VietNamNet Bridge – Major General Vu Hung Vuong, Deputy Chief of the General Department of Police (Ministry of Public Security) talked with the media about the recent Transparency International (TI) survey on corruption in Vietnam.

According to TI’s survey, up to 62 percent of interviewees said that corruption was on the rise in Vietnam in the last three years.  Does it mean that the fight against corruption in Vietnam is ineffective?

The recent conference to review corruption combating activities confirmed that fighting corruption is the central mission of the entire political system and the mission of society.

In the last four years, 276 officials were disciplined for being irresponsible and corrupt, including 39 facing criminal proceeding.

The 13^th conference of the Party Central Committee disciplined 18 senior officials and generals, some of them related to corruption.

In 2010 alone, police investigated 10,690 economic-related cases, including 238 corruption cases. 

These activities show the determination of the Party, the State and the government to combat corruption and Vietnam’s achievements in fighting corruption.

But what is TI basing its survey on to say that corruption tends to increase in Vietnam?

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong confirmed that anti-corruption activities have positively progressed and Vietnam has achieved certain results in preventing and dealing with corruption. Corruption has been controlled in some fields.

I don’t understand how they conducted the survey and what is the basis of the assessment. Statistics show that more corruptors and more corruption cases have been detected and solved in Vietnam. It proves that the fight against corruption in Vietnam is being seriously undertaken.

TI survey also said that the police forces committed corruption the most?

The ratio of corruption cases related to law enforcement is not high. It seems that the impression about a few corrupt police officers has made assessments not objective and inaccurate because sometimes the “corruption perception” is not entirely true.

Moreover, taking several personal self-interest cases of some police officers, which were not corrupt, to assess the entire police forces is not accurate.

I still remember that at the National Police Conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung confirmed: “The government never forgives for corruption”. In some cases, particularly the Nam Cam case, two members of the Party Central Committee, including a Deputy Minister of Public Security, were criminally penalized for irresponsibility.

In a drug case in Hanoi, a police officer who took a bribe worth only VND50,000 ($3), was also arrested and prosecuted.

The police force is among the sectors that is determined to fight corruption. In 2010, only 0.6 percent of police officers were disciplined for all kinds of mistakes, including administrative and instruction violations so it is ungrounded to say that police have a high rate of corruption.