Leading officials from the city administration meet with the nation’s anticorruption heroes at Thursday’s ceremony held in Ho Chi Minh City

An octogenarian and a leading labor union official were among 15 outstanding public citizens honored Thursday for their steadfastness in exposing and fighting corruption.

Hieu began studying the case after some workers from the Mekong Delta city industrial zones voiced their indignation that the local federation had distributed Tet (Lunar New Year) gifts worth much lower than the promised VND150,000 each.

“Looking at their disappointed reaction, I was pretty upset. Thus I decided to investigate what had happened,” Hieu recalled.

He found the actual value of each present was a mere VND90,000, which meant VND60,000 was embezzled from each present.

A consequent investigation by the Can Tho City Standing Committee of the Party found the embezzled amount was only VND19,000 from each, which Hieu found unsatisfactory. He approached the city authorities to check balance sheets of funds managed by the Labor Federation, leading to the discovery that an amount of over VND1.4 billion had been embezzled.

“While finding evidence of the embezzlement, many friends of mine warned me not to fight against people with power. But I believed what I was doing was right and it was worth it to sacrifice myself,” Hieu said.

Hieu is among 15 individuals who’ve made great contributions to the country’s anti-corruption fight honored at Thursday’s ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City.

Hoang Manh Tung, an 80-year-old resident of District 2, found a local official had abused his position to turn a part of the public canal in Thao Dien Ward into a personal fish pond.

He was accused of “making untrue allegations and causing discord” after exposing the abuse, the man recounted.

But after inspecting the case, the HCMC Anti-Corruption Commission confirmed in 2004 that encroachment of the canal in Thao Dien Ward’s Quarter 3 was a fact. The commission asked local authorities to reclaim the public property.

Another common citizen, Nguyen Ba Hien of Bac Lieu Town, won the people’s admiration after he helped police expose a major school marks-fixing scandal involving 260 people.

“I will always be proud of what I have done, which is to help society fight corruption. I hope everybody will have no tolerance for such things so our society can become better,” Hien said.

Reported by Minh Nam