Building a culture of integrity and thrift among cadres and party members

Building and forming a culture of integrity and thriftof cadres and party membersbe viewedis one of the key tasks and solutions in Party building and rectification.This is emphasized in the book "Resolutely and persistently fight against corruption and negativity, contributing to building our Party and State increasingly clean and strong" by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

Integrity is the core value ofpublic ethics. President Ho Chi Minh once taught: “Integrity means being clean, not greedy”, “always respecting and preserving public and people’s property”, “not encroaching on a single coin or grain of rice belonging to the State or the people”, “not being greedy for position. Not being greedy for money. Not being greedy for pleasure. Not being greedy for people to flatter you”. “Righteousness means not being evil, meaning being straightforward and upright”.Integrity is a basic moral value, a principle, a measure, a standard for cadres and party members in their work as well as in their daily lives based on compliance with public ethics and personal ethics. “Frugal means saving, not being extravagant, not wasteful, not being indiscriminate... When it is not advisable to spend, not even a penny should be spent. When there is something worth doing, something that is beneficial to the people and the Fatherland, no matter how much effort or money is spent, it is a pleasure. He emphasized: “A nation that knows how to be frugal, honest, is a nation that is rich in material things, strong in spirit, a civilized and progressive nation.”

Thus, integrity, honesty, and thrift are good qualities and virtues of cadres, demonstrating purity, uprightness, not being extravagant or wasteful in the face of material temptations, money, fame, and preserving good moral qualities. From there, they crystallize into values ​​and standards that have the power to spread in social life, contributing to the formation of a new human personality, making many positive contributions to the country's development process.

On the overall level, integrity is the condition, the root, the foundation forParty building and political systemclean, strong and comprehensive. For the public administration, the culture of integrity and thrift is important, improving the capacity and effectiveness of leadership, management, administration and national governance; creating an objective and transparent environment, contributing to repelling corruption, waste, negative behaviors, ensuring discipline, order and the solemnity of the law. Overcoming and repelling the degradation of political ideology, ethics and lifestyle among a number of cadres and party members. In the current context, when the country is still facing many difficulties and challenges, each cadre, civil servant and public employee needs to promote the spirit of saving time, money and effort, avoiding waste and extravagance. This will be a necessary condition to take advantage of opportunities, bringing the country to rapid and sustainable development.

Regarding the implementation and enforcement of the culture of integrity and thrift, it can be seen that in recent times, the Party and the State have issued many important documents to promote the exemplary and pioneering spirit of cadres and party members, especially leaders, such as: Resolution of the 4th Central Committee, 11th and 12th tenures on strengthening Party building and rectification; Regulation No. 55-QD/TW, dated December 19, 2016 of the Politburo "on a number of urgent tasks to strengthen the exemplary role of cadres and party members"; Regulation No. 101-QD/TW, dated June 7, 2012 of the Secretariat "on the responsibility to set an example of cadres and party members, especially key leaders at all levels"; Regulation No. 08-QDi/TW dated October 25, 2018 of the Central Executive Committee "on the responsibility to set an example for cadres and party members, first of all members of the Politburo, members of the Secretariat, members of the Central Executive Committee... The 13th National Congress of the Party emphasized the requirement for cadres, party members, civil servants and public employees to "practice integrity, build a culture of thrift, no corruption, no waste", "continue to build a socialist rule-of-law state that creates development, integrity, and action; promote anti-corruption, practice thrift, fight waste, and create breakthroughs in administrative reform".

In a general assessment of the process of implementing the culture of integrity and thrift, in the book Resolutely and persistently fighting against corruption and negativity, contributing to building our Party and State increasingly clean and strong, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized: “Party committees, party organizations, and authorities at all levels have paid attention to leading and directing the building of a culture of integrity and thrift among cadres, party members, civil servants, public employees, and the whole society; building a sense of self-consciousness and strict compliance with the regulations of the Party and the State; proactively handling conflicts of interest; developing and implementing codes of conduct and professional ethics; criticizing, condemning, and actively fighting against corruption and negativity; respecting integrity and honor, and feeling ashamed when oneself and relatives are corrupt and negativistic. Paying attention to building and perfecting the revolutionary ethical standards of party members, public service ethics, standards and values ​​of Vietnamese people in accordance with the fine cultural traditions of the nation as a basis for cadres and party members to practice and improve their political qualities, and deepen their sense of responsibility to the Party and the people. Direct the summary of the inclusion of anti-corruption content in education, training and fostering programs, as a basis for proposing solutions to promote and improve the effectiveness of education on anti-corruption and negativity, building a culture of integrity, no corruption and negativity among cadres, party members, civil servants, public employees and the whole society.

However, in addition to the achieved results, the building and promotion of a culture of integrity and thrift among a significant number of cadres and party members still has many shortcomings. Many cadres, in pursuit of fame, money, material benefits, personal ambitions, have disregarded their honor and are willing to trample on the value of integrity, going against the ideals and noble goals that they have declared to their agencies and units; trampling on the interests of the community and collectives; damaging the reputation and image of agencies and organizations, and fading the trust between the Party, the State and the people. Because they cannot maintain integrity, some cadres have "dipped into the red tape", fallen into corruption, and taken advantage of loopholes in mechanisms and policies to collude and form interest groups for personal gain. While the country is facing many difficulties, with complicated developments, the whole population is raising awareness and the spirit of saving in spending and living, but there are cadres and party members holding positions in administrative agencies who take advantage of the difficult situation to make profits, spend the budget incorrectly, waste public money, causing public outrage. In the General Secretary's book, the figures on cadres and party members violating discipline show that the situation of corruption and negativity in recent years has had complicated developments, one of the many reasons for which is that integrity and saving have not been enforced. In the past 10 years (2012 - 2022), 2,740 party organizations and more than 167,700 cadres and party members have been disciplined. Since the beginning of the 13th National Congress term, nearly 4,200 cases have been prosecuted and investigated with 7,572 defendants for corruption, position and economic crimes. Corruption crimes have been prosecuted and investigated in 455 cases with 1,054 defendants. This has damaged the people's trust in the Party and the State, going against the nation's fine moral traditions; it is a great threat to the survival of the Party and the regime.

Explaining the reason for this, in the work “Resolutely and persistently fighting against corruption and negativity, contributing to building our Party and State increasingly clean and strong”, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong pointed out: “Corruption is a type of negative behavior carried out by people with positions and powers, a specific manifestation of degradation in political ideology, morality and lifestyle. Corruption and negativity, especially degradation in political ideology, morality and lifestyle, have a close and intimate relationship with each other; the fundamental and direct cause of corruption is degradation in political ideology, morality and lifestyle; negativity is the environment that gives rise to corruption; corruption in turn makes the negative situation worse... Money and assets can still be recovered, but if there is degradation in morality and ideology, everything is lost. Therefore,prevent negativity, focusing on preventing and combating the degradation of political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle among cadres, party members, civil servants, and public employees, that is, eliminating the root cause of corruption."

To build and implement a culture of integrity and thrift, and effectively prevent and combat corruption, all levels and sectors need to implement many solutions in terms of mechanisms and policies, but the most important thing is to focus on building a culture of integrity and thrift, especially promoting the sense of responsibility of each cadre and party member, especially the head of each agency and unit. The head must be a pioneer, exemplary, consistent between words and actions, have the spirit of daring to think, daring to do, daring to innovate, ready to take responsibility; know how to protect what is right, what is beautiful, what is progressive, and civilized; at the same time, be exemplary in preventing and repelling bad, evil, and corrupt and negative behaviors. The exemplary role of the head is important in spreading good values.

Whether the culture of integrity and thrift is effectively implemented or not depends on the sense of responsibility, voluntariness and self-awareness of each cadre and party member. In the context of a market economy and international integration, in addition to favorable factors, positive thoughts and beautiful lifestyles, there are difficulties, challenges, temptations of material things, money, fame, wrong thoughts, reactionary plots..., therefore, each cadre and party member must constantly study and cultivate revolutionary ethics, have ideals and aspirations to contribute; have will and determination; maintain honor and pure personality; have a disciplined lifestyle, in line with the development trend of the community.