Are illicit assets easy to recover?

Those who commit corruption must be held accountable before the law. But whether their assets are recovered is what is important.

Recently, a series of corruption cases have been exposed, many cases have been decided by the Court and many cases are in the process of investigation and handling. Currently emerging is the case of Trinh Xuan Thanh causing losses of thousands of billions when he was the leader of PVN.

Knowing that, when violations are discovered, the political lives and social positions of these people will no longer exist, but what the public is concerned about is how this illegal asset recovery will be carried out, and whether it can be done or not?

Image of Trinh Xuan Thanh when he surrendered.

In fact, in recent economic cases, the amount of money lost and corrupted by the subjects is extremely large, especially large! That is a number that many businessmen and high-income earners, and workers can only dream of.

However, according to the analysis of veteran theorists, corrupt people do not "eat" alone. To be able to corrupt that huge amount of assets, they also had to "divide" it into other people to have the opportunity to corrupt and plunder the country. Trinh Xuan Thanh caused a loss of thousands of billions of dong, but those thousands of billions did not "fall" mechanically, intact into Trinh Xuan Thanh's pocket, but its path was very convoluted and intricate.

The amount of State money lost and missing is huge, but in reality it has been lost at many stages so the percentage of State assets recovered is very small, if not to say nothing.

According to the conclusion of the Central Inspection Committee, Deputy Minister Ho Thi Kim Thoa made major violations in the equitization process of Dien Quang Light Bulb Joint Stock Company.

Corruption is not simply the appropriation of a large amount of the State budget. Corruption occurs in many different areas and levels. Many times it is the exploitation of policies, those with positions and assigned management responsibilities have taken advantage of the use of land and State assets to make profits for themselves and their families...

The purpose of fighting corruption is to punish corrupt people appropriately and legally, but also to recover as much of the lost assets as possible.Recovering corrupt assets not only overcomes dangerous consequences for society and returns resources to the country, but also has the meaning of warning, preventing corrupt behavior, and eliminating economic motivations of those with the ability and opportunity to commit corruption.

However, in reality, through inspections and examinations, many economic violations have been discovered but almost no action has been taken. The report of the State Auditor General shows that in 2016, the State Audit concluded 115 audits, discovered many violations in the management and use of State assets and recommended financial handling of VND 14,781.9 billion but no corruption was detected.

Through the inspection work, 138,953 decisions on administrative sanctions with the amount of 13,075 billion VND were issued, but only 69 cases/107 subjects with signs of crime were transferred to the investigation agency to handle, of which 49 cases/95 subjects had acts of corruption and were related to corruption. This situation probably has not deterred those who hold "money - power" from continuing to commit corruption.

The determination of the entire Party and people to fight corruption has been affirmed by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong: "When the furnace is hot, even fresh wood will burn." Obviously, to effectively prevent and fight corruption, the authorities must thoroughly recover corrupt assets and bring to light those who support the corrupt./.

According to VOV