VietNamNet Bridge – The Government Inspectorate of Viet Nam released a UNDP-supported report yesterday (July 29), detailing why corrupt asset recovery is the least effective anti-corruption programme in the country.

The report was conducted over a five-month period and involved the participation of civil servants from 16 ministries and ministerial-level agencies, and over 1,000 people in Ha Noi, Ninh Binh, Bac Giang, Khanh Hoa and Dong Nai.

Dinh Van Minh, deputy director of the Inspectorate Science Institute, said that only 10 per cent of corrupt assets were repatriated in 2013, and 22 per cent in 2014.

"We only recently started to confiscate corrupt assets after a court officially sentences individuals on corruption charges," Minh said.

Minh explained that it often takes time for authorised agencies and courts to investigate and prove an individual is fraudulently handling money. While a case is under investigation, the individual has time to transfer their property to close relatives.

"It causes numerous difficulties to retrieval efforts of the corrupt assets," he said.

Nguyen Tien Hao, deputy chief of the Government Inspectorate of Viet Nam, said that currently they could only supervise incomes and assets of officials serving State-run agencies via their declaration of assets and income.

Statistics from the inspectorate agency show that nearly one million officials working in State agencies were required to declare assets and income.

"We still fail to supervise the income and assets of all people in the country, he said.

Therefore, corrupt assets transferred to people who do not serve in State agencies remain hard to monitor.

Hao said that the inspectorate agency was participating in compiling a draft of the amendment to the Law on Anti-Corruption scheduled to submit to the National Assembly in October 2016.

The law was issued in 2005, and revised in 2007 and 2012.

The 2016 amendment was expected to make the fight against corruption more effective, he said.

VNS