Serious corruption cases cover multi areas: National Assembly

According to the Government report, corruption cases are increasingly sophisticated and associated with organisations and group interests. Corrupt assets have great value and are linked to overseas factors. Corruption has been detected not only in the public sector but also in the private sector.

The majority of serious corruption cases that have been prosecuted recently link to areas such as land, bidding, securities, corporate bonds, banking registration and healthcare, said Government Inspector-General Đoàn Hồng Phong at the ongoing meeting of the 15th National Assembly (NA) on Tuesday.

Delivering a report on the anti-corruption work in 2023, he said there were signs of officials linked to businesses making illegal profits.

"There are legal regulation loopholes in some fields while law shortcomings are slow to be amended and supplemented, especially in land, auctions, bidding, valuation, securities and corporate bonds," he said.

According to the Government report, corruption cases are increasingly sophisticated and associated with organisations and group interests. Corrupt assets have great value and are linked to overseas factors. Corruption has been detected not only in the public sector but also in the private sector.

According to the report delivered by Tô Lâm, Minister of Public Security, the number of detected crimes related to economic management orders increased by 11.69 per cent in 2023 while crimes related to corruption and abuse of positions increased by 51.63 per cent.

Lê Thị Nga, chairwoman of the NA's Committee for Judicial Affairs, said violating businesses had been assisted by State officials to appropriate State assets. Most of the violations were found in registration, land, healthcare, education, public asset management, bidding, auction, bonds and money laundering.

Looking into investigations of complicated corruption cases such as cases at registration centres nationwide, Advanced International Joint Stock Company, or the rescue flight case, the Judicial Committee proposed agencies better assess the causes of crimes to learn lessons and strengthen state and socio-economic management to further prevent similar incidents in the future, she said.

Bố Thị Xuân Linh, NA deputy from Bình Thuận Province, said voters remained concerned and worried about petty corruption and the fact that corruption and negative phenomena were reported at inspection, examination and investigation agencies.

Officials in charge of preventing and combating corruption and negative phenomena also committed violations, she said.

She proposed classifying those who committed violations into groups of masterminds and followers. Group leaders must be subjected to strict penalties while those who follow the instructions of the leaders should enjoy tolerant policies.

Increasing crimes

Commenting on the report on preventing and combating crimes and law violations the same day, Nga from the NA's Committee for Judicial Affairs said increases in crimes had been reported in terms of the number of cases, fatality rate and property losses, showing that crime prevention and control in some sectors fell short of expectations.

Crimes such as murders, robberies and property appropriation frauds, recorded sharp increases in the number of cases, Nga said.

Violations in information technology, telecommunications networks, and the internet had been on the rise and continued to become increasingly complex with many new sophisticated methods and tricks. Many officials took advantage of their positions and powers to seek profit and accept bribes, she said.

It was noteworthy that the above violations had been reported for many years, occurred in many places but had not been promptly detected and handled, she said.

According to the report of the NA's Committee for Judicial Affairs, many took advantage of the names of businesses and law firms in the form of debt trading to confiscate assets and threaten victims by text messages and phone calls.