Innovators encouraged to combat corruption

The Government Inspectorate and the World Bank on Nov. 29 introduced the Vietnam Anti-Corruption Initiative (VACI) for 2011 aiming to foster innovative ideas to raise public awareness on the enforcement of laws to prevent and combat corruption.

VACI 2011 will include a competition for selecting the best initiatives to enhance public uprightness and law enforcement to make the fight against corruption effective. These ideas must have a high degree of creativity and feasibility.

There will also be a section for sharing knowledge on anti-corruption laws and experiences drawn from the enforcement of laws against the scourge.

Undertaken by the Government’s Inspectorate, VACI 2011 is sponsored by the World Bank, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the UK International Development Agency, the embassies of Sweden , Finland and Belgium , and others.

The same day, the Government Inspectorate and the WB jointly held a seminar reviewing Vietnam Innovation Day 2009 (VID 2009) which had the topic, “More accountability and transparency, less corruption”.

Twenty-five projects won VID 2009 prizes for 330,000 USD in total. As many as 152 projects were submitted.

Projects on raising ethnic minority students’ awareness on accountability and transparency in Vo Nhai, the northern province of Thai Nguyen and improving the quality and participation of the community in building, implementing and monitoring plans to reduce poor households in the central province of Ha Tinh were presented to the participants.

Deputy Inspector General Tran Duc Luong said VID 2009 reflected the community’s enthusiastic participation in preventing and combating corruption and it worked as an information channel to help people understand more about the fight against the menace and the Government’s policies in the field.

A WB representative noted that selected projects have figured out specific activities to coordinate the mass media and other partners in implementing and advertising the projects.

The representative said almost all VID 2009 projects showed high commitment and expectations of being maintained and then expanded so that they could seek particular evidence on their impacts on the community and foster bigger ideas for the sake of the community’s development./.

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Transparency key to fighting corruption

People commute over Cha Va Bridge in HCM City. The bridge is part of the East-West Boulevard project which was involved in a corruption scandal. Several city officials were charged for receiving bribes in 2008. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Phan

HA NOI — The Vietnamese Government has gone a long way to addressing corruption but there is still lots to do in terms of transparency, accountability and people involvement, an anti-corruption dialogue heard yesterday.

The eighth semi-annual dialogue, which was co-organised by the Government Inspectorate (GI), the Office of the Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption (OSCAC), the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) and the Swedish Embassy, discussed land-related corruption.

Viet Nam has taken great strides in terms of legal framework, preventive measures, administrative reform, inspections and prosecutions among others, according to a report presented by OSCAC at the dialogue.

Under the framework, corruption whistle-blowers and denunciators can now be rewarded and protected, while a draft inter-ministerial circular allowing corruption investigations and prosecution processes to be publicised is being developed.

Several ministries and many provinces, including Kien Giang, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Da Nang and HCM City, have posted legal information and procedures on their websites in an effort to promote transparency.

For its part, the Ministry of Education and Training has developed an anti-corruption action plan which requires all educational entities to implement the national anti-corruption strategy until 2020.

Swedish ambassador Staffan Herrstrom hailed the country's implementation of the United Nations' Convention on Anti-Corruption, its new Anti-Corruption Law and Strategy towards 2020 and the involvement of grass-root levels in the fight against corruption.

"Viet Nam has kept corruption high on the agenda by joining the international commitments," he said.

Land corruption

Regarding corruption in land use and administration, MONRE's deputy chief inspector Le Van Dat noted that most land-related corruption took place before the Law on Land came into effect seven years ago.

He said the ministry was working with relevant ministries to make amendments to the Law which will be submitted to the National Assembly in two years time in order to fix any loopholes.

Le The Chien from the GI noted that more than 90 per cent of disputes, complaints and denunciations were land-related.

He said that corruption in land administration usually occurred at commune level around major cities where land was illegally allocated to urban and industrial zones.

However, the issuance of land-use right certificates (LURC) was identified as the main factor behind bribery.

The Swedish ambassador noted from a recent study that 86 per cent of Vietnamese households think corruption occurs in land cases and more than 30 per cent of enterprises were willing to pay informal fees in LURC applications.

Dr Nguyen Quoc Hiep of the GI's Research Institute attributed the social acceptance of corruption to complicated laws and procedures, limited access to information and low ethics and responsibility among public officers.

Making it easier

As a result, he recom-mended legalising inter-mediary services, further simplifying the law and developing easy-to-understand procedural guidelines that could be posted online while developing an effective public complaints system.

A member of the National Assembly's Legal Committee, Nguyen Binh Quyen, described the corruption situation in the country as more serious and subtle despite legal and punitive improvements.

"People are ready to offer bribes when it comes to dealing with public servants regarding their benefits," he said, "And many officials are accustomed to accepting bribes."

Pham Chi Lan, a former economic consultant to the government, pointed to the poor capacity of law-enforcing staff as the biggest hurdle in the anti-corruption fight.

"We have a myriad of laws and regulations regarding corruption, but they are poorly implemented," she complained, "The oversight mechanism is weak, too."

She said the grass-roots population should be strongly involved in the fight against corruption, given that most of cases were brought to light by ordinary people.

Measures should be taken to raise awareness about information transparency, remarked James H. Anderson, a World Bank senior governance specialist.

Fiona Lappin, head of the UK Department for International Development in Viet Nam, recommended that public servants should receive a fair salary so that they would not be interested in taking bribes.

Tran Van Truyen, head of the GI, said it would develop appropriate measures based on all recommendations at the dialogues and submit them to the Government for approval.— VNS

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Proper land management needs greater efforts

Vietnam needs to speed up administrative reforms, improve transparency and access to information as well as mechanisms of accountability so as to prevent corruption in land administration and use.

This is a common recommendation put forward by international delegates at the 8 th Dialogue on Anti-Corruption with the theme, “Anti-corruption in land administration and use” held in Hanoi on November 25.

The Dialogue on Anti-Corruption is organized twice a year by the Embassy of Sweden on behalf of Vietnam ’s development partners, the Government Inspectorate and the Office of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption on behalf of the Vietnamese Government.

The 8 th dialogue saw the attendance of representatives from Vietnam ’s development partners and donors such as the UN, the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Embassies of Sweden, Switzerland , Denmark , New Zealand and Australia .

Sharing the expressed view, Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam Staffan Herrstrom said: “We know that transparency is a fundamental and effective tool and we know that if you combine that with giving people possibilities to claim accountability very much is achieved already”.

He cited the results of a survey conducted recently by development partners, saying that more than 86 percent of the surveyed households said there is corruption in land administration and use and 33 percent of the targeted businesses said they had to give bribes in order to get certificates of land use.

According to the ambassador, law enforcement and oversight systems are still weak in Vietnam , while procedures of land use right registration are cumbersome, over-bureaucratized and only one percent of people lodging complaints are satisfied in the end. This creates an environment in which corruption can flourish, undermines the credibility of officials and decreases trust among the public at large.

Meanwhile, a representative of the Swiss Embassy emphasized the importance of the promulgation of a law on the protection of whistleblowers and enhancement of the role of mass media in discovering and reporting negative phenomena in land management and use, especially small cases in localities.

A number of delegates recommended Vietnam strengthen the oversight by people and the community over investment projects, improve the capacity of land management agencies, enhance land zoning procedures and seriously enumerate assets and incomes of officials and State employees working in this field.

On the side of the Vietnamese Government, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Chu Pham Ngoc Hien said the government had spared no efforts to build and complete a legal system and had instructed relevant ministries and agencies to join in the fight against corruption in land administration and use.

The ministry was drafting a law amending the 2003 Land Law and expected to submit it to the National Assembly for approval in 2013, he said. According to the draft of the revised law, land will be managed in line with market mechanisms, administrative procedures will be simplified and benefits of the State, people, businesses and organizations will be harmoniously addressed.

Statistics released by the Government Inspectorate show that in recent years there have been more than 100,000 land-related disputes annually, accounting for 65 percent of the total number of complaints and denouncements lodged with and reported to State agencies./.

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Parents blamed for role in teacher corruption

Students of Le Quy Don High School for gifted students in the northern province of Lai Chau study in a foreign language lab. Improving the quality of teaching in accordance with national standards at every school is expected to help prevent corruption in schools. — VNA/VNS Photo Bich Ngoc

HA NOI — Parents made the defeat of corruption in schools very difficult because often they were accomplices, the Education and Training Ministry's Deputy Inspector Pham Van Tai told a workshop in Ha Noi yesterday.

"Often, parents will abet teachers and educators in their corruption as long as they think it's best for their children," he said.

"If the parents do not speak for themselves about corruption, who will?" he asked the workshop which assessed the results of the 7th Anti-corruption Dialogue in May.

"Do you think the defeat of corruption will ever become a reality given that teachers attain certain, and in some cases, absolute, power over their students?"

The inspector told the workshop that corruption continued despite regular inspections.

"But few parents want to spill the beans about how much they paid to get their children admitted to a good quality class," he said.

"Without evidence we often end in a situation where we know what has happened but can't prove it.

"The important task is to raise awareness among parents and students about the evil of corruption and encourage them to exercise their right of denunciation."

Deputy inspector Tai said paying bribes for admittance to schools was the most common form of corruption.

Parents were willing to pay extra to get their children into a public high school because they assumed the teaching at State-subsidised institutions offered the better teaching quality and the fees were much lower than at private schools.

Peer pressure also made parents partly responsible for extra-curricula teaching and learning.

"Although extra teaching and learning are allowed only students of poor achievement or excellent students, parents whose children were outside both groups still want them to take part in extra classes," he said.

"Otherwise, they feel their children are being left out."

Enrolment pressure on public high schools and all other quality schools was high because the schools had not met society's requirements.

Deputy Minister of Education and TrainingNguyen Thi Nghia said the ministry had finalised the compiling of teaching materials to pilot anti-corruption teaching in high schools early next year.

The deputy minister said the pressure for entry to quality schools could be attributed in part to the difference in teaching quality and facilities between schools.

"One measure which will be taken to bridge the gap is to improve the quality of teaching staff in accordance with the national standards at every school," she said.

The workshop also assessed a survey to identify the risks of corruption in the transfer of land-use rights and house ownership.

The survey, the work of the Government Inspectorate, is scheduled for publication next week. — VNS

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Vietnam makes minor advance in corruption index

Vietnam has advanced four levels in this year’s edition of Transparency International’s global corruption index which was released on Tuesday (October 26).

Vietnam ranked 116th on the list, up from 120th last year.

The country’s overall corruption “score” remained at 2.7, according to the survey authored by the Berlin-based corruption watchdog group. The nation continued to rank 22 out of 33 in the Asian - Pacific region.

The improvements indicate that Vietnam is making necessary strides in reforming its fledgling anti-corruption mechanisms.

In 2006, Dr. Martin Gainsborough of Bristol University released a report sanctioned by Transparency International just one year after Vietnam passed its first anti-corruption law.

“Generally speaking, Vietnam’s National Integrity System (NIS) is not working well, with the mechanisms in place to tackle corruption either rudimentary or poorly enforced,” Dr. Gainsborough wrote, in his country study.

The British researcher, who was then-Director of the Bristol-Vietnam Project cautioned that the government should not merely pay lip service to reform amid mounting international pressure, but to pursue concrete results that would bolster the Communist Party’s perceived legitimacy and attract foreign investors.

Globally, Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore maintained top positions in the list with scores of 9.3, showing low levels of corruption, while Afghanistan, Myanmar and Somalia came in last with scores as low as 1.1.

The US ranked 22nd on the list, down from 19th last year, with a score of 7.1 out of 10 (compared with 7.5 in 2009).

The aftermath of the financial crisis and its effects on American homeowners has intensified skepticism of public integrity and hurt the country’s ranking, Nancy Boswell, President of Transparency International-USA told Bloomberg.

The group found that the countries which were hardest-hit by the global financial crisis were precipitated by flagging transparency and integrity. This year’s most striking improvements tended not to occur in the world’s most developed and prosperous countries, the report found.

Transparency International said nearly three-quarters of the 178 countries considered in the survey scored under five. The watchdog defined corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.”

The watchdog called for governments to integrate anticorruption measures into all spheres, from their responses to the financial crisis and climate change to commitments by the international community to eradicate poverty.

It also advocated stricter implementation of the United Nation’s Convention against Corruption.

“Allowing corruption to continue is unacceptable; too many poor and vulnerable people continue to suffer its consequences around the world,” Hugette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International said in a statement accompanying the release of the findings. “We need to see more enforcement of existing rules and laws.”

Commenting on a possible trial against Vietnamese suspects accused of receiving bribes from the US-based Nexus Technologies Company, an official from Vietnamese Supreme Prosecutor’s Office said the agency is continuing to gather information about the case.

On Tuesday,Tran Quoc Vuong, the office’s head, said he couldn’t confirm anything because foreign prosecutors hadn’t identified the name of Vietnamese citizens involved. He said the agency would continue to work with foreign partners to gather evidence.

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Fighting corruption in education sector an uphill battle

Parents support corruption - About 60 per cent of parents ask for support for their children's admission to better schools and 33 per cent of teachers admit helping their acquaintances children to get enrolled in them. - As many as 70 per cent of parents believe that paying extra fees to help their children study at a good school is normal because their acquaintances do the same. - About 50 per cent of parents think that paying extra fees to be admitted to better schools is reasonable. - From 80 to 85 per cent of parents believe regular teaching at school is not sufficient and that their children need other pathways.

HA NOI — Fighting corruption in education was a significant task, the Vice Inspector of the Ministry of Education and Training, Pham Van Tai, said yesterday.

According to research based on media coverage of corruption by the United Nations Development Programme in 2008, corruption in education was still a big problem.

Marie Ottosson, a senior official from the Swedish Embassy, said two studies showed that education and training were the largest items on the State budget (15 to 20 per cent), but weak accounting and monitoring systems provided opportunities for corruption.

"Corruption in education is a threat to sustainable development and the well being and future of Viet Nam because it creates distrust in the education system," she said.

Tai said most opportunities for corruption emerged during admission at every education level, extra teaching and learning activities and the "over collection of fees".

Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Nghia said most teachers still lived in difficult conditions due to limited incomes and did not feel secure without doing extra teaching.

Tai said other reasons included a patchy legal framework, shortage of integrated policies and the absence of monitoring systems.

"Extra teaching and learning malpractices are widely seen, especially in cities, towns and lowland provinces," he said. "Some teachers even move some parts of the school curriculum to their private teaching classes to force students to attend extra classes for private gains."

A survey titled "Present Corruption in Education" in Ha Noi, HCM City and Da Nang during May suggested that many parents themselves were actually willing to compromise with these malpractices.

Nguyen Van Thang, director of T&C Consulting, which ran the survey with the Government Inspectorate, said the acceptance of parents towards distorted behaviour was a non-stop social activity. Thang said many parents had a perception that standard schools and extra learning would help children get a better education. He said corruption generally involved small amounts of money but the social impact was severe as it posed psychological and time burdens for families.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga, an education specialist from United Nations Children's Fund Viet Nam, said the key measure would be to change the perception of parents. He agreed that the ministry's inspection activities should be formalised and conducted on a regular basis.

Sweden's Ottosson called for more oversight and awareness from society and the media to combat corruption. — VNS

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Vietnam offers cash rewards to whistle blowers

Whistle blowers will be rewarded with cash bonuses worth up to 30 times as much as the basic monthly wage, according to a draft prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Vietnamnet said.

Vietnam’s basic wage now is VND730,000 (US$37.53).

The new bill, drafted in cooperation with government inspectorate under the order of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, targets Vietnamese, overseas Vietnamese and foreigners.

According to the draft, those who are given the Medal of courage will recieve rewards worth 30 times as much as the basic wage. It will be 20 times for those are awarded PM’s Certificate of merit, and 10 times for those who receive certificates from ministries and provinces.

Which certificate or medal will be given to people who report corruption will depend on the corruption's scale, according to the news source.

In a recent conference honoring 88 whistle blowers, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong ordered the Central Steering Committee of Preventing Corruption to cooperate with the Ministry of Public Security to finalize new whistle blower protection laws this month.

It was the first time Vietnam honored people for fighting public corruption, Vietnamnet said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs has also submitted a draft to the government to provide allowances worth 0.5 percent of the basic wage to officials working at agencies that fight corruption.

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Vietnam offers cash rewards to whistle blowers

Whistle blowers will be rewarded with cash bonuses worth up to 30 times as much as the basic monthly wage, according to a draft prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Vietnamnet said.

Vietnam’s basic wage now is VND730,000 (US$37.53).

The new bill, drafted in cooperation with government inspectorate under the order of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, targets Vietnamese, overseas Vietnamese and foreigners.

According to the draft, those who are given the Medal of courage will recieve rewards worth 30 times as much as the basic wage. It will be 20 times for those are awarded PM’s Certificate of merit, and 10 times for those who receive certificates from ministries and provinces.

Which certificate or medal will be given to people who report corruption will depend on the corruption's scale, according to the news source.

In a recent conference honoring 88 whistle blowers, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong ordered the Central Steering Committee of Preventing Corruption to cooperate with the Ministry of Public Security to finalize new whistle blower protection laws this month.

It was the first time Vietnam honored people for fighting public corruption, Vietnamnet said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs has also submitted a draft to the government to provide allowances worth 0.5 percent of the basic wage to officials working at agencies that fight corruption.

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Protection needed for corruption denunciators

A senior Government official has emphasised the need to formulate mechanisms to protect and promptly commend corruption denunciators.

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong made the emphasis when speaking at a conference to honour outstanding individuals in the fight against corruption held by the Office of the Steering Committee for Preventing and Combating Corruption in Hanoi on May 7.

A highlight of the conference was the presence of 88 people, including 46 individuals who reported corrupt acts and cases and 42 others who uncovered and handled corrupt cases. Eight are journalists.

Accordingly, the Deputy PM tasked the Office of the Steering Committee for Preventing and Combating Corruption and the Ministry of Public Security to complete these mechanisms as soon as possible and submit them to the Prime Minister for promulgation.

He also requested that party committees and administrations at the grassroots level adopt a mechanism to protect corruption fighters and take responsibility for them when they are targeted by those guilty of corruption.

Trong underscored that uncovering and denouncing corrupt acts is very important as it is the premise helping responsible agencies to handle with corrupt cases and perpetrators promptly and accurately.

He also emphasised the need to exercise democracy regulations at the grassroots level and promote the role of people-elected and political organisations in supervising state officials and public civil authorities.

The government official reiterated that preventing and gradually warding off corruption is the goal of the Party, State and entire people, calling for the people to be determined and persistent in accomplishing the goal.

He commended the important significance of this conference, saying it offered the venue for the pioneers in the fight against corruption and the watchdog in the field to share their experiences to raise the effectiveness of the fight and wished that those present at this conference would continue to lead in the fight against the menace.

The Steering Committee Office Chief, Vu Tien Chien, said the conference represents the progress that the public has made in their awareness, responsibility and trust on the strength and success of the fight against corruption under the leadership of the Party and State.

He described an increase in the number of individuals who had the courage to fight head-to-head the scourge as a deterrent to those who intend to commit corruption.

However, Chien raised the fact that since corrupt state officials and public civil authorities are wielding power their revenge on those who dare to bring their bad deeds to light can be very sophisticated and have both short and long term consequences.

Prominent among those present at the conference were Nguyen Thi Hoa from Hanoi’s Tay Ho inner district, who reported wrongdoings relating to the construction of a facility on sluices connecting West Lake with the Hong (Red) river, and Hoang Van Khanh, Director General of the Hai Phong Apparels Joint Stock Company, who denounced former Vice-Director General of the Vietnam Bank for Investment and Development for asking and taking a bribe of 1 billion VND./.

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