Preventing and combating corruption from afar

However, few people notice that serious corruption often stems from small negative acts at work, often called “petty corruption”. These are an abuse of power that takeplace every day with people working in public agencies, especially in units that regularly interact with the public. This behaviour, if not corrected in time, will cause cadres and civil servants to slide into a decline in both morality and lifestyle.

It is still difficult to identify, determine and have sanctions to handle some negative behaviours and petty corruption. Many people often “endure” or ignore those acts. The consequences of these seemingly small negative actions are actually huge when they have become common in society. The biggest consequence is the loss of people’s trust in public agencies, even causing damage to the prestige and honour of the Party and State.

Therefore, it is necessary to have a more correct awareness of negative behaviour and petty corruption in order to have clear identification criteria, based uponwhich effective measures and prevention mechanisms can be implemented.

Fortunately, in recent years, sectors and localities have promoted administrative reform, taking people’s satisfaction as the goal of overall improvement, better service quality and work efficiency. More attention has been paid to increasing the publicity and transparency of administrative processes and procedures so that people can easily monitor and comment on them.

In addition, local authorities have expanded and diversified their forms of citizen reception, dialogue, and meetings with people to listen to their feedback on pressing. This is a positive movement to unify the people’s consciousness and action.

At the 13th National Party Congress, the fight against excessive bureaucracy, corruption, wastefulness and negative behaviour continued to be emphasised with a focus on more effective implementation, contributing to strengthening trust and the people’s bond with the Party, State and socialist regime. The project on revising and supplementing the functions, tasks and powers of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-​Corruption will be implemented by relevant agencies in the time to come.

Of which, negative behaviour will be identified in a more specific manner in order to apply corresponding discipline and sanctions, contributing to enhancing the effectiveness of the prevention of and fight against corruption.

Combating corruption must be considered the responsibility and obligation of the entire Party, people and political system, as part of which each leader, cadre and party member needs to uphold an exemplary spirit. The courage to win against oneself and the courage to speak out against others is considered an important factor in the fight against corruption and negative behaviour.