The number of corruption cases as well as death penalties handed to corrupted officials in the first three quarters of this year have increased compared to the same period last year, according to a government report.

Tran Van Liem, former general director of Vinashinlines, was sentenced to death at a court in February. 

This year, the government has dealt with 136 corruption cases, an increase of 177% on last year. The police also dealt with 354 cases with 785 defendants and the procuracy dealt with 255 cases with 571 defendants.

About 345 cases with 799 defendants were brought to court. 49.7% of which are serious to especially serious cases, a 2% increase on last year. 15.7% of the offenders were given suspended or non-custodial sentences, an increase of 3.7%. Eight offenders were given life imprisonment or the death sentence in the first nine months of this year, an increase of 60% compared to the same period last year.

It is estimated that the corrupted officials caused over VND1.5trn (USD66m) in damage and more than 77,000 square metres of land were lost. The authorities have recovered USD14.8m and 3,700 square metres of land. Five real estate properties, one Lexus car, one Audi, one Porche and a necklace worth USD1.6m were seized.

The finance and banking sector had the most severe and sophisticated corruption cases.

In early January, Bac Giang provincial Police's Economic Crime Investigation Department prosecuted Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, a Vietinbank employee for abusing her power to fake documents and forge signatures to steal VND19bn (USD836,000) in customer deposits.

According to the report, the management policies for some sectors have loopholes and the office discipline was lacking. Moreover, the inspections were not very effective. The government promised to increase inspections in key sectors such as internal staff planning, natural resources management, state-owned enterprise restructuring and finance and banking sector.

dtinews