by Vu Kim Chung
12-11-1999
The Government of Vietnam made clear that it is serious about its anti-corruption campaign, saying on November 12, 1999 that officials would be held responsible for wrongdoing in their departments.
"The National Assembly is very active in fighting against corruption," Vu Mao, chief of the legislature's office, told a briefing on its upcoming session. "We will be very severe. We will try to ensure a better administration, not only for our people but for foreign investors. This is very important."
The ruling Communist Party launched a campaign in May 1999 that required all members to undergo a procedure of criticism and self-criticism aimed at rooting out corruption and other social evils. The Central Committee plenum that precedes each of the National Assembly's two annual sessions decided to warn two top officials - the second level of a four-tier punishment system - over scandals that developed during their tenure.
It also asked legislators to strip one of them, Deputy Prime Minister Ngo Xuan Loc, of his post, and said the powerful Politburo would consider punishment for the recently ousted Customs chief. Both were cited for transgressions including accepting bribes during the selection of the project prime consultant and money siphoned off through irregular agencies that the consultants and contractors had to hire related to the implementation of the Irrigation and Flood Protection Rehabilitation Project, financed with loans provided by the Asian Development Bank, as well as other similar transgressions. [more on this issue in Communique of the 8th Plenum of the Cntral Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam].
"The discipline aims at consolidating the nature of revolution, the discipline and principles of the party and state, and heightening the responsibility of the heads (of government agencies)," party chief Le Kha Phieu said in the final speech to the plenum on November 11.
Mr Mao said the National Assembly session that opened November 18 had a packed agenda and could run longer than its usual one month, in part because of a new law that cut back the national work week to five days. It could consider a new central bank governor to replace Nguyen Tan Dung, who also is a deputy prime minister and Politburo member.
"He is doing quite well, but he is very busy," Mr Mao said.
In 1998, Mr Dung replaced Cao Sy Kiem, who currently was deputy head of the Central Commitee's economic commission and was the other official to be warned over scandals that developed when he ran the State Bank of Vietnam.
Mr Mao said legislators also would set economic targets for 2000. Although the plenum said gross domestic product should grow by 6 percent, Mr Mao said that would be at the upper end of a range that would have 5 percent or 5.5 percent at the bottom.
Vietnam recorded robust economic growth, an average of 8.2 percent over five years, until the start of the Asian economic crisis in mid-1997. In October, the government downgraded its growth forecast for this year to between 4.7 percent and 5 percent from between 5 percent and 6 percent. Even the new target seemed inflated, considering the economy only grew by 4.3 percent in the first six months. Still, officials have remained upbeat, despite the worst flooding in a century. [see related story: Worst Floods in a Century in Vietnam Kill Hundreds]
The National Assembly also would try to finish work on a revision of the penal code that was expected to be passed earlier in 1999. The new law aims to trim the number of crimes punishable by execution. Courts have sentenced 65 people to death for drug trafficking alone in 1999, breaking the previous year's record of 57.
"The general trend is we don't want to have so many capital sentences," Mr Mao said. "But it is more important to build a society in which people live more honestly and obey the rule of law. That way we can reduce crime as well as punishment."