The Vietnamese Party and State have always given high priority to combating corruption. The Party’s resolution on this and the Law on anti-corruption have paved the way for driving down corruption in recent years.

From 2007 to April 2010, there were 1,070 corruption cases with 2,500 defendants tried, and more than 1,000 cases involving over 2,300 defendants being investigated or awaiting trial.

These cases have revealed many shortcomings and loopholes in economic and staff management as well as in laws and policies. Over the past three years, the inspection sector has discovered many financial violations involving more than VND15 trillion, over US$1.5 million and more than 22.800ha of land. The inspectors have advised the State to confiscate VND9.87 billion, nearly US$ 700,000 and nearly 9,000ha of land. Meanwhile, the State Audit has launched 360 audits, uncovering financial violations totalling as much as VND28.9 trillion.

However, symposium participants said the discovery of these corruption cases mainly came through letters of denunciation and efforts by relevant agencies and the prosecution of some serious cases was stalled or not conducted in a rigorous way.

Representatives from investigative agencies, the Supreme People’s Procuracy, the Supreme People’s Court, the Government Inspectorate, the Hanoi Police and several provinces attributed these difficulties to gaps and inconsistencies in laws and guidelines, which result in different understandings and applications between the procuracy and law enforcement agencies, as well as to poor coordination among them.

The symposium also highlighted the role, responsibility, experience and capacity of the heads of party committees and local governments in dealing with corruption cases.

The participants recommended that the National Assembly revise a number of laws regarding detecting and tackling corruption and that the Justice Ministry implement a project to improve the effectiveness of judicial assessment and judicial translation. They said international cooperation should be strengthened to fight corruption involving foreigners.

Addressing the symposium, Deputy PM Truong Vinh Trong said it’s essential to strongly and effectively strike at corruption, and to increase the severity of penalties for this crime./.