Recently released report of a survey of Vietnamese people on corruption may affect opportunity of Minister of Public Security To Lam to advance at the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) because the police forces he heads are the most corrupted group in the country.
All the Police forces top the list of corruption in Vietnam, according to a 2019 survey released by Towards Transparency on January 7. Within the police forces, the traffic police receive the most negative comments from the participated people.
The survey showed that there are 5 groups that are considered to be most corrupt: traffic police (receive 30% of the vote of the people), police (20%), tax officials (17%), enterprises leaders (15%) and government officials and employees (13%).
Participating in the survey were 1,085 people in 19 provinces and cities, according to the report entitled Corruption Barometer of Corruption in Vietnam 2019” of Towards Transparency (TT).
TT established in 2008, is a Vietnamese non-profit organization with the goal of contributing to the prevention and fight against corruption. In March 2009, TT became the national focal point of Transparency International (TI) in Vietnam.
The TT’s report said 73% of respondents commented that corruption was “serious” or “very serious” in the public sector, including all state-owned industries and services, management and administration.
A large percentage of survey participants, 43%, ranked corruption in the fourth position on the list of the most important issues that the Vietnamese government needs to solve, behind hunger eradication and poverty reduction, food safety. and security/crime.
This shows that the Vietnamese people “are increasingly concerned about corruption,” TT said, adding it was in the 7th position two years ago.
However, in general, according to the report, Vietnamese people’s feelings about corruption have become more positive in the past three years.
The survey in 2019 showed that 43% of Vietnamese think that corruption in Vietnam has increased in the past 12 months, which is significantly lower than 58% who thought so in 2016.
Meanwhile, 26% said that corruption has decreased, so the number of people with an optimistic view has been higher than the 17% in 2016.
TT commented that over the past 3 years, “the anti-corruption legal framework has improved, many anti-corruption measures and actions have been implemented and some senior officials have been prosecuted.”
Nearly half of the people surveyed, 49%, said the state’s anti-corruption measures were “effective” or “very effective,” more than doubling the rate of 21% in 2016, as reported by TT.
Commenting on how to further combat corruption, 36% of people said that “it is necessary to improve the integrity” of government officials and employees, and a larger proportion, 39%, suggested “heavier punishment” for corrupted officials, TT wrote in the report.
The report also found that 71% of those surveyed thought they “had a role in fighting corruption.”
The above rate is much higher than the 55% in 2016 and 60% in 2013, and is the highest so far in the number of people with such views.
However, TT noted that nearly half of the respondents admitted they did not denounce corruption due to “fear of bearing the consequences.”
However, TT commented that some of the results of the survey bring “hope” about positive changes in the future.
“It is necessary to maintain this momentum to reduce corruption and ensure sustainable development,” TT wrote in the report.
Through the report, this non-profit organization also made some useful recommendations for the aforementioned progress in the context that the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam is about to take place.
For the party and its government, TT recommends three major things. The first is to continue strengthening the effective implementation of the 2018 Anti-Corruption Law, emphasizing regulations on conduct, conflicts of interest and asset declaration.
Secondly, it is necessary to provide a lobbying policy for large companies and interest groups to avoid “unjustified impact” for personal gain and negative impacts on the country’s economy and the interests of the people, said TT.
Citizens, social organizations and media agencies, including social media, need to be facilitated to participate in the fight against corruption, which is the No. 3 recommendation of TT.
On the business side, TT suggests that they “promote and practice integrity and transparency in business to create competitive advantage.”
Regarding the people, the organization emphasized that citizens can make a difference in the fight against corruption by “resolutely stopping giving and refusing to give bribes.”
For an obsolete and authoritarian regimes like Vietnam, even though General Secretary cum President Nguyen Phu Trong exhorted to fight corruption until the end of this term, it was just like adding salt in the sea, because the four million Communist Party members would be hard-pressed to live without joining the corruption line created by the older generation of party members.
Only by transitioning to a democratic, liberal, and multi-party regime and a system of separation of powers divides the tasks of the state into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial will be effective against corruption. It will be an eternal furnace to burn the corrupted officials of CPV.
Trung Nam (from Đà Nẵng) – Thoibao.de (translated)
Source: VOA Vietnamese
