General Secretary: Need to minimize the situation of absconding when dealing with corruption

Speaking at the meeting of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption, the General Secretary requested to minimize the situation of escape and running away, and to strengthen the inspection and examination of the responsibility of leaders.

On December 28, in Hanoi, the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption held its 11th meeting. General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Head of the Steering Committee, chaired the meeting.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong chairs the 11th meeting of the Central Steering Committee on anti-corruption.

The report at the meeting stated that in 2016, with high determination and focused, close, drastic, specific, timely, and innovative direction of the Standing Committee of the Steering Committee and the Steering Committee, both directing the handling policy and directing each specific content of work, associated with the responsibilities of the competent authorities and competent persons, regularly urging the Steering Committee Standing Committee to resolve the work to the end; along with the great efforts of the prosecution agencies and other competent authorities, the progress of investigation, prosecution, and trial of serious and complicated corruption cases and handling of outstanding cases had clear changes. Many particularly serious and complicated corruption cases that caused public outrage were handled on schedule and strictly according to the provisions of law, such as the Pham Cong Danh case, the Ha Van Tham case, the Le Dung case, the Pham Ngoc Ngoan case, and the Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu case (re-investigation part).

In 2016, the cases under the supervision and direction of the Steering Committee prosecuted and tried 8 cases/121 defendants at first instance; 6 cases/55 defendants at appeal. The cases under the supervision and direction of the Central Internal Affairs Committee prosecuted and tried 3 cases/10 defendants at first instance; 2 cases/3 defendants at appeal.

The Steering Committee has established 7 working groups to inspect and supervise the inspection of cases, prosecution, investigation, prosecution, and trial of serious and complicated corruption and economic cases of public concern in 14 provinces. Through inspection and supervision, the working groups have made recommendations on 42 issues regarding mechanisms, policies, and laws; and recommended the urging, monitoring, and direction of handling 87 cases.

The new point in 2016 is that the Steering Committee directed the Central Inspection Committee to preside over and coordinate with the Central Internal Affairs Committee and the Party Committee of the Ministry of Finance to inspect the prevention, detection and handling of corruption in the fields of tax and customs.

The Steering Committee has directed the Central Internal Affairs Commission - the Standing Body of the Steering Committee, to focus on helping the Politburo summarize 10 years of implementing Resolution No. 3 of the Central Committee (10th Tenure) on strengthening the Party's leadership in the work of preventing and combating corruption and waste; directed the summary of 10 years of implementing the Law on Prevention and Combating Corruption and urgently develop and submit to the National Assembly the draft Law on Prevention and Combating Corruption (amended); directed the Central Inspection Commission to review, amend and supplement regulations in the field of Party inspection and supervision related to the work of preventing and combating corruption.

The Steering Committee issued Plan No. 19 dated May 10, 2016 to implement Directive No. 50 dated December 7, 2015 of the Politburo on strengthening the Party's leadership in detecting and handling corruption cases. Up to now, most of the contents have been and are being implemented by the competent agencies according to the plan; 63/63 provincial and municipal Party Committees have issued implementation programs and plans; 436 cases have been selected and included in the Standing Committee of the provincial and municipal Party Committees to direct the handling of cases.

Coordination between Party agencies and state agencies in general, and between Party inspection and supervision agencies and inspection, auditing and investigation agencies in particular, has been strengthened, made closer, more timely and effective.

Concluding the meeting, the General Secretary proposed to minimize the situation of escape and running away in the process of handling corruption.

Concluding the meeting, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Head of the Steering Committee, praised the Central Internal Affairs Committee - the Standing Body of the Steering Committee for its efforts, proactiveness, and creativity in advising, proposing, and serving the activities of the Steering Committee. The General Secretary pointed out that 2016 was the first year of implementing the Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress, with a large workload; many new members of the Steering Committee were added. However, the Steering Committee was active, proactive, and creative in performing its assigned tasks. The members of the Steering Committee were thorough and determined in performing their tasks.

“2016 is the first year of implementing the Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress. Along with carrying out its tasks, the Steering Committee must continue to improve itself for the new term. The nature of our work is very complicated, a new requirement for Party members and people in the fight against negativity in general and against corruption and waste in particular. The advantage in 2016 is that after the Congress, after the election of the National Assembly and People's Councils, after the work in the recent past, we have a new spirit, there is consensus from the whole society, the working atmosphere is also different from before. At the same time, it also requires us to be more and more responsible. In that context, like other agencies, the Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption has tried very hard to implement the program of tasks set out at the end of last year, for this year and has had very clear and positive changes. Another issue that we have achieved in 2016 is that all agencies have participated, relatively evenly. "The hand is not yet complete but quite strong," the General Secretary stated.

The General Secretary also pointed out that, along with the urgent restructuring of the organization, the Steering Committee has been active, proactive, creative, and innovative in its methods of operation, focusing on improving work efficiency. Most of the important contents in the Steering Committee's Core Work Program have been seriously implemented and completed according to plan; the progress of investigation, prosecution, and trial of serious and complicated corruption cases and handling of prominent cases have seen clear changes.

In addition to the achieved results, the General Secretary also frankly pointed out a number of shortcomings and limitations in the activities of the Steering Committee, including the investigation, prosecution and trial of a number of corruption and economic cases that have been particularly prolonged, a number of subjects who are being inspected and examined due to their involvement in economic and corruption violations have fled abroad, causing public outrage and suspicion, and the slow progress in implementing a number of tasks according to the Plan to implement Directive 50-CT/TW of the Politburo...

Regarding the key tasks of 2017, basically agreeing with the 7 key task groups with 12 specific tasks stated in the report, the General Secretary emphasized that the focus is still on leadership and direction to detect and handle corruption.

“To do well, we must continue to have greater determination, make greater efforts and act more resolutely; pay more attention to some major and serious cases; pay more attention to some stages at the local and grassroots levels; pay more attention to some areas such as: environmental resources (especially land and minerals), tax and customs, private sector, foreign investment sector. Try to minimize the situation of escape and running away, strengthen the inspection stage, check the responsibility of the leaders. At the local and grassroots levels, in the coming time, we need to set out the direction of inspection so that the grassroots level can become stronger. In recent years, inspection work has shown good effects, but the change is still not strong,” said the General Secretary.

The General Secretary also requested to speed up the investigation, prosecution and trial of particularly serious and complicated cases that are of special public interest, while speeding up the inspection, audit and handling of large investment projects that are losing money, are prolonged and cannot operate, and urgently investigating when there are signs of crime./.

According to VOV