Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc urged the inspection sector and leaders of ministries, agencies and local governments to improve the reception of citizens in order to better deal with complaints and petitions.

Addressing an online conference reviewing inspection work in the first half of the year on July 15, the Deputy PM noted that the reality is that localities where officials keep in close contact with citizens do very well in settling complaints and petitions.

He also told the inspection sector to focus on developing a national database on complaints and petitions as well as software for compiling statistics on corruption-related complaints and petitions.

The sector’s task for the second half of the year is to maintain security and social order for Party congresses at all levels and the 12th National Party Congress, the Government leader said.

Deputy Chief Government Inspector Tran Duc Luong reported that the sector carried out 2,842 administrative inspections and 116,334 specialised inspections, which revealed violations of economic laws and regulations involving the use of nearly 11.3 trillion VND (around 525 million USD) and 655.7 ha of land. The sector proposed reclaiming 7.6 trillion VND and 514.7 ha of land, of which 6.2 trillion VND has so far been retrieved for the State budget.

Inspectors also issued 106,562 decisions on punishment on offending organisations and individuals, collecting 1.8 trillion VND in fines and passed 28 cases involving 76 individuals to the criminal investigation agency.

Also according to the Deputy Chief Government Inspector, 86.6 percent of complaints and petitions filed during the reviewed period have been settled, up 0.7 percent compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the rate of accuracy in complaints and petitions has dropped, reflecting improvements in the performance of State administrative agencies, he said.

However, he pointed to some localities which are slow in dealing with prolonged petitions, adding that there are also problems in enforcing administrative orders and inspecting the enforcement of laws regarding complaints and petitions.

The Deputy Chief Government Inspector noted that the sector uncovered 29 corruption-related cases involving 58 individuals in the six-month period and proposed administrative punishments on 9 individuals while 9 cases with 7 offenders were passed over to relevant agencies for criminal investigation.

At the same time, the police launched investigations into 225 corruption cases involving 600 suspects and prosecuted 103 cases and 272 defendants. One whistle-blower was rewarded in the period.

At the conference, participants raised the problem of overlapping inspections conducted by central- and local-level agencies, as well as the weak coordination among inspection agencies, which resulted in a waste of efforts and hindrance to inspection work.-VNA