Phan Dinh Trac (standing), deputy head of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption, speaks at the inspection session at the State Bank of Vietnam on May 15

The figures were mentioned during an inspection of asset recovery work at the State Bank of Vietnam conducted by a team of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption on May 15.

According to reports at the inspection, between 2013 and September 2018, credit organisations lost nearly 62 trillion VND (2.65 billion USD) and 18.52 million USD as consequences of corruption and economic crimes, accounting for 81.91 percent of total losses caused by those crimes. Credit organisations have coordinated with relevant agencies to recover more than 10.8 trillion VND (17.26 percent) and 10.09 million USD (59.48 percent).

Problems hindering the recovery of stolen assets included limited supervision and inspection of the work, the prolonged settlement of complicated cases, and credit organisations’ passive role.

Concluding the inspection, head of the inspection team Phan Dinh Trac, who is deputy head of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption, emphasized that the Party committee and leadership of the State Bank of Vietnam must reach consensus on the importance of asset recovery work in order to repair the damage caused by corruption and economic crimes.

He requested that the State Bank enhance its coordination with the Ministry of Justice and related ministries and localities to remove obstacles in the settlement of bad debts and collateral assets. It should also instruct credit organisations to tighten coordination with sentence enforcement agencies to promptly put an end to delayed cases.

The official also assigned functional agencies to build plans to carry out recommendations made by the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption and the inspection team, so as to improve the efficiency of the recovery of stolen assets in corruption and economic crimes.-VNA