The fight against corruption is meeting with more difficulties as those involved are becoming more and more cunning in their actions, said Vietnamese and foreign experts in the field.

At a forum held on the sidelines of the fifth conference of the Southeast Asian Parliamentarians Against Corruption (SEA-PAC 5) in Hanoi on September 30, they cited the finding that senior officials have been involved in an alarming number of corruption cases. Given this reality, the forum focused on sharing experiences on handling the reporting of information on corruption and protecting the informants.

Addressing the event, Vice Chief of the Vietnamese Government’s Inspectorate Tran Duc Luong said apart from sharing experiences, the forum aims to seek ways to make the settlement of petitions work more effectively in the fight against corruption, particularly in terms of how information on possible corruption is received and processed and ensuring the protection of informants.

Representatives from SEA-PAC member agencies, international organisations, observers and experts pointed out that the scourge is evolving rapidly on a global scale and that the reality requires legal enforcement agencies to up-grade their operations, to better carry out the functions assigned to them.

They also spoke of the necessity for such agencies to apply workable approaches to enable the people to coordinate and cooperate with them in uncovering cases of corruption.

Representatives from Singapore’s CPIB, Brunei’s CTN, the UNODC, the Philippines, Sweden and Vietnam’s Inspectorate, have all pledged to continue to cooperate and provide assistance in the fight against corruption at national and regional levels as part of efforts to implement a multilateral cooperation agreement on the issue in Southeast Asia./.