‘Can’t be corrupt’: Vietnam vows to step up anti-graft campaign
Vietnam’s Communist Party inspection committees, which have disciplined more than 7,000 members for corruption in the past 10 years, are accelerating an anti-graft campaign, according to a report on the party’s news website.
The report comes amid a broad anti-corruption push that has led to the arrests of an ex-health minister, businesses executives and former high-ranking coast guard officers. The probes have also resulted in the firings of the chairman of the State Securities Commission and head of the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.
Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong is today leading a nationwide teleconference with 81,000 participants reviewing the 10-year anti-corruption campaign, the report said. Trong has referred to his efforts as a “blazing furnace.”
The conference kicks off a new phase in the party’s anti-graft push and directs provincial governments’ anti-corruption steering committees to “memorize” important slogans: “can’t be corrupt,” “don’t dare to be corrupt,” “don’t need to be corrupt,” and “don’t want to be corrupt,” according to the report.
The high-profile campaign has led to the demise of officials including former Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long, detained over alleged ties to a nationwide bribery investigation involving a maker of Covid-19 test kits that also led to criminal proceedings against more than 60 people.
“This proves the great determination of the party and judicial authorities in the anti-graft fight with a mindset of no tolerance, no forbidden zones, no exceptions,” the report said.
In all, more than 2,700 party units and nearly 168,000 party members have been disciplined for violations in the past decade, it said. The Party Central Committee, Politburo, Secretariat and Central Inspection Commission have disciplined more than 170 high-level officials, according to the report.
By Mai Ngoc Chau – Bloomberg – June 30, 2022