The fight against corruption has made positive changes in the people’s awareness and actions toward the scourge although it has not yet been driven back as required, said a senior official in charge of combating corruption.
The combat has also yielded certain achievements in preventing and handling corrupt acts and reducing them in several fields, said Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong, who is Deputy Head of the Central Steering Committee for Corruption Prevention and Control.
Trong, also a Politburo member and Party Central Committee Secretary, was speaking at a national conference in Hanoi on Nov. 30 reviewing the fight against corruption during the Party’s 10th tenure (2006-2010). The conference was organised by the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat.
He recalled that at its Xth National Congress, the Party showed its political resolve in preventing and combating corruption by defining the corruption fight as the key task in the Party building work, the direct and regular duty of the entire political system and the business of the entire society.
To implement the Party’s Xth Congress resolution, the Party Central Committee issued a resolution on “enhancing the Party’s leadership over the prevention and combat of corruption” at the third plenum in July, 2006, according to Trong.
He noted that the Party Central Committee’s adoption of the first-ever resolution on fighting corruption again demonstrated the Party’s political will, as well as its role and responsibility in beating the scourge.
In the follow-up, the 12th National Assembly promulgated a law on supplements and amendments to some articles of the Anti-Corruption Law, which included regulations on the establishment of provincial anti-corruption steering committees.
For its part, the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat held national conferences annually to evaluate the outcomes of the fight against corruption.
The corruption fight has also been spotlighted as the main content of the Government’s regular monthly meetings and put into specific programmes of ministries, central branches, Party committees at all levels, administrations and localities, said Trong.
Trong, however, noted that the fight against corruption has yet created substantial changes.
“Corruption remains pressing and is evolving in a complicated and continuous manner in many sectors and branches, and at various levels,” Trong told the participants.
He stressed that the problems found in the battle against corruption have been slowly fixed and the menace hasn’t been stopped and pushed back.
“Corruption is still a burning problem and concern of the entire society,” Trong noted.
Continuing to carry out the fight against corruption in a persistent and resolute manner will be a key, urgent and long-term task of the Party and State building, he emphasised.
The participants agreed that the Party and the State have shown a strong political determination and given due attention to the battle against corruption.
They noted the Party committees’ determination and efforts in implementing solutions to countering corruption and in expanding anti-corruption campaigns and education programmes in conjunction with the movement of “Studying and following the moral example of President Ho Chi Minh”.
The detection and handling of cases of corruption have been reinforced, serious and complicated cases have been brought to light with those involved getting strict punishments in accordance with law. A number of backlogs have been dealt with completely.
It was reported that during 2007-2010, 276 leaders and their deputies were handled due to lack of responsibility, leading to corruption, of whom 39 people were subjected to penalties and 212 others to administrative sanctions.
Also in the period, 2,494 party members of municipal and provincial party committees were disciplined due to involvement in corruption and wastefulness.
Concluding the conference, Truong Tan Sang, a politburo member and permanent secretary of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat said “the fight against corruption will be successful only when it is based on the people.”
He also stressed the role of the entire political system and leading officials at all levels under the leadership of party committees.
“Corruption continues to be a big challenge and a threat constantly warned by our party,” Sang said, underscoring that combating the scourge will be an urgent and long-term duty for building the Party as well as a law-governed socialist State./.
