'The Viet A case is a painful test for personnel work'

Regarding the case of Viet A Company inflating the price of Covid-19 test kits, up to now, a series of defendants who are leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and hospitals have been caught up in the law for receiving "commissions". Recently, two officials under the Central management, former Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long and former Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Chu Ngoc Anh, have been prosecuted and temporarily detained.

Speaking to reporters, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Quoc Dung - Director of the Regional Political Academy II said that the Covid pandemic in general and the Viet A case in particular are a test for anti-corruption work as well as personnel work, and that test has caused a number of leaders and civil servants in the health sector to "collapse" before the "sugar-coated bullets". The case is also a painful lesson that needs to be learned deeply in order to arrange more accurate and appropriate leadership staff in the future.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Dung - Director of Regional Political Academy II.

PV:Before the Viet A case, there were a series of disciplinary actions involving provincial and central leaders, including high-ranking officers. How do you feel when officials holding high positions are corrupt and degraded?

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Dung:We are very sad about the recent incidents, high-ranking leaders, cadres who had a period of testing and training in the localities, but perhaps due to a lack of revolutionary ethics, lifestyle, and ideology, were easily tempted and fell for money.

In addition to the 5-step staff process, I think that the work of organizing staff needs to have other, deeper perspectives to properly evaluate people. Although it is very difficult to properly evaluate people because consciousness is in their heads, however, it is necessary to be very persistent in this.

Review the cases to analyze, draw lessons, avoid taking advantage of the 5-step process to insert personal opinions, turning the general into the particular. Therefore, it is necessary to focus more on training cadres who are both red and professional as Uncle Ho once said, especially the awareness of cadres.

When selecting and appointing officials, in addition to professional competence, moral qualities are extremely important. Those moral qualities must be diligence, thrift, integrity, impartiality, and impartiality, as in the ideology and morality of Ho Chi Minh.

For example, the Tran Dynasty, a brilliant dynasty, defeated the Mongols three times. That dynasty must have had a team of leaders and soldiers who were truly good in ability and moral qualities. Read againMilitary Strategy Summary- A lost work recorded in various places shows that the hero Tran Hung Dao gave 8 points to choose talented people, such as asking verbally to see if the answer is clear, testing spies to see if they are loyal, using beauty tricks to see if they are moral, and even bribery to see if they will accept money.

That means we need to have a channel to comprehensively evaluate cadres. However, the fundamental solution is to improve the cultural level of cadres and party members today in the sense of not only studying but also self-respect, ethics, service and striving for the Party's ideals.

I think that the current selection of party members needs to be reconsidered because in some places, the admission to the Party is still a formality. If our Party does not have strong party members with sufficient moral qualities, it will be very difficult. Therefore, the work of building and rectifying the Party, cadre work, and admitting party members is extremely important, not only a matter of mechanism and process but also the issue of selecting cadres and party members. Cadres and party members must be trained through practice. In addition, the person who recommends must be responsible for corrupt cadres, and it is also necessary to review the collective responsibility when trusting and voting for that personnel.

Looking back at the recent cadre-related incidents, we should not be pessimistic because there are still many good people and many capable leaders. The issue is to create a good environment for cadres to contribute and to resolve all policies and regimes well.

Former Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long (left photo) and former Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee Chu Ngoc Anh have just been prosecuted and temporarily detained in connection with the Viet A case.

PV: The Viet A case is a test and has shown us many dark corners, sir?

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Dung:This case is a test for anti-corruption policy and personnel work. Indeed, this test is very painful, causing many officials to be "tainted" and criminally prosecuted.

In the harsh conditions of the epidemic, there have been countless people who sacrificed their lives for their comrades, teammates, and the community, but why do some officials tolerate Viet A for personal gain? In terms of human conscience, this is unacceptable.

The case took place with a very large amount of “commission”, perhaps many people had the illusion that the set price had been set so they just followed it, and the “commission” was given by the business? Is this what makes people easily fall into the trap?

The Viet A case also revealed a very dangerous hidden corner, which is the collusion and connivance of some leaders. Obviously, the enterprise has deceived the State agency by saying that the test kits belong to the enterprise and that they made them themselves. So how is the inspection and supervision here? It is necessary to review this stage to find those responsible.

Reporter: Public opinion is questioning whether officials' mistakes are due to corruption or poor management. What is your opinion?

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Dung:The main thing is still the corruption of some officials. Their qualifications may be weak, but if they have self-respect and morality, they will not do that. You accept money that is not yours, with such a large amount of money, you need to ask the question "Where did the money come from?", "What did they give the money for?". If you are a self-respecting person, you will know the answer immediately.

So the problem is the ethics and qualities of the cadres, of course it is still due to their working capacity and incompetence. But I think they cannot be so incompetent that they cannot clearly see the purpose of such a large amount of "commission". Therefore, the main thing is still the degeneration of some cadres.

We need to thoroughly grasp and strictly implement Conclusion No. 21, resolutely and severely handle cadres and party members who have degraded in ideology, morality and lifestyle.

I think our country does not lack more self-respecting and better officials. The problem is how we find talented people and invite them to help the country.

President Ho Chi Minh's teachings on personnel work.

PV: As you just said, the current low monthly income from salary has been affecting the lives of a large number of cadres and civil servants, eroding their integrity, dignity and self-respect. In your opinion, is increasing salary a solution to limit corruption and negativity among cadres and civil servants?

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Dung:That is just one of the solutions. To fundamentally solve this problem, it is necessary to design a policy focusing on the “four nos”: Don’t dare, can’t, don’t need, don’t want to be corrupt.

How to make people not dare to be corrupt, that is, sanctions must be very severe, handling must be very serious so that they are afraid, not dare to be corrupt.

Anti-corruption policies must be such that people cannot be corrupt, that is, legal documents and sub-laws must be constantly improved to avoid legal loopholes. Because our law-making capacity may have certain limitations, the situation cannot be predicted, and there may even be loopholes, leading to policy corruption and easy exploitation by subjects. Therefore, we must be very careful so that subjects do not take advantage of the law and legal loopholes for personal gain and corruption.

In addition, the anti-corruption policy must be such that people do not need to be corrupt, which means that salaries and living standards must be raised. To solve this problem, it is necessary to unify, concurrently hold multiple positions, and at the same time reduce the payroll. Because if you want to increase salaries, labor productivity must increase. In the condition that labor productivity does not increase as fast as the increase in payroll, the only way is to reduce the payroll to have enough resources to solve the problem.

The anti-corruption policy must also make people not want to be corrupt. Therefore, the issue of moral education is extremely important, including the moral ideology and style of Ho Chi Minh. There are cases where loopholes appear, if the cadres are greedy, they will take advantage, but if the cadres are moral and have self-respect, they will not allow themselves to make mistakes. This belongs to the category of cadre ethics.

PV:Thank you!