Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong asked relevant agencies on July 25 to continue speeding up investigations and bringing to light key corruption cases of great public concern.

Party and State leader Nguyen Phu Trong reiterates that there is
'no forbidden zone' in combating corruption in Vietnam

The anti-graft campaign has achieved some initially encouraging results over the past six months, and it is imperative to build on this success over the coming months of the year, Party and State leader Trong told the 18th session of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-corruption in Hanoi. 

It was reported during the meeting that the past six months has seen relevant agencies prosecute 143 cases involving 399 individuals. In the process, the agencies managed to recover over VND37,000 billion and confiscated many valuable properties to the State budget.  

Moreover, Party organisations have disciplined a total of 186 Party members for acts of corruption and other forms of deliberate wrongdoing. Among them were several ranking officials, including both incumbent and retired officials, along with nominees to Party congresses of various agencies and localities. 

These encouraging results indicate the strong determination held by the Party and State to combat corruption under the motto of ‘no forbidden zone’ or ‘no exception’, the report stated. 

Most notably, law enforcement agencies have managed to complete investigations and prosecutions into a number of corruption cases that are classified as serious and complicated, which have captured the attention of the public. The majority of these cases are related to violations regarding land and asset management regulations, causing serious losses to the State budget. 

Detailing the initial encouraging results of the campaign, Party and State leader Trong stressed the importance of following tasks until the end of the year, that is fighting against corruption in an effective manner and successfully organising Party congresses at a grassroots level. 

Anti-corruption tasks must be carried out in a way that ensures that no opportunists can be elected to the Party ahead in the next term, he added. 

According to Party and State leader Trong, the second half of the year will see law enforcement agencies strive to complete investigations into 15 cases, prosecute other 17 cases, open trials on a further 20 cases, hold appeal trials on six others, and end verification of 19 cases.