- The Central Inspection Committee works impartially, objectively, transparently and is not influenced by any force. The results of the handling are made public on mass media for cadres, party members and people to check and monitor. However, it is normal for there to be different opinions in society. We see that, in recent times, public opinion has supported the handling method proposed by the Central Inspection Committee; handling must be both emotional and reasonable. Moreover, the decision to discipline belongs to the collective, not to an individual.

In the Committee alone, when discussing, the opinions expressed must be complete in terms of content, evidence, documents, viewpoints and handling forms. For example, the case of the Oil and Gas Group (PVN) took 7.5 months of inspection and 2.5 days of discussion to reach a conclusion. When it comes to the political life of people, one must be careful. The Committee is an advisory body, it must advise correctly, if it does not have reason and emotion, how can the members of the competent party organizations agree?

The point of disciplinary action is not to "drown people to death" but to open a way for them to live, but pushing people to the brink will create negativity.

Discipline is to deter and educate, but violations to the extent of expulsion or dismissal must still be done, even though losing the cadre is regrettable. Wrongdoing must be punished, not because of regretting the cadre, because from one mistake will continue to make another. Punishment is to deter, educate, discipline is not to punish each other, but so that others can use it as an example to avoid the mistakes of their predecessors.

How is "impure support" understood?

- In some recent conclusions of the Central Inspection Committee, there are some terms such as "impure support", "family nurturing". How should these terms be understood, sir?

- The phrase "unclear support" is used to describe the act of appointing Ms. Tran Vu Quynh Anh to the position of deputy head of the Department of Construction.

Mr. Ngo Van Tuan, Vice Chairman of Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee, former Director of the Department of Construction, took advantage of his position and authority to favor, support, mobilize, plan, and appoint Ms. Tran Vu Quynh Anh (Deputy Head of Department, Head of Department and Planning Deputy Director of the Department), intentionally ignoring the prescribed conditions and standards.

The appointment process also lacked basic conditions and standards. Ms. Quynh Anh was only a janitor but was promoted to treasurer. She did not have a construction qualification but was appointed deputy and head of department without any planning. The province's requirement is that to be appointed to these positions, one must have a regular degree, but Ms. Quynh Anh only has a part-time IT degree and is a probationary party member. This is against the regulations.

The above actions show that Mr. Tuan took advantage of his position and power to favor and support Ms. Tran Vu Quynh Anh.

Transparent support is normal. In the process of working, when people see talented people, they support them to help them progress. This support is in accordance with regulations, with the purpose of not letting talented people go. As for Ms. Quynh Anh, she does not have enough conditions and standards but is still supported and appointed to a leadership position at the Department of Construction, that is not transparent support.

The phrase "family maintenance" is used to describe the violations of Mr. Le Phuoc Thanh, former Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Nam province, because when he was a provincial leader, Mr. Thanh let the Provincial People's Committee decide to send Mr. Le Phuoc Hoai Bao, Mr. Thanh's son, to study in the US using state budget funds, not for the right subjects.

Mr. Thanh also signed a report of the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Committee requesting the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee to give opinions on personnel work, including the request to consider the decision to appoint Mr. Le Phuoc Hoai Bao to the position of Deputy Head of the Chu Lai Open Economic Zone Management Board when the planning has not been approved.

Normally, officials must complete planning before being appointed. The planning process can take a very long time. Some people are even not appointed after completing the planning process. Mr. Thanh's son was proposed for appointment before being included in the planning process.

So he gave his child preferential treatment without passing the entrance exam. People will ask, what if it was someone else's child, would he have signed the decision or not, but he has never signed such a case before.

Then, when he was the Provincial Party Secretary, Mr. Thanh and the collective agreed to appoint the director and two deputy directors of the Department of Planning and Investment without proper authority, exceeding the number prescribed by the Government, including Mr. Le Phuoc Hoai Bao.

All of the above manifestations are Mr. Thanh's "family care".

- In 2018, what plans does the Central Inspection Commission have to better inspect and supervise cadres?

- General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong once stated that there is currently a situation of "hot above, cold below". That is, the top does the work, but many lower levels do not, especially not checking for signs of violations against cadres managed by the province. In the future, the Central Inspection Committee will direct professional and technical inspection and supervision of provinces and cities, focusing on checking party members and lower-level party organizations when there are signs of violations.

This year, the Committee will examine the way of granting, that is, it will skip the provincial level and go straight to the lower level, from there, draw experience to direct the whole country, and replicate it on a large scale. This is the latest point.

Regarding the content, the Committee still focuses on inspecting party members and lower-level party organizations when there are signs of violations, first of all, the cadres under the management of the Politburo and the Secretariat. The inspection areas are finance and banking, construction investment, land, personnel work... as has been done recently and achieved results.

Hoang Thuy