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Fighting corruption is a supplement to the enjoyment of human rights
Fighting corruption is a supplement to the enjoyment of human rights
9/8/16
Corruption is considered an obstacle for doing
business in Vietnam. In spite of
improvements over the past years, corruption is still considered widespread
throughout the country and Vietnam still lags behind other Asian countries in
terms of control of corruption and most governance indicators. Corruption
affects different sectors such as health, education, construction, land
management as well as natural resources and the extractive industries. The
private sector is also affected by cumbersome legislation, which provides both
incentives and opportunities for corruption. But
not just improve the business climate and attract foreign investment, fighting
corruption also help promote the enjoyment of human rights.
Vietnam has taken efforts
to combat corruption. Corruption has moved up the political agenda in Vietnam,
and the legal framework for tackling corruption is now better developed. The government has taken a number of steps to
address governance and corruption challenges. The Anti-Corruption Law, adopted
in 2005, criminalizes several types of corruption, establishes asset disclosure
requirements for governmental officials, and whistle-blower protection. A
number of institutions which aim to fight corruption are now in place,
including the Office of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption, the
Ministry of Public Security, the Government Inspectorate, the People's
Procuracy, and the State Audit of Vietnam.
The government established a new anti-corruption body
and issued the National Strategy for Preventing and
Combating Corruption Towards 2020.
Vietnam's Anti-Corruption Law 2005 is
considered by the World Bank to
be among the best anti-corruption legal frameworks in Asia. Tackling
the problem at a grass roots level, the Vietnam government and the World Bank
have been involved in the Vietnam Anti-Corruption Initiative (VACI) for more
than six years.
The government has persisted in efforts to fight corruption, including
publicizing central government budgets, streamlining inspection measures, and
occasionally widely publicizing cases of officials accused of corruption.
Anti-corruption law allows citizens to complain openly about inefficient
government, administrative procedures, corruption, and economic policy.
A handful of corrupt individuals, ranging from law
enforcers to politicians, have been arrested. On 20 August 2012 Kien was arrested in Hanoi for "economic
violations". Kien's arrest
was followed by that of Ly Xuan Hai, who had just resigned his position as director
general of ACB Bank. In June
2014, the People's Court convicted him for "fraud, tax evasion, illegal
trade and 'deliberate wrongdoing causing serious consequences'" and was
sentenced to 30 years in prison with a 75,000,000,000
fine. Other defendants of the
case were sentenced two to eight years, including ACB's former senior director,
Ly Xuan Hai, who was sentenced to eight-year prison term. In 2014, Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu, an ex-official of
state-run VietinBank, was sentenced to
life imprisonment for
a VND4 trillion ($178.5 million) fraud.
Perhaps the most notorious
example of a harsh crackdown came in 2013 when two former officials of the
Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines), one of Vietnam’s many money-losing
state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The Duong Chi Dung trial is one of the highest-profile
corruption cases to be brought to court in recent years as Vietnam intensifies
its effort to combat corruption.
Duong
Chi Dung, former chairman of
Vinalines and former head of the Vietnam Maritime Administration; Mai Van Phuc,
former head of the Transport Ministry’s Transport Bureau and former Vinalines
general director; and Tran Huu Chien, deputy general ditector of Vinalines
violated applicable regulations and acts against the Prime Minister by
purchasing a used floating dock from abroad at a high price, causing a loss of
VND366 billion. They also embezzled a total of US$1.66 million. The
Supreme People’s Court in Hanoi on May 7, 2016 upheld the death sentences for
Duong Chi Dung, ex-chairman of the Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines),
and Mai Van Phuc, former CEO of the state-owned corporation, for their serious
corruption offenses.
And, there’s no limited zone in this struggle, even members of the Party
and State’s officials must be punished if corrupted. In 2014, the former chief
of the Government Inspectorate, Tran Van Truyen was rebuked by the Vietnam’s
Communist Party for trying to conceal his outsized real estate holdings.
Financial reports also showed that Truyen, who headed the Government
Inspectorate between 2007 and 2011 and made less than $9,000 a year, had
hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in addition to a significant holdings
of property and stock.
In
first three months of this year, the Government Inspectorate conducted 1,553
administrative inspections and 33,927 specialised inspections nationwide,
uncovering economic law violations worth $1.04 billion (VND 23.3 trillion) and
involving nearly 2,000 hectares of land. The government body also asked to
reclaim $33 million (VND 732 billion) for the State budget and 335.6 hectares
of land, while also collecting fines worth $29 million (VND 643 billion). Four
corruption cases involving six people totalling $139,500 (VND 3.1 billion) were
actually announced. The Inspectorate pledged to step up surprise inspections in
order to detect violations of any kind.
Corruption, especially in the administrative
system, would harm the legal enjoyment of human rights, so the Vietnamese government’s efforts to
curb corruption play an important supplement to promoting human rights in the country./.
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All comments [ 10 ]
Corruption in Vietnam has reached a level of stability according to the 2014 Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranked Vietnam 119 out of 175 countries and territories.
In October 2015, Communist Party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong apologised after a meeting of party leaders for what he described as “big mistakes”, including graft and poor oversight of state-owned conglomerates.
To repair the damage to its reputation, the Vietnamese government even boosts the struggle against corruption.
Faced with growing public discontent and increased scepticism overseas, the government has come up with a plan to crack down on corruption and overhaul 52 commercial state enterprises.
Freedom of information is an international human right, but governments also have the right to put some restrictions on public access to sensitive information, especially to struggle corruption.
The issue is a major one for the country, and the central government considers addressing corruption in Vietnam a top priority.
Invoking the death penalty for white-collar crime may seem heinous to outsiders, but many Vietnamese lawmakers approve of the practice.
While such government initiatives are important, the struggle to eradicate corruption in Vietnam will ultimately come down to the people of Vietnam.
While Vietnam’s anti-corruption law is considered among the best legal frameworks in Asia for anti-corruption, implementation remains problematic.
The media should play an important role in dealing with the corruption.
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