Control greed, maintain integrity.

Referring to the particularly serious case involving officials from many ministries and agencies at the central and local levels, former judge Truong Viet Toan stated that the "rescue flight" case exposed a part of the reality of many officials with power and authority today. The defendants complicated the issue, causing harassment and forcing businesses to follow a "request and grant" mechanism, even though this mechanism has long been abolished.

The "rescue flight" trial

The proceedings of the first-instance trial also noted that many defendants expressed remorse and spoke bitterly after their crimes were discovered. For example, former Deputy Director of the Immigration Department ( Ministry of Public Security ) Tran Van Du, in response to questioning about his bribery, said: "It's just bad luck for me, if it's unfortunate, then I'll return it to the state, it's no big deal"; or in the case of former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung: "The meetings with businesses were initiated by them; I was partly out of deference, and partly wanted to hear from the businesses to see if they had any difficulties or obstacles..."

Mr. Truong Viet Toan assessed that these were all "false statements"; even the defendants who "shed tears" did so only out of pity for themselves for unfortunately getting entangled in legal troubles.

According to the former judge, the defendants in the bribery group were all experienced individuals with training within various agencies and organizations. At trial, although they expressed "remorse," this was by no means the attitude of a defendant who truly regretted their criminal actions.

Lawyer Hoang Trong Giap (Director of Hoang Sa Law Firm) shared the same opinion, stating that the trial revealed that some defendants colluded and shared the bribe money. The amount received was very large, far exceeding the income of civil servants and public employees…

“Some lawyers and defendants accused of accepting bribes, while defending themselves, said that they did not demand, harass, or negotiate with businesses to pay money. After being granted licenses, the businesses themselves expressed gratitude; therefore, this was not giving and receiving bribes… However, these are ‘heartless defenses,’ because in court, representatives of some businesses affirmed that they were ‘pressured to the extreme,’ and therefore forced to give,” lawyer Hoang Trong Giap stated.

Speaking about corruption and misconduct among officials, Mr. Vu Pham Quyet Thang, former Deputy Inspector General of the Government, said that corruption is an inevitable law of development, stemming from unbridled human greed. "Everyone has greed; I also like money, houses, and land, but how to acquire them and what to get is another matter," the former Deputy Inspector General of the Government said.

According to Mr. Thang, in light of this principle, it is crucial that every official and Party member knows how to restrain their greed, control their behavior, and value their honor. "Money must be earned through hard work and intelligence, not through bribery, corruption, or negative practices," Mr. Thang said.

However, he also frankly stated: "There is no applause if there is only one hand. There is no corruption without bribe-takers and bribe-givers. Therefore, the issue is not just about fighting corruption, but also about fighting bribery. No one takes money to bribe and then sits around, drinking tea without benefiting. Everything has a purpose; those who give bribes also seek benefits from giving bribes," Mr. Thang said.

He observed that every major corruption case begins with small issues, as people often say, "many small things make a big one." In this case, he believes that the official may have become "accustomed to receiving bribes," "accustomed to being given gifts," and "accustomed to receiving presents" from a low-level position to a higher one, gradually developing it into an irresistible habit.

However, there are also cases where individuals, for a long time, have never engaged in corruption or bribery, yet suddenly possess enormous assets and sums of money. "This could be due to people being unable to resist material temptations, unable to overcome the power of money, and thus falling into temptation," Mr. Thang said, emphasizing, "Those who serve the people and the country must be wholeheartedly dedicated to the common cause, must know how to restrain themselves, and must value their honor."

At the recent seminar " Education on preventing and combating corruption with the requirement of building a culture of integrity in the new era," organized by the Faculty of Law - Vietnam National University, Hanoi, delegates also emphasized the issue of building a culture of "integrity" in the context of a series of major corruption cases being exposed and many officials being punished.

According to the delegates, in order to maintain integrity, those in positions of power and authority must exercise self-control so that integrity becomes a reflex, like "eating and drinking normally."

Frankly, Dr. Dinh Van Minh, former Director of the Legal Department of the Government Inspectorate, stated that none of the corrupt officials recently punished were poor. From this, Dr. Minh argued that fostering a culture of integrity requires both external and internal control. Externally, this is through mechanisms and policies; internally, it is through ethics and integrity.

Reflecting on the anti-corruption efforts over the past period, former Deputy Inspector General of the Government Vu Pham Quyet Thang assessed that many positive results have been achieved. However, to prevent corruption and negative practices, in addition to aiming for mechanisms that encourage people to "not want to be corrupt," "not need to be corrupt," "cannot be corrupt," and "dare not be corrupt," he believes the crucial issue lies in the selection and utilization of personnel. If the right people are chosen, everything will be fine, and corruption and negative practices will be limited.

Further analyzing the situation, Mr. Thang argued that the current procedures and regulations for selecting, recruiting, and appointing officials are very strict. However, this process sometimes still depends on the will of the leader and "suggestions" from superiors. This leads to a situation where "the procedures and regulations are followed correctly, but the right person is not necessarily chosen."

With years of experience presiding over major cases, former Judge Truong Viet Toan, former Deputy Chief Judge of the Criminal Court of the Hanoi People's Court, believes that personnel management plays a crucial role in preventing violations. "Some heads of agencies and units act like 'little kings,' deliberately acting against regulations, disregarding the opinions of their staff and internal team members. They abuse their position to suppress dissenting opinions," Mr. Toan said. He argues that the consequences extend beyond the leader's misconduct, leading to violations by many subordinates.

Judge Truong Viet Toan pointed out that the worrying issue was that these violations were not detected in a timely manner, leading to the violators rising higher and higher after each term. "Some people say it's a loss in terms of personnel management, but I don't think that's a loss. Those officials caused losses of tens, hundreds, or thousands of billions of dong, so their punishment is justified; there's no loss here. Their violations were extremely serious, and their authoritarianism and dictatorship need to be dealt with severely."

Since the beginning of this term, the Central Inspection Commission has played a crucial role in inspecting, supervising, preventing, and strictly handling cases of violations.

Based on his experience in judicial proceedings, Judge Truong Viet Toan believes that the government's regulations on job rotation for officials, civil servants, and public employees need to be reviewed. "Through several cases, I've seen that some heads of units have exploited this regulation to rotate individuals who have differing opinions or are not part of the same team. It's true that some positions require rotation, but there are also positions where rotation isn't necessary. If we don't have strict regulations, people will take advantage of this to rotate those who offer constructive criticism and bring in people from the same team to carry out illegal 'deals'," Mr. Toan warned.

Mr. Ngo Van Suu, former Director of Department 1 of the Central Inspection Committee, believes that early warnings and preventative measures against officials who commit violations are crucial to preventing them from "slipping" into a path of wrongdoing. "If officials involved in wrongdoing are not dealt with from the beginning, and then rise high and infiltrate the system, holding important positions, the risk of causing extremely serious consequences is immense," Mr. Suu warned.

Former Deputy Minister of the Interior Nguyen Tien Dinh also stated that early and proactive prevention, preventing small violations from accumulating into major offenses, is extremely important. "If we can prevent these violations early and proactively, we can prevent economic losses amounting to hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of billions of dong, as well as immeasurable damage to society. Furthermore, it serves as a warning, helping many officials avoid falling into corruption and escaping legal consequences," Mr. Dinh said.

Tien Phong

Source: https://tienphong.vn/danh-du-moi-la-dieu-thieng-lieng-cao-quy-nhat-che-ngu-long-tham-giu-su-liem-chinh-post1581284.tpo