Full text of the General Secretary's conclusion at the meeting on preventing and combating corruption and negativity

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong speaks at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Central Steering Committee on corruption prevention and control on November 18. Photo: VNA

Dear comrades!

After an active, urgent and serious working session, the Standing Committee of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption and Negativity (Steering Committee) has completed the contents according to the proposed program. We have listened, discussed and commented on 3 contents:

1- Report on progress and results of handling a number of cases and incidents that the Steering Committee has monitored and directed since the 21st Session (January 2022) to present.

2- Report on the results of the inspection of the leadership, direction, implementation of the work of detecting, transferring, receiving, and handling information about crimes and the work of appraising and valuing assets in resolving cases and incidents of corruption, economics, and negativity of the Steering Committee.

3- Report on the situation, results of establishment and operation of the Provincial Steering Committee for anti-corruption and negativity.

Through discussion, the comrades basically agreed on the content of the document of the Standing Agency; at the same time, they contributed comments, supplemented and clarified some contents. The Standing Agency was assigned to directly collect and complete the documents and papers.

Below I would like to quickly summarize, emphasize, and clarify some more content to conclude today's working session.

I- ABOUT OUTSTANDING RESULTS

Since the 21st Session, despite many difficulties, the work of fighting corruption and negativity has continued to receive focused leadership and direction, with new developments, going into depth, and more closely linking corruption and negativity prevention and control with Party building and rectification, and preventing and combating ideological, political, moral, and lifestyle degradation among cadres and Party members. The work of detecting and handling corruption and negativity has become increasingly drastic and effective, creating new breakthroughs. This is reflected in the Report and Summary Report that Comrade Phan Dinh Trac - Deputy Head of the Standing Committee of the Steering Committee has just presented. I would like to summarize them into the following highlights:

1. The Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Steering Committee have issued nearly 30 resolutions, directives, conclusions, and regulations on Party building, rectification, and the prevention and fight against corruption and negativity. Especially on the policy of establishing the Steering Committee for the prevention and fight against corruption and negativity at the provincial level; on disciplining Party organizations and Party members who violate the law; on rotating cadres and assigning jobs to disciplined cadres; on decentralizing cadre management; on the policy of classifying and handling Party organizations and Party members who violate the law related to the cases that occurred at Viet A Company, etc. Many regulations have come into effect and become effective immediately after their promulgation. The Politburo held a national conference to review 10 years of anti-corruption and anti-negativity work (PCTNTC), concluded and directed many major policies and solutions, creating new progress in awareness, theory, trust, excitement, and high determination in the entire Party, people, and army in PCTNTC work. The National Assembly and the Government regularly organize specialized sessions on law-making; direct ministries and functional branches to review, amend, and supplement many legal documents to overcome loopholes and inadequacies, serve management, socio-economic development, and PCTNTC; in the first 9 months of 2022, competent agencies reviewed and completed 68/137 groups of legislative tasks.

2. Inspection and supervision work continued to be strengthened, many inspections, supervisions were organized, detecting and strictly handling many Party organizations and Party members who violated the law. The Politburo and the Secretariat organized 11 inspection teams for 30 Party organizations on the implementation of the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the implementation of the Resolution of the 4th Central Committee (term XII) on Party building and rectification, Regulations on what Party members are not allowed to do, Regulations on exemplary responsibility. The Steering Committee organized 8 thematic inspection teams on the work of detecting, transferring, receiving and handling information sources on crimes and the work of appraising and valuing assets; through inspections, it recommended amending, supplementing and building many mechanisms, policies and laws; and directed the handling of 370 cases and incidents. The Central Inspection Committee conducted 26 inspections when there were signs of violations related to cases and incidents under the monitoring and direction of the Steering Committee; handled and recommended disciplinary action against 46 Party organizations and 138 Party members, including 16 Party organizations and 29 cadres under the management of the Politburo and Secretariat; requested lower-level Party committees to discipline 22 Party organizations and 126 Party members (*1).

Since the beginning of the 13th term, the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Central Inspection Commission have disciplined 67 cadres under the management of the Politburo and the Secretariat, including 7 members of the Party Central Committee and 6 former members of the Party Central Committee (including: 5 ministers, former ministers; 7 secretaries, former secretaries of provincial Party Committees; 2 chairmen, former chairmen of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences; 18 deputy ministers, former deputy ministers and equivalent; 13 chairmen, former chairmen of provinces; 4 former standing deputy secretaries of provincial Party Committees; 20 generals). Notably, at the recent 6th Central Conference (13th term), for the first time, the Central Executive Committee considered and decided to allow 3 Party Central Committee members to cease participating in the Central Executive Committee according to the Politburo's new policy on job arrangement for cadres after being disciplined. Localities have strictly implemented the Central Government's policy, considering dismissal, resignation or other job assignment for officials after being disciplined, including the case of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee (Ninh Binh, Phu Yen, Binh Thuan).

The National Assembly and the National Assembly Standing Committee conducted supervision of the implementation of policies and laws on practicing thrift and combating waste in the 2016-2021 period; and the implementation of laws on receiving citizens and handling complaints and denunciations in the 2016-2021 period. The Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front organized a meeting to give comments on the results of supervision of the recovery of corrupt assets. Thereby, it proposed to overcome many shortcomings, limitations and inadequacies to contribute to improving the effectiveness of anti-corruption work.

3. The Inspection and Audit sector focuses on inspecting and auditing areas prone to corruption and negativity, with a lot of public opinion, especially urgently inspecting the procurement of equipment, biological products, test kits, and medicines for COVID-19 prevention and control; conducting thematic audits of the mobilization, management, and use of resources for COVID-19 prevention and control and support policies.

The authorities continue to seriously and effectively implement the coordination mechanism in detecting and handling corruption and negativity through inspection, auditing, investigation, prosecution, trial and execution of judgments. Since the beginning of the year, ministries, branches and localities have transferred 498 cases with signs of crime to the investigation agency for investigation and handling in accordance with the law (an increase of nearly 2 times compared to the same period last year). The Inspection and Audit sector alone transferred 325 cases.

4. Since the 21st Session, the prosecution agencies nationwide have prosecuted and investigated 2,474 cases/4,646 defendants, prosecuted 2,157 cases/4,564 defendants, and tried 2,198 cases/4,620 defendants for corruption, economic crimes, and crimes of position (of which, 414 new cases and 939 defendants were prosecuted for corruption). The Steering Committee has focused on directing the handling of 108 serious, complicated corruption and negative cases of public concern. In particular, many particularly serious, complicated corruption and negative cases of public concern have been newly prosecuted and investigated, occurring in specialized fields, operating in closed areas, occurring in both the State and non-State sectors, such as: The case occurred at the Consular Department (Ministry of Foreign Affairs); cases occurring at FLC Group, Tan Hoang Minh, AIC Company; cases occurring at Van Thinh Phat Group...; handling many defendants who are high-ranking officials, both incumbent and retired, which have been welcomed, agreed, supported, and highly appreciated by officials, party members, and the people (15 high-ranking officials under the management of the Politburo and the Secretariat have been prosecuted and investigated. Including: 4 members, former members of the Party Central Committee who are Ministers, former Ministers and provincial Party Secretaries; 4 deputy ministers, former deputy ministers and equivalent, 2 former provincial chairmen and 5 generals in the armed forces); urgently bringing to trial many key cases according to the plan of the Steering Committee (*2). Since the beginning of the 13th Congress term, 25 officials under the management of the Politburo and the Secretariat have been criminally prosecuted.

5. The work of preventing and combating corruption and negativity at the local and grassroots levels has been promoted, achieving many positive results; the number of corruption cases detected and handled tends to increase compared to previous years; in the first 10 months of 2022, localities have prosecuted 382 new corruption cases (1.5 times higher than the same period last year) (*3). Although newly formed and put into operation, the Provincial Steering Committees have actively and proactively brought nearly 400 corruption and negativity cases and incidents into monitoring and direction to focus on handling. Many localities have prosecuted Vice Chairmen of the Provincial People's Committees, Standing Committee Members of the Provincial Party Committees, Department Directors, such as: Lao Cai, Phu Yen, Thai Nguyen, Thanh Hoa, Khanh Hoa, Quang Ninh, ... This shows that the situation of "hot above, cold below" has gradually decreased; the top must be strict, the bottom must also be strict, not doing anything is also not possible.

6. The recovery of corrupt assets continues to have many positive changes. Since the beginning of the year, the prosecution agencies have temporarily seized, seized assets, frozen accounts, and prevented transactions of assets worth over VND160 trillion and many other valuable assets. Civil enforcement agencies have recovered nearly VND16,000 billion (an increase of VND7,000 billion compared to last year).

From the outstanding results mentioned above, it can be affirmed that:

(1) In the fight against corruption and negativity, we must be resolute and synchronous; resolute and synchronous between building and fighting. Between building and perfecting institutions to close loopholes and loopholes and implementing solutions to prevent corruption; between strengthening inspection, supervision, auditing to detect corruption and negativity and investigation, prosecution, trial, and execution of sentences; between Party discipline and administrative discipline and criminal handling; resolute and synchronous from the Central to local and grassroots levels,...

(2) Strictly handle violations according to the viewpoint of "no forbidden zones, no exceptions, no matter who it is". The strict handling of many Party organizations and Party members who violated the law recently, including Party Central Committee members, ministers, deputy ministers, secretaries, chairmen of provinces and many high-ranking officials who were disciplined and criminally prosecuted is the clearest proof and the same must be done in the future; even criminals who have fled abroad must be investigated, prosecuted, and tried, and cannot escape punishment by law.

(3) Along with strictly handling violations, we must promptly replace disciplined officials with limited capacity and low prestige according to the motto: "Some in, some out, some up, some down". That is normal. Recently, for the first time, we dismissed 3 members of the Party Central Committee; dismissed 3 chairmen of the People's Council and the Provincial People's Committee.

(4) Strengthening the fight against corruption and negativity does not "discourage", "hesitate", or make cadres and party members afraid of making mistakes, but only "hesitates" those with impure motives, those who have "got their hands dirty", and those who do not fully grasp the Party's guidelines and policies, lack courage, knowledge and experience. I have said it many times and "Those who do not dare to do it should boldly stand aside and let others do it".

(5) The more we promote the fight against corruption and negativity, the stronger our Party becomes, the more it consolidates and strengthens the people's trust in the Party, the State and the regime, making the apparatus clean, tightening discipline and order, making an important contribution to promoting socio-economic development, maintaining political stability, strengthening national defense, security and foreign affairs, and at the same time, refuting the false arguments of bad, hostile and opposing forces that the fight against corruption and handling of erring cadres and Party members is "internal fighting", "factionalism", and "discouraging" others.

However, in addition to the achieved results, there are still shortcomings and limitations mentioned in the Report, such as: (1) Some cases and incidents are slow to be resolved according to the plan of the Steering Committee. The appraisal and valuation of assets in some cases and incidents are still slow, poor coordination, many cases have to be temporarily suspended pending appraisal and valuation results. (2) Corruption and negativity in some areas are still serious, complicated; major violations in the fields of land, bidding, securities, corporate bond issuance, etc. have emerged, causing particularly serious consequences; there is collusion and connection between degenerate and corrupt officials with enterprises and organizations for personal gain, causing resentment among officials, party members and the people. (3) Internal self-inspection and supervision have not changed, very few cases have been discovered through self-inspection. (4) Although asset recovery work has been very strong and increased compared to previous years, the value of assets to be recovered is still large.

Therefore, we request that comrades pay attention to directing urgent correction and overcoming of the above shortcomings and limitations in the coming time.

II- SOME KEY TASKS IN THE COMING TIME

Dear comrades!

The fight against corruption and negativity is always an extremely difficult, complicated and long-term task. Along with the country's development and the increasingly deep international integration process, acts of corruption and negativity will become more and more sophisticated, complicated and unpredictable; not only occurring domestically but also internationally, not only occurring in the State sector but also in the non-State sector, not only a few individuals but also many groups have violated, forming "interest groups", not only losing money and assets of the State, but also losing many cadres, losing the trust of cadres, party members and people. This requires us to continue to promote, resolutely, persistently, without stopping, without resting, with higher determination, stronger, more drastic and urgent actions in the fight against corruption and negativity. In particular, it is necessary to focus on doing well the following tasks:

1. Focus on directing central and local prosecution agencies to strengthen coordination, remove difficulties and obstacles, speed up the progress of investigation, prosecution, trial of cases, and handling of cases under the supervision and direction of the Steering Committee; strive to complete the investigation, additional investigation of 11 cases, prosecute 9 cases, try 11 cases at first instance, try 3 cases at appeal, and complete the verification and handling of 21 cases in accordance with the Steering Committee's Plan by the end of 2022. In particular:

- Urgently remove difficulties and obstacles, speed up the verification, investigation and strict handling of violations related to the following cases and incidents: (1) The case occurred at Viet A Company; (2) The case occurred at the Consular Department - Ministry of Foreign Affairs; (3) The case occurred at Van Thinh Phat Group; (4) The case occurred at AIC Company.

- Urgently bring to first instance trial 6 key cases from now until the end of 2022, including: (1) The case of "Violating regulations on management and use of State assets causing loss and waste" occurring at Nha Trang Center 2 Project, No. 01 Tran Hung Dao, Nha Trang city; (2) The case of "Lack of responsibility causing serious consequences; Abusing positions and powers while performing official duties" occurring at the Ministry of Health, Cuu Long Pharmaceutical Company and related units; (3) The case of "Violating regulations on bidding causing serious consequences" occurring at Can Tho Department of Health; (4) The case of "Smuggling; Illegal transportation of goods and currencies across the border" occurring in An Giang; (5) The case of "Abuse of trust to appropriate property; Lack of responsibility causing serious consequences" occurring at the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Long Bien Branch, Hanoi city; (6) The case of "Violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences" occurred at Dong Nai General Hospital, AIC Company and related units.

2. The Central Inspection Committee shall inspect and direct inspections when there are signs of violations by Party organizations and Party members in the leadership and direction of the implementation of projects and bidding packages carried out by AIC Company and its member companies. Urgently complete and conclude inspections of 7 inspections of Party organizations and Party members with signs of violations related to cases and incidents under the supervision and direction of the Steering Committee.

3. The National Assembly Party Delegation and the Government Party Committee shall lead and direct the continued review and correction of loopholes and inadequacies in mechanisms, policies and laws related to bidding, auctions, management and use of land, public assets, public-private partnership, socialization, banking, finance, financial autonomy, securities, corporate bonds, construction planning, etc.

4. The Government Party Committee leads the Government:

- Direct the Government Inspectorate to urgently complete the specialized inspection of the procurement of equipment, biological products, test kits, and medicines for the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic; inspect the conversion of land use purposes from production and business land of state-owned enterprises and equitized enterprises to real estate business in the period 2011 - 2017; inspect the specialized inspection of compliance with the law on the issuance of corporate bonds and the use of funds from corporate bonds; inspect the specialized inspection of planning and implementation of construction planning.

- Direct the Ministry of Justice to lead the General Department of Civil Judgment Enforcement to continue to closely coordinate with relevant agencies and localities to focus on removing difficulties and obstacles, improving the effectiveness of recovering lost and misappropriated assets in cases and incidents, especially cases under the supervision and direction of the Steering Committee.

5. The Provincial Steering Committee focuses on directing local authorities to strengthen coordination and strictly implement the direction mechanism of the Standing Committee of the Central Steering Committee in detecting and handling corruption and negativity through inspection, supervision, auditing, investigation, prosecution, trial and execution of judgments; directing the final handling of corruption and negativity cases and incidents that have been put under monitoring and direction; resolutely overcoming the evil of "petty corruption"; strictly and synchronously handling Party discipline, administrative discipline and criminal handling of corruption and negativity acts in accordance with the principle of "Proactively, urgently, clearly handling to the extent, regardless of who commits corruption, where there are signs of crime, must initiate investigation and when there is a conclusion of guilt, must be prosecuted and tried".

III- ON THE RESULTS OF THE SPECIALIZED INSPECTION OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE

The Standing Committee of the Steering Committee highly appreciated the 8 inspection teams of the Steering Committee for actively and promptly completing the inspection according to the Steering Committee's plan; basically agreed with the content of the draft Report summarizing the inspection results of the 8 inspection teams and the recommendations and proposals. Assigned the Central Internal Affairs Committee to preside over receiving and completing the Inspection Results Report, reporting at the 23rd Session of the Steering Committee.

IV- ABOUT RECOMMENDATIONS AND PROPOSALS

1. The Standing Committee of the Steering Committee agrees with the specific proposals in the Report on the results of directing and handling cases and cases of the Standing Agency presented at this meeting; assigns the Standing Agency to advise and propose the Standing Committee of the Steering Committee to issue a document directing and urging the competent agencies to fully, seriously and on schedule implement the recommendations and proposals.

2. The Standing Committee of the Steering Committee agreed to add 3 cases to the list of cases being monitored and directed by the Steering Committee according to the recommendations of the Steering Committee's inspection teams, including: (1) The violation occurred at the Project of the mixed-use complex of trade, services, hotels, housing, and schools at 423 Minh Khai, Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi; (2) The violation occurred at Tin Nghia Corporation, Dong Nai; (3) The violation occurred at the Tan Thinh Residential Area Project in Doi 61 Commune, Trang Bom District, Dong Nai.

3. Assign the Central Internal Affairs Committee to advise the Standing Committee of the Steering Committee to issue a Notice of the Meeting's conclusion; monitor and urge the implementation of the relevant agencies.

Finally, I wish you good health.

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(*1): Typically: (1) Regarding the cases of smuggling, illegal transportation of currency, goods, gambling, and gambling organization that occurred in An Giang, the Central Inspection Committee disciplined 13 Party organizations and 22 Party members, mainly officers of law enforcement agencies, including 3 Directors and former Directors of the Provincial Police; the Chief Prosecutor of the Provincial People's Procuracy; the Chief Justice of the Provincial People's Court, the Political Commissar and Commander of the Provincial Border Guard; the Director of the Provincial Customs Department; at the same time, requested the An Giang Provincial Party Committee to consider and discipline 15 Party organizations and 72 Party members; (2) The case that occurred at Viet A Company, to date, has completed 8/13 inspections; has handled and recommended disciplinary action against 16 Party organizations and 56 Party members, including 3 Central Party Committee members; requested the Party organization to consider and discipline 5 Party organizations and 18 Party members.

(*2) Including: (1) The case of "Taking advantage of position and power while performing official duties" occurred at Bach Mai Hospital and a number of agencies and units; (2) The case of "Violating regulations on land management" occurred in the implementation of the Cuu Long Son Tu spiritual ecological project and the Vinh Trung river and mountain villa project in the Chin Khuc mountain area, Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province; (3) The case of "Lack of responsibility causing serious consequences; Taking advantage of position and power while performing official duties; Trading in counterfeit medicines" occurred in Ho Chi Minh City, other provinces and cities, the Drug Administration of Vietnam - Ministry of Health and related agencies and units; (4) The case of "Taking advantage of position and power while performing official duties; Receiving bribes" occurred in units under the Coast Guard Command, Border Guard; (5) The case of "Violating regulations on management and use of State assets causing loss and waste" occurred at Binh Duong Production and Import-Export Corporation; (6) The case of "Smuggling; manufacturing and trading in counterfeit goods; giving bribes; receiving bribes..." occurred in Dong Nai and some localities; (7) The case of "Violating regulations on management and use of State assets causing loss and waste" occurred at Tan Thuan Investment and Construction One Member Limited Liability Company.

(*3) Localities have discovered and handled many corruption cases such as: Nghe An (29 cases), Hanoi (28 cases), Bac Ninh (19 cases), Ho Chi Minh City (15 cases), Thai Nguyen (14 cases), Son La (11 cases), Tuyen Quang (14 cases), Bac Giang (13 cases), Quang Ninh (11 cases), Nam Dinh (11 cases), Thanh Hoa (11 cases), Binh Dinh (11 cases),...