Proposal to verify assets of relatives of corrupt criminals to prevent dispersal

National Assembly delegate Hoang Van Cuong ( Hanoi Delegation) proposed adding regulations to prevent the dissipation of assets of corrupt criminals. Photo: Pham Dong

It is recommended that the "lottery" method should not be used to verify assets.

On the morning of November 5, the National Assembly discussed the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Anti-Corruption.

Regarding the regulations on declaration and verification of assets and income, delegate Hoang Van Cuong (Hanoi Delegation) cited the content of the draft law: In case assets increase by 1 billion VND or more , the asset and income control agency must conduct verification.

According to the delegate, this regulation needs to be reconsidered. The important thing is not how much assets increase, but whether the declarant has a clear and reasonable explanation or not. If the declarant has legal documents and evidence of the purchase and transfer of assets, verification should not be required to avoid wasting time and resources.

Verification should only be carried out when there are signs of dishonest declaration, accusations or doubts about the origin of assets. Doing so is both reasonable and avoids creating fear for those with legitimate income.

He also suggested that the "lottery" method should not be applied for random verification, because that makes anti-corruption work based on chance and lacks a legal basis.

Instead, periodic verification can be regulated on a rotating basis, for example, 20% of declarants should be checked each year, so that in 5 years, the entire population will be verified once.

Regarding the regulations on recovering corrupt assets, according to the delegate, this is an issue of great public concern. In fact, in many cases, after being discovered to be corrupt, the violators have dispersed or distributed their assets to relatives, causing difficulties in the recovery process.

Therefore, he proposed that the law should add provisions allowing investigation and verification of the assets of related people when the offender has been prosecuted for corruption or causing loss of state assets.

“This regulation not only helps prevent the dissipation of assets, but also increases deterrence and improves the effectiveness of recovering corrupt assets,” delegate Hoang Van Cuong emphasized.

Proposal that only cadres, civil servants and public employees must declare their assets

Delegate Truong Trong Nghia (Ho Chi Minh City Delegation) said that it is necessary to clarify the scope and subjects of inspection to avoid overlap with inspection agencies or agencies performing anti-corruption tasks in the state apparatus.

National Assembly Delegate Truong Trong Nghia. Photo: Pham Dong

Regarding the subjects of asset declaration, delegates said that it should only be applied to cadres, civil servants, public employees, and those with public service responsibilities.

For businessmen, especially those hired to run state-owned enterprises or appointed to represent state capital, delegates said they should not be forced to declare all their assets like civil servants and public employees.

Therefore, he said, there should be no concern that not declaring assets for subjects who are not civil servants or public employees will reduce the effectiveness of corruption prevention and control.

National Assembly Delegate To Thi Bich Chau. Photo: Pham Dong

Regarding the regulation on adding an anti-corruption inspection agency, delegate To Thi Bich Chau (Ho Chi Minh City Delegation) also suggested clarifying the coordination mechanism to avoid overlap.

The delegate cited that there is currently a situation where the same unit is inspected, audited, and audited by many agencies at the same time, causing work to be interrupted. In fact, there are agencies with only nearly 200 staff, but dozens of them have to regularly serve the inspection teams, slowing down the progress of resolving work for the people.

Special attention should be paid to sensitive areas such as land, finance, inspection and auditing - where people often report and complain.

Publicizing rankings and assessment results will create motivation for emulation and healthy competition among agencies, thereby strengthening trust and enhancing social supervision.

Source: https://laodong.vn/thoi-su/de-nghi-xac-minh-tai-san-nguoi-than-cua-toi-pham-tham-nhung-ngan-chan-tau-tan-1603985.ldo