Party probes ethics

The morality of Communist Party members and cadres is a key concern at the 10th Party Congress in Hanoi

Delegates at the Congress also pointed out that Vietnam would only be able to consolidate the Party’s leadership and attain its ambitious socio-economic development targets if it strengthens the virtues and qualifications of Party members.
“The key to every issue is human. For our Party, that is leaders at every level. If the Party wants to do the job of leadership well, its cadres have to be clean,” said Vietnam’s Ambassador to France and former deputy minister of foreign affairs Nguyen Dinh Bin, who represents the Party members currently working overseas.
According to Bin, keeping Party cadres clean means heightening the fight against corruption, which he views as being “the key of all keys”.
“The Party can only increase its strength, accelerate the reform process comprehensively and bring Vietnam out of its underdeveloped status by fighting against corruption effectively,” he said.
However, he observed that despite the increased anti-corruption efforts and more measures put in place during the 12 years since the mid-term plenum of the Seventh Party Congress’ Central Committee indicated corruption was a major threat to the Party and the nation, corruption has become increasingly rampant and serious.
Vu Quoc Hung, deputy head of the Inspection Commission under the Ninth Party Congress’ Central Committee agreed that there was a serious decline in the morality of Party members.
“Previously, the decline in morality and manner that lead to wastefulness, corruption and harassment was limited to Party members in the business sector. Today, it has expanded to all areas, including healthcare, education, culture, the implementation of social policies, personnel, policy-making and consultation,” Hung said.
He also said that the situation had developed from only a small group of Party members into “not a small” part that included high-ranking cadres. Corruption has grown from sporadic cases of “minor appropriation” into well-organised and complex embezzlement for private benefit in areas such as construction, land clearance, purchasing, tendering, project allocation, value-added tax refunds, capital disbursement, inspection, prosecution and court judgements.
The Party Central Committee even reported that bribes for power and degrees still occur in some places, he said, while people still have doubts about some cadres who declare their ages incorrectly to be promoted to higher positions.
“Corruption and harassment have resulted in serious consequences in several areas, causing losses to state assets, and capital and human resources, and leading to the deterioration of ‘not a small part’ of cadres and Party members,” Hung said.
He underlined that such deterioration was “hindering the progress of the reform process” and “causing negative effects to the investment environment”, even though few cases have been taken to court for criminal prosecution.
In a report presented by Party Secretary-General Nong Duc Manh at the Congress, the Ninth Congress’ Central Committee pointed out that the poor qualifications and morality of several Party members, including some high-ranking cadres, was among the “subjective reasons” why economic growth was of poor quality and was not meeting its potential.
Vu Quoc Hung said the loopholes in the legal framework were one of the primary causes of the “unexpected negative effects” of the market economy.
“Together with the not very good implementation of democracy, transparency and publicity, [those loopholes] have caused hindrances to the battle against red tape, corruption and wastefulness and the prevention of the deterioration [of morality] in the Party and the society,” he said.
Nguyen Dinh Bin said the people expected the 10th Congress to tackle corruption. “Only by doing this [we] can enhance the Party leadership, promote national solidarity and get Vietnam out of its underdeveloped status,” he said.
He said he shared Hung’s belief that it was essential to increase the efficiency of education, particularly among high-ranking positions.
“[We] have to deeply change the awareness of all Party members, firstly in leadership positions, about the seriousness and the threat of the deterioration of political ideology, morality, manners, red tape, corruption and wastefulness to the stability and development of the country,” Vu Quoc Hung said.
He added that special attention needed to be paid to Party cadres working in “vulnerable environments” such as finance, project management, licensing, inspection, justice and policy-making.
Delegate Nguyen Tuan Khanh remarked that by frankly scrutinising weaknesses and successfully fighting against corruption, the Party could lead the country to obtain its socio-economic development targets.
He said recruitment to be reformed through the promotion of publicity and democracy, to prevent bribes for power in the political system. “[We] must not appoint cadres who the public suspect of being involved in corruption,” he said.
Deputy prime minister Vu Khoan said reforms to the selection and appointment of cadres were high on the Congress agenda and “more reforms will be put in place” in this respect to increase flexibility in the Party and State administration.




No. 758/April 24-30, 2006