VietNamNet Bridge – Customs have always been named as the agency with the highest corruption level in the government inspectors’, the World Bank’s and Vietnam Business Forum’s reports.

The reports

The annual Vietnam Business Forum’s (VBF) report released in late 2013 pointed out that businesses have to pay “lubrication fees” to customs officers in return for their cooperative attitudes or the customs procedure simplification. Customs officers also take bribe to “shut their ears” to smuggling, prohibited imports or wrong customs declarations.

The report was released after a survey was completed in October 2013 which aimed to find out how corruption has affected Vietnamese businesses.

The survey has found out that the three sectors where the corruption situation is the most serious are customs (55.2 percent), taxation bodies (46.2 percent) and land management (39.8 percent).

Prior to that, in late November 2012, the government inspectors and the World Bank also released a report which showed that customs was one of the four sectors best known for corruption.

On October 31, 2013, at a workshop organized by the government inspection agency and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the World Bank released a report showing that up to 63 percent of businesses paid “unofficial fees” to create an “underground mechanism” which allows to solve matters more quickly.

Customs and taxation agencies were the two agencies to which businesses gave bribes the most.

What happens in reality?

Hundreds of customs officers have been punished in recent years for their behaviors relating to the corruption and bribery.

In June 2013, the Lao Cai provincial People’s Court sentenced Tran Minh Thuong, former Head of the Muong Khuong border gate’s customs agency to 20-year imprisonment, and Nguyen Van Cuong to 12-year imprisonment for the taking the bribe of VND1.5 billion from an enterprise.

Customs officers are believed to lend a hand to the former President of the Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) Duong Chi Dung in his deal of importing an old and damaged floating dock.

Though the Van Phong Bay customs agency knew that the 43-year old floating dock could not meet the requirements to be imported to Vietnam, it still allowed the dock getting customs clearance, which has caused a loss of VND335 billion.

According to VBF, Vietnam has a legal framework with legal documents issued by different levels of agencies to deal with corruption. However, the fight against corruption has only brought modest achievements.

This has been attributed to the ineffective supervision over customs officers’ works to discover their illegal behaviors and punish them heavily. The comment coincided with the government inspectors’ conclusion made in May 2012, after it completed the inspection at the General Department of Customs.

Over the last five years, 295 customs officers have been disciplined at different levels for different reasons.

VBF has suggested drawing up and implementing a reasonable plan to be sure that all the regular payment items to customs are clear and transparent to minimize businesses’ risks. Vietnam has been recommended to set up a customs inspection office, the model which has been existing in some other countries.

Tran Thuy