Corruption threatens the very existence of the Party and the government, a Party secretary said on January 28.

Truong Tan Sang, Permanent member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee, made the comment while opening the national conference on anti-corruption work in 2009 and its tasks in 2010.

Bearing the threat in mind, the Party and the State have placed special importance on the fight against the scourge, consistently defining it as a focal task for 2010, the party secretary emphasized.

The fight against corruption in 2010 will continue with campaigns and education programmes in conjunction with the movement of “studying and following the moral example of President Ho Chi Minh”, according to a report of the Anti-corruption Central Steering Committee.

The committee has mandated that relevant agencies quickly perfect institutions serving the fight against corruption to create a vital political and legal foundation for the fight in both the short and long terms.

The institutions will be focusing on the fields of the management and use of land, construction, natural resource management, the settlement of long-standing petitions and complaints, and the handling of cases of corruption.

Inspection, auditing, supervision, investigation, prosecution, and related activities are set to be reinforced and relevant agencies are required to strengthen their operational efficiency and coordination in detecting and dealing with cases of corruption.

In 2009, the government ministries and centrally-run branches conducted more than 3,000 internal inspections, uncovering 202 violations resulting in the misuse of 16.5 billion VND. They took disciplinary measures on 187 officials and brought criminal charges against 13 others.

Meanwhile, the centrally-run cities and provinces carried out 7,066 inspections, finding 379 violations adding up to more than 50.5 billion VND and handled 442 officials in violation.

The inspection sector uncovered 150 cases concerning 431 people involved in misappropriating a combined sum of 74.8 billion VND and 10.6 ha of land. Inspectors proposed taking back 55.2 billion VND and imposing administrative sanctions on 64 collectives and 366 individuals. They also proposed the undertaking of criminal charges in 68 cases concerning 84 individuals.

Between December 1st, 2008 and November 30, 2009, law enforcement agencies took legal proceedings against 289 corruption-related cases with 631 defendants involved, an increase of 2.48 percent and 1.45 percent, respectively, year on year.

However, the number of prosecuted cases and defendants decreased by 18.53 percent (321 cases) and 10.39 percent (819 defendants) compared with the previous year.

During the year, the agencies brought to trial 6 of the 17 cases tracked by the Anti-corruption Central Steering Committee. They closed investigations on the remaining 11 cases.

Reviewing the three years of implementing the resolution adopted at the third meeting of the tenth Party’s Central Committee, Sang noted that cases of corruption were found to be fewer in the areas of management and use of public property and ODA, State budget expenditure, and the implementation of national programmes and goals.

However, the menace still remains serious and complicated and presents as a pressing social problem in the meantime, Sang said./.