Recently, officials and civil servants of the finance sector have made positive changes in their actions and awareness of anti-corruption. This work has achieved import results, and step by step prevented corrupt, negative and wasteful acts.

Reform and modernization are one of the key solutions for anti-corruption
of the Financial sector. Photo: Thuy Linh 

Handle the responsibility of the head

According to Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Finance Tran Huy Truong, to promote anti-corruption, the ministry continues to direct units in the sector to strictly comply with Government Decree No. 211/2013/ ND-CP dated December 19, 2013 amending articles of Decree 107/2006/ND-CP dated September 22, 2006 providing for the handling of the responsibilities of the heads of agencies, units and organisations when corruption occurs in agencies, units and organisations under their management, and documents of the Ministry of Finance on the responsibility and handling of responsibilities of heads, cadres, civil servants and employees of organisations and units under the Ministry of Finance, and administrative responsibility regime of heads of organisations and units under the Ministry of Finance in abiding by administrative discipline in public service activities. In addition, they should continue to promote the implementation of Directive No. 11-CT / BCS dated April 3, 2018 of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Finance on strengthening the management of cadres and responsibility of the heads of units in performing public services.

To minimise corruption, the Ministry of Finance focuses on the reform of administrative procedures and the renovation of science and technology. In 2020, the ministry issued 14 decisions abolishing 37 administrative procedures and amended, supplemented and replaced 60 administrative procedures in the fields of customs, treasury, public assets, tax, accounting and auditing, and tax debt management. The single window mechanism for processing administrative procedures operated stably and effectively. For the whole year, the Single Window Unit of the Ministry of Finance received 1,136 dossiers of administrative procedures in five fields (insurance, accounting-auditing, informatics, price, finance and banking) and returned results of 808 dossiers to individuals and organisations in a timely fashion; 328 dossiers are handled by the ministry within the time limit, and there were no overdue dossiers.

The Ministry of Finance also submitted to all levels to reduce and simplify 163 of 190 conditions in 20 business lines in the Law on Investment. Currently, 290 valid business conditions in 20 business lines are under management of the Ministry of Finance. Online public service provision has been promoted and identified as the top priority for developing the e-Government, digital Government to further facilitate and reduce costs for people and businesses to promote socio-economic development. All of the Ministry of Finance's administrative procedures have been provided via online public services. Of which, the number of online public services at level 3 and level 4 of the Ministry of Finance hit nearly 60%.

Detect and handle violations in timely fashion

To improve efficiency in the fight against corruption, overcome shortcomings, make strong changes, completely prevent this problem, the Ministry of Finance has detailed key tasks that need to be deployed in this area.

Specifically, strengthen direction and coordination between the Inspector of the Ministry of Finance and specialised inspector units under the Ministry of Finance in implementing thematic and wide-ranging inspections to promptly detect and handle violations and propose amendments and supplements to inappropriate mechanisms and policies to boost financial management in accordance with discipline and rules.

In addition, intensify monitoring of subjects through the risk analysis system, work with agencies and units under the Ministry of Finance to provide information for the prompt direction and administration; amend and supplement the plan of financial inspection and audit in line with reality to enhance the quality and efficiency of the inspections, as well as the development of plans for the following year in a timely fashion and with accuracy.

The Ministry of Finance will study and develop inspection orientations for the finance sector to meet the requirements of the ministry’s management and administration, and inspection orientations for the inspection sector issued by the Government Inspectorate, as well as enhance coordination between the inspector of the Ministry of Finance and specialised inspection units under the Ministry of Finance in building and perfecting the information technology system to serve financial inspection and audit; as well as coordinate and exchange information between units within the finance sector and between the Ministry of Finance and other competent agencies to prevent, detect and handle violations of the law.

Along with that, continue to focus on implementing the programme of reform and modernisation of inspection and audit on customs, tax and finance; intensify the development of IT applications in risk management and software for analysing and classifying taxpayers, declaring customs under risk levels to promptly detect new violations, thereby strengthening the inspection and audit to fight commercial fraud.

Focus on building a contingent of clean, strong, mindful, qualified financial inspectors who can complete all tasks in the new period; enhance training and fostering of inspection skills, contributing to improving the quality of financial inspection officials; effectively implement control of income and assets, and regulations on declaration and disclosure of assets, income, and dubious income explanation; promptly verify, clarify and handle cadres and civil servants involved in corruption and negative actions.

In addition, strengthen the inspection and supervision of the head of the unit in the performance of assigned tasks, the implementation of conclusions and rectification after inspection and audit, the implementation of regulations on personnel organisation, especially in the recruitment, reception, appointment and rotation of cadres; promptly detect, rectify and strictly handle heads of units that violations occur; individuals and organisations who show signs of autocracy, authoritarianism, lack of democracy and violations in terms of personnel management.

According to statistics in 2020, in the entire finance sector, there were seven heads of units that were concluded for irresponsibility for arising corruption and applied disciplinary form of criticism and reprimand; the Ministry of Finance continues to direct the General Department of State Reserve, the General Department of Vietnam Customs, and the General Department of Taxation handled officials related to the purchase of rice for the national reserves in 2020 and the delegation for tax and customs inspection in Bac Ninh under the conclusion of the Inspector of the Ministry of Finance.