What mechanisms prevent corruption?

The draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Anti-Corruption is being appraised by the Ministry of Justice. One of the notable amendments and supplements is the draft law stipulating the increase in the value of assets and income that must be declared; raising the threshold for assets and income with fluctuations that must be declared...

After more than 6 years of implementing the Law on Anti-Corruption, the work of preventing and combating corruption has made important progress. Corruption has been controlled and gradually prevented. The work of detecting and handling corruption has been directed and implemented methodically, synchronously, resolutely and effectively, creating a breakthrough in the work of preventing and combating corruption.

In addition to the achieved results, the Government Inspector General said that a number of the Party's policies and guidelines on corruption prevention and control have not been promptly institutionalized into laws. Legal mechanisms and policies are still inconsistent and have not thoroughly resolved practical problems. Some legal provisions have not kept up with the development of society and have been exploited by subjects to commit acts of corruption, conceal, transform, and disperse corrupt assets, causing difficulties in detecting, handling corruption, and recovering corrupt assets.

In addition, the regulations on asset and income declaration are not complete, the regulations on asset and income control are still misunderstood, implemented inconsistently and confusingly, encountering many difficulties in implementation, and are not very effective. The work of inspection, supervision, audit, investigation, prosecution, and trial of corruption acts in some areas and in some localities is not very effective, the handling of some corruption cases is not timely and strict, and the recovery of corrupt assets is still limited. This reality requires amending the Law on Anti-Corruption to improve the mechanism for preventing, detecting, and promptly handling corruption acts.

To improve the effectiveness of prevention work in accordance with current practical conditions, this draft Law also increases the value of assets that must be declared, including precious metals, gemstones, money, valuable papers and other assets, each with a value of 150 million VND or more, while according to the provisions of the current Law, assets with a value of 50 million VND or more must be declared.

In addition, the draft Law also stipulates that the agency controlling assets and income has the right to request the person with the obligation to declare to provide and supplement relevant information and explain when there is an increase in assets and income during the year of 400 million VND or more to serve the verification of assets (while this level in the current Law is only 300 million VND). This new regulation aims to ensure consistency and synchronization with legal documents on anti-money laundering, including the 2022 Law on Anti-Money Laundering.

The asset and income control agency monitors changes in assets and income of the person required to declare through analysis and evaluation of information from the declaration or from other sources of information. In case of detecting that assets and income fluctuate by 400 million VND or more during the year but the person required to declare does not declare, the declaration management agency shall request the declarant to provide and supplement relevant information; in case of changes in assets, the origin of assets and income must be explained.

For those who declare and explain the origin of assets and income dishonestly, the draft Law stipulates that, depending on the nature and level of the violation, they will be handled according to regulations. This amendment and supplement aims to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants 2025 and Decree 172/2015/ND-CP on handling cadres and civil servants (adding the disciplinary form of reprimand, removing the disciplinary form of salary reduction and demotion).

Increasing the amount of assets and income that must be declared is necessary, but many opinions say that the amount of assets and income that must be declared during the year is 400 million VND as in the draft Law, which is too low and not suitable for current prices and socio -economic conditions. There are also opinions that basing on the provisions of the law on anti-money laundering is not suitable because this is only one money transfer that needs to be controlled (suspicious transaction). Because a person can make many transactions during the year with the amount of 400 million VND or more. Should the draft Law stipulate the amount of assets and income that must be declared during the year from 1 billion VND or more to suit actual conditions?

Perfecting the anti-corruption mechanism is an urgent requirement to improve the effectiveness of anti-corruption work. Therefore, the drafting agency needs to carefully calculate and create a tight legal framework, strong enough to prevent the situation of dishonest declaration and explanation of assets and income. Doing this well will prevent corrupt acts early.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/co-che-nao-phong-ngua-tham-nhung-10387327.html