General Secretary and President: Anti-corruption work will have to be done more drastically and vigorously

On the morning of December 12, the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption held a national online conference to review anti-corruption work in the 2013-2020 period. This is the largest conference ever since the Steering Committee was reorganized and established under the Politburo model, with the General Secretary as Head of the Steering Committee.

At the central bridge, comrade Nguyen Phu Trong - General Secretary, President, Head of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption; Tran Quoc Vuong - Politburo member, Standing member of the Secretariat, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee; Truong Hoa Binh - Politburo member, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister; General To Lam - Politburo member, Minister of Public Security; Phan Dinh Trac - Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Internal Affairs Committee, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee; Tran Cam Tu - Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Inspection Committee; Uong Chu Luu - Member of the Party Central Committee, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly co-chaired the conference.

Attending the conference were Politburo members: Nguyen Xuan Phuc - Prime Minister; Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan - Chairwoman of the National Assembly; Tong Thi Phong - Permanent Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly;Pham Minh Chinh - Head of the Central Organizing Committee;Vo Van Thuong - Head of the Central Propaganda Department;Truong Thi Mai - Head of the Central Committee for Mass Mobilization;Nguyen Van Binh - Head of the Central Economic Commission; Pham Binh Minh - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs; Vuong Dinh Hue - Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee; Nguyen Thien Nhan - Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Ho Chi Minh City.

At Nghe An bridge, comrade Nguyen Van Thong - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee chaired. Attending were representatives of the leaders of the Inspection Commission.Provincial Party Committee Inspectorate, Provincial Party Committee Internal Affairs Committee, Provincial Military Command, Provincial Police, Department of Justice...

General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong; Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc; and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan attended the conference. Photo: VNA

TRIAL OF MORE THAN 22,600 DEFENDANTS FOR CORRUPTION, ECONOMY, AND OFFICIAL POSITION

Reporting on the work of preventing and combating corruption (PCTN) in the period of 2013 - 2020, comrade Phan Dinh Trac - Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Internal Affairs Committee, Deputy Head of the Standing Committee of the Steering Committee said that since the establishment of the Steering Committee (February 2013) up to now, especially during the term of the 12th Party Congress, the work of PCTN has made a strong and breakthrough step forward, achieved many important, comprehensive and clear results, which are outstanding marks in the term; received the support and high appreciation of cadres, party members and people, and was recognized by the international community, making an important contribution to the work of building and rectifying the Party, maintaining political stability and socio-economic development of the country.

Implementing the General Secretary's guiding viewpoint: "No forbidden zones, no exceptions", the investigation, prosecution and trial work has been focused on, resolutely directed and vigorously carried out, including cases that have been backlogged for many years; strictly and publicly handling both senior officials, both incumbent and retired, who have violated the cases.

Comrade Tran Quoc Vuong - Politburo member, Standing member of the Secretariat, Deputy Head of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption delivered the opening speech at the conference. Photo: Phuong Hoa/VNA

From 2013 to present, the Central and local prosecution agencies have prosecuted and investigated 14,300 cases/24,410 defendants; tried at first instance more than 11,700 cases/22,600 defendants on corruption, economic and position. The Steering Committee alone, since its establishment, has put 800 serious, complicated corruption and economic cases and incidents of public concern under surveillance at 3 levels.

The work of recovering corrupt assets has had many positive changes, the rate of recovering assets in economic and corruption criminal cases has been increased. From 2013 to now, law enforcement agencies have temporarily detained, seized, frozen, and recovered nearly 68,000 billion VND/118,000 billion VND to be recovered, reaching a rate of 57.39%.

Over the past 8 years, Party committees and inspection committees at all levels have disciplined more than 131,000 Party members, of whom more than 6,000 were found guilty of corruption or intentional wrongdoing. During the 12th Congress term alone, 87,000 Party members were disciplined, of whom 3,263 were involved in corruption.

Comrade Phan Dinh Trac - Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Head of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption, Head of the Central Internal Affairs Commission presented a report on the results of anti-corruption work in the 2013-2020 period. Photo: Phuong Hoa/VNA

The Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Central Inspection Commission have decided to discipline 10 Party organizations directly under the Central Committee and more than 110 officials under the Central Committee's management (including 27 Party Central Committee members and former Party Central Committee members; 4 Politburo members and former Politburo members). This is a breakthrough in the Party's inspection and discipline work.

Inspection and audit agencies have recommended handling the responsibilities of more than 14,000 groups and many individuals who committed violations; transferred more than 650 cases with signs of crime to investigation agencies; recommended recovering and handling more than 700,000 billion VND and more than 200,000 hectares of land; and proposed and recommended overcoming many loopholes and inadequacies in policies and laws.

Scene at Nghe An bridge. Photo: Pham Bang

In addition to the achieved results, the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption also assessed that anti-corruption work in some localities, ministries and branches has not had clear changes; detection and handling of violations are still limited; the rate of recovery of corrupt and lost assets is still low.

In addition, the work of self-inspection and self-detection of corruption within the organization is still weak; the work of appraisal and valuation of assets is still inadequate; violations and corruption still occur in anti-corruption agencies. Corruption in some fields and areas is still serious and complicated, with increasingly sophisticated manifestations, causing outrage in society.

Comrade Nguyen Van Thong - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee chaired the Nghe An bridge point. Photo: Pham Bang

At the conference, representatives of the Government Inspectorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the National Assembly's Judiciary Committee; the Hanoi Party Committee; the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee, the Ministry of Justice, Dong Nai province, ... reported on anti-corruption work, proposed recommendations and solutions to improve the quality and effectiveness of anti-corruption work in the coming time.

"DO IT HARDER, DO IT EVEN STRONGER"

Concluding the conference, General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong, Head of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption, emphasized that this conference is of great significance and has high expectations from cadres, party members, and the people. This is also the largest conference ever, with nearly 700 delegates attending the conference in person and nearly 5,000 delegates at more than 80 online locations nationwide.

According to the General Secretary and President, since the establishment of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption in February 2013, this work has been led and directed resolutely, systematically, in-depth, made strong progress, achieved many important and comprehensive results, left good impressions, created positive effects that spread strongly throughout society, and has truly become a movement and trend that has been supported, highly appreciated, and internationally recognized by cadres, party members, and people.

General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong, Head of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption, delivered the concluding speech at the conference. Photo: Tri Dung/VNA

“Corruption has been gradually controlled and prevented, making an important contribution to maintaining political stability, contributing to socio-economic development, and strengthening the trust of cadres, party members, and people in the Party and the State. According to the results of a survey on public opinion, 93% of the people expressed their confidence in the Party's leadership in the fight against corruption, making all distortions and sabotage by hostile forces appear brazen and ridiculous. That is a great success in our work of preventing and fighting corruption,” the General Secretary and President affirmed.

Affirming that the work of preventing and fighting corruption is “no forbidden zone, no exception, no matter who the person is, not subject to pressure from any individual”, General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong also expressed that the strict handling of many officials, including high-ranking officials who commit violations, is something no one wants, even very painful. But for the common cause, for the strictness and discipline of the Party, the rule of law of the State, the purity, strength and prestige of the Party, the State and the will of the People, we must do it and resolutely do it, “discipline a few people to save thousands”, and will have to do it even more drastically and strongly in the coming time.

The Head of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption said that the past period has done well, but there is still much to do and must be done better in the coming time. Because corruption has corrupted cadres, degraded and damaged the quality of Communists. Corruption is an inborn defect of power and preventing and fighting corruption is fighting against internal invaders. Above all, corruption is still one of the dangers threatening the survival of our Party and regime.

Delegates attending the conference at Nghe An bridge. Photo: Pham Bang

Pointing out the shortcomings and limitations in the work of preventing and combating corruption, Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong requested that departments, branches and localities must not be subjective, complacent, or not respond, but must try harder. Fighting corruption is not only about the economy, but the root is fighting against the degradation of ideology, politics, ethics and lifestyle. Therefore, being a role model and training in ideology, ethics and lifestyle is extremely important.

The General Secretary said that many valuable lessons have been drawn from the past practice. That is, there must be high political determination and turn determination into practical actions of cadres, party members, civil servants, public employees and the people; Anti-corruption is an important, regular task, both urgent and difficult, complicated and long-term, building a mechanism to "not be able to be corrupt", not dare to be corrupt" and "not need to be corrupt"; Closely combine prevention with proactive detection and handling; Link anti-corruption work with practicing thrift, fighting waste, building and rectifying the Party, fighting political, moral and lifestyle degradation, "self-evolution", "self-transformation".

Pointing out the tasks and solutions for anti-corruption work in the coming time, General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized that the country is facing an important moment on the eve of the 13th National Party Congress. Therefore, in anti-corruption work, we must not be subjective, impatient, complacent, avoidant, incessant, restless, or indecisive, but must continue to promote it with higher and stronger determination.

Panorama of the conference at the Hanoi bridge. Photo: Tri Dung/VNA

In particular, cadres and party members must respect integrity and honor, be ashamed when they or their relatives are corrupt and wasteful; overcome loopholes and inadequacies in socio-economic management and ineffective solutions to prevent corruption; focus on control to limit the impact of "interest groups", "backyards", "term thinking"; "lock power in a cage of mechanisms".

General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong believes that with the high political determination of the Party and State, the active and synchronous participation of Party committees, authorities at all levels, the entire political system and the whole society, the work of anti-corruption during the 13th National Congress will have new, stronger, more drastic and more effective steps forward. Corruption will certainly be prevented and repelled, contributing to building our Party and State increasingly clean and strong, meeting the requirements of the revolutionary cause and the trust and expectations of the people.

On this occasion, the President decided to award Medals of various types to 29 collectives and 30 individuals from ministries, departments, branches, and organizations at the Central and local levels; the Prime Minister awarded Certificates of Merit to 39 collectives and 22 individuals at the Central and local levels for their outstanding achievements in anti-corruption work in the 2013-2020 period.