Presentation by OSCAC at the Video Conference Discussion on June 18th 2010 at the
World Bank Office in Vietnam
I. Vietnamese agencies with functions of corruption prevention and combat:
At present, there are the following Vietnamese agencies in charge of
corruption
prevention and , namely: the Inspectorate, State Audit, Investigation, the Procuracy; the
Central Steering Committee and the Office of the Central Steering Committee for AntiCorruption.
Vietnam has 3 agencies specializing in anti-corruption, namely the Department of Anticorruption under the Government Inspectorate, the Police Department on Corruption
Investigation under the Ministry Police (an investigation agency) and the Department of Public
Prosecution rights and Investigation of Corruption Cases under the Supreme People’s
Procuracy.
The Central Steering Committee and the Office of the Central Steering Committee for
Anti-corruption (OSCAC) are responsible for directing, coordinating, checking, and
supervising anti-corruption activities in the whole country, including: directing, coordinating,
checking, and supervising agencies, organisations and units in developing policies on anticorruption and implementing policies on anti-corruption, including detection and handling of
corruption cases.
The Central Steering Committee has 10 members, namely:
1. The Prime Minister – Chairman;
2. One Deputy Prime Minister – Vice Chairman;
3. One Standing member cum Head of the Office of the Central Steering Committee;
4. Minister of Public Security
5. Chief Inspector of the Government Inspectorate;
6. President of the Supreme People’s Procuracy;
7. Chief Judge of the Supreme People’s Court;
8. Minister of Information and Communication;
9. One Vice Chairman of the Central Inspection Committee;
10. One Vice Minister of National Defense
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II. Operation of the Central Steering Committee and the Office of the Central
Steering Committee for Anti-corruption
The Central Steering Committee and the Office of the Central Steering Committee for
Anti-corruption are responsible for directing, coordinating, checking, and supervising agencies,
organisations and units in anti-corruption activities, and not engaged in activities of inspecting,
investigating, prosecuting, and holding court trials for corruption acts.
The Central Steering Committee and the Office of the Central Steering Committee for
Anti-corruption monitor and check upon the anti-corruption activities of agencies,
organisations, units and localities, and identifying those that are slow to implement
regulations/provisions or that do not comply with regulations, those that face difficulties or
problems in anti-corruption in order to provide them with directions and urge them to take
prompt actions in complying with provisions of laws; coordinate the activities of different anticorruption agencies and the activities of anti-corruption agencies with those of other agencies
and organisations.
The main mechanism of the Central Steering Committee for coordination of enticorruption activities is through members of the Central Steering Committee who are leaders of
agencies with functions of anti-corruption. These members proactively propose the needs of
their agencies for coordination/collaboration with other agencies and are responsible for
organising the implementation of the decisions of the Chairman of the Central Steering
Committee in the agencies of which they are leaders.
III. Monitoring and supervision of anti-corruption activities
In Vietnam, the tools for assessing corruption and for anti-corruption remain limited in
number and not concrete. Assessment of corruption and anti-corruption in the whole country is
largely based on the following 5 criteria: (1) based on the results of anti-corruption, including
results of prevention, detection and handling of corruption acts; (2) based on assessment of
ministries, central agencies, localities and competent agencies; (3) based on results of socioeconomic development; (4) based on results of public opinion surveys; (5) referring to the
results of assessments by some foreign agencies and international organisations.
Assessing by the 5 criteria as mentioned above is rational in certain ways, however,
because these five criteria are not made concrete yet and so it’s difficult to use them and
assessment results are heavily dependent on the subjective views of the assessors. Therefore,
such a way of assessing is not persuasive.
IV. Current efforts of Vietnam in Anti-corruption
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Like other countries, Vietnam attaches great importance to both prevention and combat
of corruption and to dealing with corruption acts. In the long run, prevention will be the main
measure. However, at the present time, when corruption is quite serious, the functional
agencies of Vietnam are now concentrating more on detecting and dealing with corruption
cases. In order to meet this requirement, Vietnam has been strengthening the organisational
structures and operations of agencies engaged in
inspection, investigation, prosecution,
holding court trials, and of steering committees for anti-coruption at central and local levels.
Vietnam is also implementing the National Strategy for Anti-corruption up to 2020 and
implementing the United Nations Convention on Anti-corruption with a huge work load and on
a large scale.
V. Some areas in which Vietnam needs support
- Support to and collaboration with functional agencies of Vietnam in detecting and
investigating cases of fraud or corruption in business involving international elements
(recently, the WB and some foreign functional agencies have provided Vietnam with
information about some foreign companies committing frauds in procurement and contract
signing with some Vietnamese agencies, organisations and companies as well as about some
Vietnamese organisations and individuals committing frauds in signing contracts with foreign
agencies, organisations and companies).
- Development of the criteria for assessing and measuring corruption and anticorruption (Vietnam is now conducting research and developing such criteria).
- Support to Vietnam by sharing experiences in implementation of the United Nations
Convention on Anti-Corruption.
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