VietNamNet Bridge – The city stepped up the number of inspections last year and several prominent people were punished with stiff jail terms, but corruption remains a serious concern, a review meeting heard yesterday, Feb 15.

Nguyen The Thong, deputy head of the committee, said major corruption cases involved land management and construction projects.

City inspectors carried out 215 inspections, almost double that in 2009, and found violations in 169 cases including wrongful use of 100,000sq.m of State land. They suggested that assets worth VND155 billion (US$7.9 million) are confiscated and returned to the State budget.

However this has been done only with VND3.5 billion worth of assets so far.

Thong said 43,000 regular inspections were carried out at the district level last year and violators fined a total of VND60 billion (US$3 million).

The inspections focused on land use and management, construction investments, State-owned property, social welfare policy and social insurance budgets.

Last year, investigators began criminal proceedings against 20 people in 17 new major corruption cases involving abuse of power, bribery and speculating on public property. Another 64 people are being investigated for involvement in 29 corruption cases.

The city and district level People's Courts last year passed judgement in 19 corruption cases involving 47 people.

Most prominent among the cases was the trial of Huynh Ngoc Sy, former deputy director of the city Department of Transport, who was given a life sentence for accepting US$262,000 in bribes from Japanese firm Pacific Consultants International in return for awarding them consultancy contracts.

Other major cases involved Nguyen Van Khoe, former head of the Hoc Mon District People's Committee, who was sentenced 26 years in jail for taking bribes; and Ha Van Hoa, former director of the Thanh Phat Company, who received a life sentence for giving bribes and extorting property.

Since early this year, the city's Corruption Prevention Committee has received 174 letters of complain and denouncement against organisations and officials for corruption. All cases would be acted upon, Thong said.

Tran Nam Trang, deputy director of the city's Department of Finance, told the meeting that inspectors from his department conducted 23 inspections on management of transport projects last year and found wastage estimated at more than VND1 billion (US$51,000).

Thong said the city conducted several courses on the nation's anti-corruption law for 385 people including administration leaders and officials engaged in corruption prevention tasks.

At the district level, more than 1,000 such training courses were conducted, he added.

All districts and wards as well as several departments in the city had furthered administrative reforms, but not enough red tape had been cut. Residents and enterprises were, therefore, still facing difficulties, Thong said.

Officials said at the meeting that communication work would be strengthened this year towards limiting corruption, and inspections would focus in particular on land management, basic constructions and operations of State-owned companies.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News