Minister of Public Security To Lam

Such efforts worked, however, complicated criminal events and legal violations were still reported, mostly involving in traffic law, fire prevention, environmental protection, food hygiene, finance, taxation, land, trade and insurance, he said. 

Hostile forces took more activities to incite mass gatherings causing social disturbances, said the minister, who was authorised by the Prime Minister to report the issue to the 14th National Assembly deputies during their ongoing second session. 

Policemen smashed 4,172 criminal rings disturbing social order, tackled radically cases of serious crime and helped bring to light many big economic-related and corruption cases.

The minister reasoned that economic difficulties and a lack of employments sparked huge pressures on society and State management was weak, especially in the fields of finance, taxation, transport, and food hygiene. Party committees and authorities of several localities have yet had a hard-line attitude in preventing and combating crimes.

Meanwhile, Phan Van Sau, the Government’s General Inspector, told the law-makers that in 2016, the Government issued a direction on stepping up the detection and handling of corruption cases. 

The Central Steering Committee for Corruption Prevention and Combat instructed and monitored investigations, legal proceedings, prosecution and trial of grave, complex economic-related, and corruption cases that caught public interests, he said.

Corruption prevention and combat have generated visible changes across almost State management sectors, contributing hugely to building an open, transparent and democratic society and consolidating people’s trust.

He, however, admitted that the menace has still been growing in a complex fashion across sectors and at different levels. The anti-corruption work was not taken serious equally by ministries, sectors and localities. 

In 2016, corruption cases triggered economic losses of over 240 billion VND (10.8 million USD), he reported.

Through inspections and the settlement of petitions and denunciations, the inspection agencies uncovered 49 corruption-related cases and 95 individuals associated with corruptive behaviors. Between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016, the investigating agencies of the police launched investigations into 257 cases with 710 people involved in corruption.

Sau vowed that functioned agencies will work harder to step by step stamp out corruption. The whole political system is responsible for preventing and combating corruption, with the Party committees, administrations and heads of offices standing front and centre in the effort. 

The deputies also listened to reports presented by Chief of the Supreme People’s Procuracy Le Minh Tri, Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court Nguyen Hoa Binh, and Justice Minister Le Thanh Long on works handling criminal and civil cases.

Verifying these contents, Chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Justice Committee Le Thi Nga said although encouraging outcomes in the fight against corruption and crime were made, the target of gradually deterring and stamping out the scourge has yet been realised.

Related institutions and policies in many sectors remain deficient, the implementation of preventive measures is inefficient, and heads of offices have yet performed their responsible role in the fight, Nga stressed.-VNA