General Secretary: The fight against corruption will be more fierce, relentless, and never-ending.

On the morning of June 30, the Politburo held a national conference to review 10 years of anti-corruption and negativity work in the 2012-2022 period.

The conference was held in both in-person and online formats at 4,100 locations in 8 central ministries and branches; 63 centrally-run provinces and cities with the participation of more than 81,000 delegates nationwide. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Prevent and combat corruption strongly, synchronously, resolutely and methodically

The conference listened to Comrade Phan Dinh Trac - Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Internal Affairs Commission, Permanent Deputy Head of the Central Steering Committee on anti-corruption and negativity presented a summary report summarizing 10 years of anti-corruption and negativity work in the period 2012 - 2022; tasks and solutions for the coming time.

Leaders of the Central Inspection Commission, the Ministry of Public Security, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee; the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, the Vietnam Journalists Association, the Supreme People's Procuracy... presented papers on the results of anti-corruption work; raised lessons learned and proposed many solutions to strengthen and promote anti-corruption and negativity work more effectively in the coming time.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Standing member of the Secretariat Vo Van Thuong, and Head of the Central Internal Affairs Commission Phan Dinh Trac co-chaired the conference. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Concluding the conference, Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong - General Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Steering Committee on anti-corruption and anti-negativity emphasized that this is an important conference, discussing issues related to "fighting internal invaders", maintaining the purity and strength of the Party and the political system, consolidating and enhancing the people's trust in the Party, the State and our regime, which is of interest to cadres, party members and people and has high expectations.

On behalf of the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Central Steering Committee on anti-corruption and anti-negativity, the General Secretary highly appreciated the enthusiastic, important, and profound opinions of the units and localities, bringing to the conference a spirit of excitement, solidarity, responsibility, and high unity.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said that the Conference not only has the meaning of summarizing 10 years of work in preventing and combating corruption and negativity, but also draws lessons to continue promoting this work in the coming time with the viewpoint of constantly, without stopping, truly cleaning up the Party and State apparatus, the entire political system, "this is the decisive factor for other work"; how to fight against the degradation of political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle of cadres.

Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong - General Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Steering Committee on anti-corruption and negativity concluded the conference. Photo: Pham Cuong

The new point is that the Central Committee and the Politburo have decided to establish a Steering Committee for the prevention and fight against corruption and negativity at the provincial level. Therefore, this is also an opportunity to disseminate experiences and inspire the provincial level to learn, in order to "cover loopholes, stop despicable, cowardly acts that violate moral qualities" in the spirit of "unanimity from top to bottom, and transparency across the board".

Delegates participating at the bridge point in Nghe An. Photo: Pham Bang

Assessing the work of preventing and combating corruption and negativity in the period of 2012-2022, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said that encouraging results have been achieved. Thereby, he affirmed that this work has been led and directed by the Central Government resolutely and systematically, increasingly going into depth, making strong progress, achieving many important and comprehensive specific results, leaving a good impression, creating positive effects, spreading strongly in society, truly becoming an irreversible movement and trend, receiving the sympathy, support and high appreciation of cadres, party members and people, and being recognized by international friends.

Corruption has been gradually controlled and prevented, contributing significantly to maintaining political stability, social order and security, strengthening the trust of cadres, party members and people in our Party and State, making all distortions and sabotage by bad and hostile forces become brazen and ridiculous. "Never before has the fight against corruption been carried out in such a strong, synchronous, drastic, methodical and effective manner as in recent times."

Politburo members, Party Central Committee Secretaries, Party Central Committee members, leaders of central departments, ministries and branches, and local leaders attended the Conference. Photo: Pham Cuong

To achieve those results, according to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, first of all, it is the close and decisive leadership and direction with many correct and timely decisions of the Party Central Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat, the National Assembly, the Government, and directly the Central Steering Committee on preventing and combating corruption and negativity. The exemplary role of the Party and State leaders, heads of Party committees and authorities at all levels.

The determined efforts of the advisory bodies, of the Party committees, organizations, departments, ministries, branches, localities, especially the great efforts of the agencies and units with the function of preventing and fighting corruption and the prosecution agencies from the central to local levels. The resonance of the results, the active participation of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations, press agencies; the consensus and encouragement of the people.

In addition to the achieved results, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said that some departments, branches and localities have not had high determination; there has not been a strong change; the detection and handling of corruption is still limited; the recovery rate of corrupt and lost assets is still low; self-inspection, detection and handling of corruption within agencies and units is still a weak link; corruption in some areas is still serious and complicated with increasingly sophisticated and cunning manifestations, causing outrage in society. Corruption and negativity are still one of the vicious "enemies", posing a threat to the survival of our Party and regime.

Dealing with both the cover-up and tolerance of corruption

Through 10 years of practice, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong also brought up many lessons in the work of preventing and combating corruption and negativity. In particular, all levels, sectors, agencies and units must turn political determination into practical actions of cadres, party members, civil servants and people. First of all, it is the exemplary role, matching words with actions, and determination of Party and State leaders, heads of Party committees, authorities, agencies, organizations and units.

The General Secretary believes that fighting corruption is a struggle within each individual, within each agency, organization, unit, and locality. Therefore, we must have a resolute and uncompromising attitude, and take drastic, concrete, and effective actions. Those assigned to positions must constantly practice, self-reflect, and self-correct, while at the same time strengthening supervision and effectively controlling the exercise of power by those in positions and powers.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the National Assembly Delegation, Chairman of the People's Council of Nghe An province and local leaders attended the conference at the Party Central Committee Hall. Photo: Pham Cuong

"All power must be strictly controlled by mechanisms, power must be bound by responsibility, where power comes, there is responsibility, the higher the power, the greater the responsibility, no matter who it is," General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said, emphasizing that "anyone who abuses or takes advantage of power for personal gain must be held accountable and punished for violations."

Emphasizing the viewpoint that anti-corruption is "fighting internal invaders", the General Secretary said that this is an important but extremely complicated task, requiring us to carry out resolutely, persistently, persistently, and continuously at all levels, sectors, and fields. Synchronously implement political, ideological, organizational, administrative, economic, and criminal measures with a firm, positive, proactive, and focused step. To build a strict prevention mechanism so that "corruption is impossible"; a deterrent and strict punishment mechanism so that "corruption is not wanted"; and build a guarantee mechanism so that "corruption is not needed".

Leaders of central and local departments, ministries and branches attended the Conference. Photo: Pham Cuong

In the fight against corruption, we cannot be subjective, complacent, evasive, or half-hearted. We must closely combine active prevention with proactive detection and timely and strict handling of corrupt acts. In which, prevention is the main, fundamental, and long-term task; detection is the key. To prevent, we need to focus on building and perfecting institutions and policies; and promoting the building of a clean, strong, and comprehensive Party and political system.

In addition to dealing with corruption, it is necessary to deal with acts of condoning and covering up corruption. Implement synchronously Party discipline, state administrative discipline, organization discipline and criminal handling. Party discipline must be implemented first, creating a premise for administrative and criminal handling. The Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption must be worthy of doing anti-corruption work, must maintain itself and be transparent.

Leaders of central and local departments, ministries and branches attended the Conference. Photo: Pham Cuong

In the coming time, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong also emphasized the viewpoint in the work of preventing and fighting corruption is to continue to strictly and promptly handle acts of corruption and acts of covering up corruption, "no forbidden zones, no exceptions, no matter who the person is". Gradually expand the scope of preventing and fighting corruption in the non-state sector.

"From the results and experiences gained in the past time, we believe that the work of preventing and combating corruption and negativity in the coming time will have new steps forward, be stronger, more determined, and achieve higher efficiency. Corruption and negativity will definitely be prevented and pushed back, contributing to building our Party and State to be increasingly clean and strong, meeting the requirements of the revolutionary cause, worthy of the trust and expectations of the people. The important and decisive thing is: Awareness must be mature, ideology must be clear, determination must be great and methods must be firm," General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized./.