Petty corruption has become a 'habit'

Associate Professor Dr. Dang Ngoc Dinh, Director of the Center for Development Studies and Community Support, who has many years of research on petty corruption, believes that bribery, bribery, gift-giving, etc. have become harmful "habits" in society. Therefore, with the determination to build an honest government, the Prime Minister's request that local leaders not return to Hanoi to celebrate Tet is extremely necessary.

As someone who has spent many years researching petty corruption, how do you view its relationship with the culture of gift-giving, especially during holidays and Tet?

The culture of giving gifts is actually good. Many countries in the world have gift-giving days. On that day, children give gifts to their parents, relatives, lovers, friends, etc. Vietnam is the same, also has a culture of giving gifts on holidays, Tet, birthdays, etc. However, nowadays, due to petty corruption that has become common, the culture of giving gifts has been distorted and exploited to seek personal benefits.

People take advantage of the gift-giving culture during Tet to bribe, extort, bribe, run projects, and run procedures. Therefore, when giving congratulations, there must be not only fresh flowers but also “dried flowers”. Fresh flowers are real flowers, and “dried flowers” ​​are money or other things of material value that are given as gifts, in which “dried flowers” ​​are more important than fresh flowers.

Illustration photo.

So why has the culture of gift giving in our society changed so much today? The main reason is that petty corruption has become widespread, becoming a “custom”, becoming a need to make a living, a need to rise up and increase income of some people.

Surveys on the Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) in Vietnam over the past years have shown that in areas related to assets and material things such as land certificates, construction permits, job applications, civil service exams, etc., bribery, bribery, and extortion still occur. Therefore, Tet is also a favorable opportunity for people to give gifts, repay favors, and bribe each other.

What do you think about the Prime Minister's directive that this Tet, it is not allowed to give gifts or wish Happy New Year to leaders of the Government, ministries and branches?

In the current context and situation, the direction and requirements that the Prime Minister has put forth are extremely necessary. The Prime Minister is also showing his determination in building an honest government. When the Prime Minister makes such a declaration, the subordinates will certainly have to move and implement it. Moreover, it also helps many local leaders feel less guilty and less worried about not being able to return to Hanoi to wish their leaders a Happy New Year.

However, to completely prevent the above situation and petty corruption in general, in my opinion, there must be fundamental solutions. For example, we see that in the past, the health sector was once full of talk about banning envelopes in hospitals. But after a while, the talk of banning envelopes subsided, while the practice of giving envelopes continued to occur, even becoming very common.

This shows that just preventing the red envelope problem in hospitals is already very difficult. If there is no fundamental solution, people will not come to give gifts at this time, but will come to give gifts at another time. Gift giving will not happen on this occasion, but will happen on another occasion. Therefore, the important issue is to have fundamental solutions to solve the situation of petty corruption that is becoming a custom, a "habit" in our society.

Some say that the damage caused by petty corruption is insignificant so we should focus on big corruption cases?

That is not true. Reality from other countries shows that a society with major corruption cases does not necessarily have petty corruption. For example, in European countries, we occasionally see the authorities discover some corruption cases. However, in those countries, there is almost no petty corruption; there is no school or class recruitment, no bribery or envelopes for doctors when going to the hospital...

But a society where petty corruption becomes a custom, a “habit”, a culture of envelopes and bribery will certainly create the foundation for large corruption cases. People who commit small corruption when given the opportunity will certainly commit large corruption. What is more worrying is that when petty corruption becomes systemic, others will certainly follow suit. It is extremely dangerous. Therefore, there must be fundamental solutions to address corruption.

Thank you!

According to TPO