Corruption in Vietnam
| Political corruption |
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| Forms and concepts |
| Anti-corruption |
| Corruption by continent and country |
Corruption in Vietnam is pervasive and widespread, due to weak legal infrastructure, financial unpredictability, and conflicting and negative bureaucratic decision-making. Surveys from 2015 revealed that while petty corruption decreased slightly throughout the country, high-level corruption significantly increased as a means of abuse of political power in Vietnam.[1] Corruption is a very significant problem in Vietnam, impacting all aspects of administration, education and law enforcement.
Vietnam is an authoritarian one-party state under the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). In 2015, the party claimed that corruption had moved up the political agenda, and the legal framework for tackling corruption had become "better developed". However, political academics have cited that such efforts are likely a cover for a political purge between factions of the party.[1]
As of January 2018 Vietnam scored one of the highest rates of bribery practices – the rate citizens have paid a bribe to key public institutions over the past 12 months, at 65%, is second only to corruption in India with 69%.[2] In effect, as of 2012, corruption has been considered an obstacle for doing business in Vietnam, and the use of facilitation payments have been widespread when dealing with frontline civil servants at all levels of society.[3]
Ranking
Transparency International's 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, which scored 180 countries on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"), gave Vietnam a score of 41. When ranked by score, Vietnam ranked 83rd among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector.[4] For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the average score was 43, and the worst score was 11 (ranked 180).[5] For comparison with regional scores, the highest score among the countries of the Asia Pacific region[Note 1] was 85, the average score was 45 and the lowest score was 17.[6]
Pervasiveness
Surveys from 2015 revealed that while petty corruption decreased slightly throughout the country, high-level corruption or systemic and political corruption significantly increased as a means of abuse of political power in Vietnam.[1] As of January 2018 Vietnam scored one of the highest rates of bribery practices – the rate citizens have paid a bribe to key public institutions over the past 12 months, at 65%, is second only to Corruption in India with 69%.[2]
Effect
Vietnam is a developing country of about 96 million people as of 2018.[7] As of 2012, corruption was considered an obstacle for doing business in Vietnam, and the use of facilitation payments have been widespread when dealing with frontline civil servants at all levels of society.[3]
Due to the international view of corruption in Vietnam, in 2020, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam stood at only US$28.5 billion, far below its ASEAN neighbours.[8]
Government anti-corruption efforts
In 2016, the ongoing "blazing furnace" (đốt lò) anti-corruption campaign was started by Nguyễn Phú Trọng, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.[9]
In 2021, the Vietnamese government claimed that it had taken stronger efforts to combat corruption.[10]
Officials implicated by the anti-corruption campaigns
- Đinh La Thăng: former Minister of Transport, former Communist Party Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City, and former member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
- Nguyễn Đức Chung: former Major General of the Vietnam People's Public Security and Vietnamese politician. He is a former Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee.
- Nguyễn Thanh Long: Minister of Health from July 2020 until his removal from the Communist Party of Vietnam in June 2022 for involvement in the Việt Á scandal.
- Trịnh Xuân Thanh: Former Vietnamese politician and businessman. He is the former head of the state-owned Petrovietnam Construction Joint Stock Corporation (a subsidiary of Petrovietnam) and the former Deputy-Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee of Hậu Giang.
- Nguyễn Xuân Phúc: Former President of Vietnam implicated in the Việt Á scandal, resigned on January 23, 2023
- Dương Bá Thanh Dân: Director of the Department of Medical Supplies at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, in the Southeastern Province of Ninh Thuan, and his employee Nguyễn Đăng Đức.[11]
- Đào Hữu Long: Director of Thua Thien Hue Provincial Registration Center.[citation needed]
- Tô Anh Dũng: Former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, (and seven other former officials at the foreign ministry) due to allegedly receiving bribes up to $908,000 to add companies to a list of providers of repatriation flights during COVID 19 epidemic.[12]
See also
- PMU 18 scandal, 2006, 1.8 million US$
- Trương Mỹ Lan, 2018–2022 arrest, 12.5 billion US$
- Crime in Vietnam
Notes
- ^ Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, North Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu, and Vietnam
References
- ^ a b c "Vietnam Corruption Profile". Business Anti-Corruption Portal. Archived from the original on 2 July 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
- ^ a b Thu, Huong Le (25 January 2018). "The Vietnamese Communist Party's corruption hunt". www.lowyinstitute.org. Lowy Institute. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
- ^ a b "Investment Climate Statement- Vietnam 2012". The US Department of State. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
- ^ "The ABCs of the CPI: How the Corruption Perceptions Index is calculated". Transparency.org. 20 December 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ "Corruption Perceptions Index 2023: Vietnam". Transparency.org. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ "CPI 2023 for Asia Pacific: Regional Stagnation Marked by Inadequate Delivery of Anti-corruption Commitments". Transparency.org. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ "GDP, PPP (current international $) | Data". data.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
- ^ "Vietnam Insights: Economic performance 2020 and forecast for 2021". 7 January 2021.
- ^ Sebastian Strangio (2024-03-06). "Vietnam Opens Trial in $12.5 Billion Corruption Case". The Diplomat. Retrieved 2024-03-17.
- ^ "State President targets stronger push against corruption in 2021-25 period". hanoitimes.vn. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
- ^ "Vietnam arrests two provincial medical officials for alleged corruption". web.archive.org. 2023-03-18. Archived from the original on 2023-03-18. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
- ^ Du, Pham; Lam, Thanh (July 12, 2023). "Deputy foreign minister received bribes 'out of respect'". VnExpress International. VnExpress. Retrieved 2024-03-17.
External links
- Vietnam Corruption Profile from the Business Anti-Corruption Portal, 2015
- Joint Evaluation of Support to Anti-Corruption Efforts Viet Nam Country Report (PDF) (Report). June 2011. ISBN 9788275486026. Retrieved 2024-03-17.
