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Accordingly, if an officer needs to bring more than the limit for use after work, he must seal the excess amount with confirmation from his superior. In addition, traffic police officers are not allowed to use cell phones while on duty.
These regulations are aimed at strengthening supervision by heads of police units over their staff, while forming a framework for handling cases in which traffic police officers allegedly take bribes from traffic violators, said Colonel Le Minh Chau, director of the department.
Under a new directive from the Ministry of Public Security, directors of police departments in centrally-run provinces and cities must directly handle cases of corruption among traffic police forces and strictly punish wrongdoers.
The ministry directive included a number of other stipulations intended to improve the functionality of the traffic police force.
Traffic policemen on duty can be inspected unexpectedly. At the time of inspection, if they carry over VND100,000 and cannot show the origin of the cash, they will be punished and even may be fired.
According to HCM City Police Department, this is the local police force’s regulation in order to control policemen’s activities and to prevent them from committing corruption.
Colonel Nguyen Van Tuyen, head of the National Road and Railway Police Agency, backed this rule. “This measure is feasible and easy to implement. VND100,000 is enough for traffic police officers to buy breakfast and coffee,” he said.
However, some said that this ban is ridiculous.
Vo Van Sen, a deputy of the HCM City People’s Council, questioned: “Is this the final solution of HCM City’s traffic police force? What happens if a traffic policeman gives bribe to a pavement tea-shop owner to keep for him?”
Sen added that the ban may cause difficulties for in-duty police officers, for example in case his vehicles fail because VND100,000 is sufficient for buying a meal or purchasing petrol.
“This regulation is funny. Have the police force’s ideas been dried up so they issue such the ban?” Sen added.
Lam Thieu Quan, another deputy from the HCM City People’s Council, said that this measure is unfeasible and cannot help prevent corruption. He cited an example: in the past, to prevent staff of toll stations in Binh Duong province from appropriating toll, toll stations’ employees were banned from wearing clothes having pockets or if their clothes had pockets, they had to stich them up. However, this measure did not work.
“This ban is a new version of the above case, which is ineffective. Moreover, this ban affects each of traffic police officers,” Quan said.
He added that police officers are also citizens and they have to spend in daily activities, which VND100,000 is not enough to cover.
Quan also said that it is wrong to ban traffic policemen from using mobile phones in duty because in some cases, particularly in dangerous circumstances, they need their colleagues’ assistance while they are not equipped fully with handie-talkies.
While HCM City Police Department’s ban is controversial, this regulation has been carried out in Hanoi for several years.
Colonel Luu Quang Hoi, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Police Department--this measure is proven to be very effective from preventing corruption.
Meanwhile, the central city of Da Nang had to remove the ban of its traffic police officers from carrying over VND50,000 ($2.5) some years ago.
Colonel Nguyen Den, head of the Traffic Police Department of Da Nang city, said that this band was issued in 1995 and removed two years later because that amount of money was insufficient for daily spending.
Den said that this is a good measure but HCM City police department needs to re-consider the amount of money that policemen are allowed to carry with them. According to Den, VND100,000 is not enough as the living cost is very expensive now.
VNE/VNN
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