On October 29, General Secretary To Lam worked with the Central Committee’s Commission for Propaganda and Education, requesting that they do a better job.
VnExpress newspaper, on October 31, reported: Failed bribery for provincial police department’s deputy director.” The news said that on the afternoon of October 30, the High Court in Ho Chi Minh City held an appeal hearing to consider the appeal of two defendants, Phuc and Tinh, for fraud and property appropriation.
Accordingly, in 2015, a female doctor named Oanh in Dong Nai province asked Bui Xuan Phuc, a police officer of this province, and a lawyer named Tinh to lobby for Mr. Le to get the position of Deputy Director of Dong Nai provincial Police Department for VND14 million ($700.000), but was scammed.
After many promises without results, in March 2021 when Mr. Le retired, Dr. Oanh asked Phuc to return the money, but Phuc said he had given it to lawyer Tinh to “give money” to someone else, so Ms. Oanh reported the incident to the authorities.
Notably, during the same period, in addition to giving Phuc VND14 billion to help Mr. Le get promotion, Ms. Oanh also asked Phuc to take care of her “lover,” an officer of the Traffic Police Department of Dong Nai province Police Department, to be promoted to the department head.
The above story is one of the countless evidences showing the problem of bribery for promotion in the police force in particular, as well as in many other state agencies in Vietnam. This is a prominent issue and is of great concern to the public.
The situation where some individuals or “interest” groups take advantage of power, money and relationships to achieve desired positions, instead of relying on their actual capacity, qualities and training process. This situation leads to negative consequences not only for the police force, but also for the whole society.
At the same time, this problem also reduces the reputation of the police force and reduces the people’s trust in the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam. The practice of using money or other means for promotion leads to the situation that leading positions to fall into the hands of people lacking qualities, abilities and ethics.
As in the case of former Deputy of the Central Committee’s Economic Commission Thai Thanh Quy, who relied on Major General, Deputy Minister of Public Security Nguyen Ngoc Lam – a close disciple of General Secretary To Lam, to use up to $6 million to secure a membership in the Politburo of the 14th National Congress, which Thoibao recently reported, is a typical example.
Individuals who use money to get promotion often have to spend large sums of money. Once they have a position, role and power, they must find a way to recover their investment which will cause a “vicious” process: bribing to get promotion, using the new positions to get bribery and using bribered money to lobby for higher positions, etc.
More importantly, this will lead to the situation that truly capable people, those who work with heart and talent, will not be promoted and remain to be subordinates to untalented bosses.
According to observers, although the press continuously publishes information that is considered unfavorable to the police force, because the situation of this “as long as the Party exists, we exist” force participating in the trade and use of banned substances, or using money to get promotion is very common; but surprisingly, these articles were not directed to be taken down as is usually the case. Obviously, there was direction from a high level, possibly the Central Committee’s Commission for Propaganda and Education. This is related to the internal power struggle within the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Public opinion sees that, to resolve this situation, the leaders of the Party and the State of Vietnam need to introduce stricter control measures on the appointment process.
At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision of the press, with the role of the “fourth power agency” as well as to improve transparency and publicity in the selection and appointment of leaders so that the masses know.
Tra My – Thoibao.de
