Ho Chi Minh City Party leader Nguyen Thien Nhan has highlighted the limitations of the city’s previous efforts to fight corruption and wastefulness, demanding that changes must be made.

Nhan, who is secretary of the municipal Party Committee, chaired a meeting on Wednesday afternoon to review the city’s anti-corruption and wastefulness efforts in 2017 and set new objectives for 2018.

The city’s leader expressed his dissatisfaction with the results while highlighting many of the efforts' shortcomings.

Anti-corruption activities in Ho Chi Minh City were carried out on a comprehensive and large scale, but the outcome was rather limited, Secretary Nhan asserted.

Asset declaration was conducted by nearly 99 percent of the city’s 37,000 public servants and officials, Nhan stated, before expressing his disbelief that no violations were detected.

It is also unbelievable that no corruption-related wrongdoing or wastefulness was discovered in 2017, the leader continued.

“The city has over nine millions residents. There should be thousands of complaints and denunciations each year,” he remarked.

Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan (L, 2nd) speaks with delegates at the gathering. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A total of 43 inspectorates were established to examine the responsibilities of leaders of the city’s 63 state entities and units within 2017, whose results showed that no penalties were imposed.

Competent authorities managed to uncover one case of corruption within the municipal medical examination center last year, Nhan said, adding that local officers are investigating another case as well.

This means only two corruption cases were detected in the city last year.

“It cannot continue this way,” he asserted, urging a change in the efforts to fight corruption and wastefulness in the southern metropolis.

Relevant agencies were tasked with establishing a specific list of actions and signs that typically accompany corruption.

A new procedure must also be established this year for local authorities to deal with reports from citizens regarding the negative actions of public officials and organizations.

Results of such a process will then be reported to the municipal Party Committee once every three months, Nhan stressed.

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