The fight against corruption requires more practical actions, not empty words, to achieve better results, said former National Assembly deputy Le Van Cuong.

>> NA leader: “Is there corruption in anti-corruption forces?”>> Many Vietnamese pessimistic about anti-corruption drive Cuong made the statement during a recent talk with Tuoi Tre about how to improve the efficiency of anti-corruption. Cuong’s  opinion was among hundreds comments given to Tuoi Tre in response to the question raised by National Assembly chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung at a recent meeting of the NA’s Standing Committee  “Is there corruption in anti-corruption forces?” About the low efficiency of the combat against corruption, as reported by Huynh Phong Tranh, the Inspector General of Government Inspectorate, at the meeting, Cuong wondered, “Our apparatus for anti-corruption is very large, so why is it still facing difficulties in cracking down on corruption?” These days there are many statements or comments  published on newspapers related to corruption, Cuong said. “Prominent among them are the above question by Chairman Hung and a comment by Vice State President Nguyen Thi Doan, ‘Nowadays, corrupt officials are ready to do anything they can to appropriate the public funds.’” Meanwhile, “it is very ridiculous when reading anti-corruption reports made by different agencies at different levels of government,” Cuong said. They usually contain the same contents, such as “Corruption has yet to be driven back. The corruption situation remains serious, with complicated tricks, undermining the people’s trust…,” the ex-deputy said. On reading such reports, any common person will be under the impression that corruption is taking place fiercely, but in fact, the number of corruption cases uncovered every year is very modest. In practice, there are localities where thousands of inspections are conducted yearly but inspectors fail to discover any corrupt act, Cuong said. “When asked about anti-corruption, many leaders at a number of agencies and ministries said that they had taken drastic measures to fight and prevent corruption, so corrupt acts had not occurred. “It is very strange and ridiculous that such words as ‘the corruption is still serious and complicated’ can be heard everywhere, but in fact, very few corruption cases have been brought to light,” Cuong said. Several years ago, the ex-deputy said, many people blamed the ineffectiveness of anti-corruption activities on the lack of both specific laws and agencies in charge of combating corruption.  “Currently, many laws, regulations and policies have been issued in support of the fight against corruption, and a large anti-corruption apparatus has been set up, but corrupt acts are still hard to be uncovered. Why?” He also pointed out that many corruption cases have been discovered thanks to the help of media and the public. Meanwhile, in many cases, those who reported corruption cases to authorities have been victimized. “In Ho Chi Minh City, the leaders of four public service companies enjoyed salary of billions of dong per year and such a situation was not discovered until recently. So what is the regulation on submitting property and income declarations for?” Cuong said. “In my opinion, don’t call on others to combat corruption by giving them empty words. Anti-corruption requires effective actions, such as putting all activities of all key officials under close and regular supervision,” the former deputy said.