No official was found lying in their asset declaration according to the Government Inspectorate at the meeting to review the anti-corruption fight of 2016 on October 28.

Government Inspector General Phan Van Sau

Inspector General Phan Van Sau said that one million officials had submitted their declarations and 993,000 declarations had been published.

"414 cases have been verified but we haven't detected any lies about the assets," he said. "The rule that officials must hand over their gifts to the state is still just for show. It's also difficult to supervise and control because it depends on individual discipline and ethics. We also haven't detected any violations."

Sau admitted that giving bribes as gifts was common and the number of leaders being punished for letting corruption occur is small compared to the number of cases have been founded.

"People still cover up for each other and avoid taking responsibility. The asset recovery rate is increasing but still low compared to the amount of stolen assets. Many assets are never recovered," Sau said.

Socio-economic relationships, which are the cause of corruption, are complicated and difficult to monitor. In many cases, the leader is the mastermind or accomplice that's why the anti-corruption fight is often hindered.

According to Sau, localities have tightened supervision on the office discipline and work ethics of officials at over 2,894 agencies and departments. 119 people have been punished. 8,800 people have their positions switched to prevent corruption.

Moreover, 6,700 administrative and 274,300 specialised inspections were carried out. The loss to various violations totaled VND135.4trn (USD6bn) and 14,600 hectares of land. Sau proposed to recover VND53.3trn and 6,550 hectares of land.

The State Audit Office of Vietnam asked agencies to revise or remove 103 documents that are no longer suitable.

"We have detected 49 corruption cases involving 95 officials. From October 2015 to September 30, 257 cases with 710 suspects were investigated. 263 cases with 634 suspects were prosecuted by people's procuracies," he said.

In addition, people's courts have heard 194 cases in which 47.7% are considered serious and extremely serious, an increase of 5.3% compared to same period last year. There are five death penalties and life sentences declared.

Dtinews