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.

Source: Dan Viet