The Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee will pay a maximum of VND10 million (US$406) for each tip-off of corruption cases in an effort to combat corruption and irregularities in the city, according to the committee’s newly-released guidelines.

The municipal Party Committee has issued regulations in receiving and handling corruption news and supporting news providers.

Whistleblowers include domestic and foreign organizations or individuals living and working in Vietnam, excluding those specializing in anti-corruption as well as officials of agencies responsible for receiving tip-offs.

They will receive the reward if their information is accurate and helps the competent agencies verify and handle corruption and negative acts.

The tip-off recipients are the Ho Chi Minh City steering committee for corruption and negative act prevention and control and its members, with the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee’s Internal Affairs Board serving as the permanent unit of the steering committee.

The payment for corruption reports is expected to encourage residents to provide valuable information to curb corruption and negative acts, according to the municipal Party Committee.

The information will be received and handled in a confidential, prompt and accurate manner in line with the Party’s regulations and the state’s law.

Tip-off providers must work directly with information recipients, not through intermediaries. The identity of tip-off providers must be encoded.

The municipal Party Committee also required keeping secret of tip-off providers’ information and ensuring their safety.

They are not allowed to leak, destroy or falsify the information while the competent agencies have yet to complete the verification of the information.

They must take full responsibility for the accuracy of the information they provide and pay compensation for any damage caused by their false information.

The ‘purchase’ of corruption news and the maximum payment of VND10 million ($406) are based on higher-level agencies’ guidelines and experiences of other localities, Tran Quoc Trung, deputy head of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee’s Internal Affairs Board, said at a press conference on Thursday.

The solution is aimed at encouraging residents to join hands to improve the effectiveness of the fight against corruption and negative acts in the city rather than earning money.

Trung added that it is not easy to abuse the policy to slander others as tip-off providers have to provide their names, ID numbers, phone numbers, and addresses and keep contact with recipients.

Like us on Facebook or  follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!