VietNamNet Bridge – Discussing the government’s report on anti-corruption on November 4, National Assembly deputy Tran Van Kiet from the southern province of Vinh Long didn’t agree that the corruption at grassroots-level agencies is more serious than at central agencies.

Deputy Tran Van Kiet

According to the government report, the corruption ratio at commune and ward agencies in 2010 was up to 31 percent and it was only 0.3 percent at central agencies.

“I don’t know whether I should cry or laugh at these figures. Do commune officials earn smaller salaries than those working for central agencies so they have to commit corruption? Corruption ratio at grassroots agencies can’t be higher than at the central level,” commented deputy Kiet.

The report also says that in comparison with 2009, the number of new corruption cases decreased by 31.6 percent, the number of officials who committed corruption was down by 28 percent and the number of newly-prosecuted corruption cases fell by 23 percent.

“I think that corruption doesn’t decrease because the qualification of our anti-corruption contingent is not good enough,” Kiet added.

Deputy Dang Van Xuong from the southern province of Long an questioned “is corruption at high-level agencies more complicated than at grassroot agencies so the government had such optimistic statistics?”

Deputies also worried when only 25 state agencies discovered reported that they had uncovered cases of corruption within their own organisations.

“Some officials tend to think that corruption happens somewhere else, not in their localities or their agencies,” Xuong remarked.

The report says that among the officials who committed corruption, someare personnel of law protection agencies.

Chair of the National Assembly’s Committee for Justice Le Thi Thu Ba said it is necessary to have a special report on corruption at law protection agencies.

Deputy Nguyen Dinh Xuan from Tay Ninh province said that forcing officials to declare their assets is an effective way to prevent corruption.

Xuan said that according to a report of the People’s Supreme Court, up to 34.6 percent of corruption criminals end up only as subject to probation and constituents didn’t agree with this.

He said in many countries, people can easily check the income of senior officials on the Internet. He said Vietnam should learn from these countries. “The more important position the person occupies, the more transparent his assets should be. Otherwise, how can people know why an official has villas worth millions of US dollars and why his children drive luxurious cars?”

Deputy Xuong said that forcing officials to declare their assets is not really effective to prevent corruption because until now, only 24 out of 63 provinces have submitted the reports.

NA deputies want to have the commitment and responsibility of top officials in combating corruption.

Le Nhung