In practice, some public officials have long exploited institutional loopholes to create a system of favoritism and corruption for personal gain. Resolutely eliminating this system and building and perfecting a transparent institutional framework is a crucial and urgent requirement in the current context.

1. Recently, the High People's Court in Hanoi announced its verdict in the appeal hearing of the "rescue flight" case. According to the panel of judges, this was a corruption case that attracted significant public attention, was of an exceptionally serious and complex nature, and occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The defendants' criminal acts endangered society, undermined the proper functioning of state agencies, and distorted the humanistic principles of the Party's guidelines and the State's policies.

The "rescue flight" incident revealed overlapping responsibilities, conflicts, and a lack of accountability and authority in the performance of official duties; creating a system of favoritism and corruption that caused difficulties and harassment for businesses and citizens in organizing rescue flights. Clearly, this system of favoritism, corruption, and lack of transparency led to bribery and corruption, thus forming "alliances of interest," collusion, and agreements among some officials.

The major corruption case at the Food Safety Department ( Ministry of Health ) is also a typical example of collusion and favoritism between businesses and individuals in positions of power to create a system of favoritism in handling administrative procedures. Some specialists and leaders of relevant professional units at the Food Safety Department exploited regulations to create difficulties for individuals and businesses. Abusing power and exploiting institutional loopholes to form a system of favoritism, these officials repeatedly sent documents requesting individuals and businesses to "amend or supplement documents" with vague, unclear content, causing difficulties or prolonging processing time for personal gain.

From the business perspective, driven by profit motives, and to avoid delays in application review and product announcement that could lead to bottlenecks, disruptions, and inability to produce and distribute products to the market, many businesses and individuals proactively offer "bribes" to legitimize their applications.

By creating a system of favoritism and corruption, some officials even set a precedent that "nothing gets done without money," causing significant consequences for the State and demonstrating disregard for institutions, policies, and laws. More seriously, it erodes public trust.

Processing procedures for citizens at the Me Linh Public Administrative Service Point (Hanoi). (Illustrative photo: nguoihanoi.vn)

2. In his work "Theses on Feuerbach" (1845), C. Marx affirmed: "...The essence of man is not an abstract inherent quality of the individual. In its reality, the essence of man is the sum total of social relations." This classic thesis has become a guiding principle and a scientific basis for studying and resolving the issue of the essence of man.

Examining the misconduct of officials and civil servants, while objective reasons include loopholes in institutions, policies, and laws, the primary and decisive factor is subjective factors related to their political qualities, ethics, and lifestyle. The gaps in institutions, policies, and laws provide the conditions and opportunities to encourage their violations. In other words, these opportunistic officials have exploited these loopholes in institutions, policies, and laws.

From another perspective, part of the reason for the loopholes in institutions, policies, and laws stems from the subjective factors of the officials who develop those legal and policy systems. Laws and policies are also created by people. Ignoring the limited capacity and qualifications of the law-making officials, the reality shows that the practice of drafting laws and policies based on "group interests," "cutting corners," "embedding personal interests into documents," and exploiting legality for unreasonable purposes has not truly ceased.

The documents of the 14th Party Congress emphasize: “Institutions are the ‘bottleneck of bottlenecks’ but also the ‘breakthrough of breakthroughs.’ We must continue to comprehensively improve the development institutions, remove barriers, unlock resources, and create new impetus for development… We must resolutely eliminate the ‘request-and-grant’ mechanism and minimize administrative procedures.” This is not only one of the three strategic breakthroughs of the congress, but also a mandate, a “legal framework,” “operating rules,” “discipline principles,” and “standards of action” to bring the Party’s resolutions into life, contributing to designing a mechanism for controlling power so that power always remains within the framework of law, ethics, culture, national traditions, and the people’s trust.

First and foremost, there is a need for a strong renewal of thinking, approaches, methods of lawmaking, and the organization and implementation of laws to meet the requirements of national development in the new era, in accordance with the spirit of Resolution No. 66-NQ/TW dated April 30, 2025, of the Politburo; lawmaking should go hand in hand with the development of guiding documents, ensuring that laws are put into practice immediately upon their effective date. The shift should be from a "if we can't manage it, we ban it" mindset to creating an environment that allows citizens and businesses to do what the law does not prohibit.

The focus should be on amending conflicting and overlapping laws to create a transparent legal framework, eliminating loopholes that create privileges, special advantages, and a system of favoritism and corruption. The amendments and additions should concentrate on promoting decentralization and delegation of power, coupled with resource allocation, improving enforcement capacity, and designing tools to strengthen inspection and supervision; reducing and simplifying administrative procedures; combating harassment and intimidation of citizens and businesses; and preventing and combating corruption and negative practices.

Promoting decentralization, delegation of power, and control of power will help remove institutional bottlenecks, strongly promote the dynamism and creativity of local governments; create momentum for administrative reform, improve the investment and business environment, and enhance national competitiveness. In addition, shifting the focus from "delegating tasks" to "delegating power coupled with responsibility and control mechanisms" is key to building a constructive, honest, effective, and efficient administration, completely eliminating the mindset and mechanisms of "requesting and granting."

Promoting decentralization goes hand in hand with allocating resources and enhancing the implementation capacity of lower levels. The level closest to the people and the issues should be the one entrusted with the task. Establish a strict system for monitoring the power of leaders, avoiding "group interests" in the allocation of budgets, resources, and projects.

Focus on reviewing, adjusting, and supplementing legal frameworks to remove difficulties, obstacles, and bottlenecks in implementation, ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of citizens and businesses. Implement digital transformation decisively, fostering development in the digital space, and fully institutionalizing the ownership rights of state, organizations, and individuals in a transparent and open manner. Strive to achieve a minimum 95% satisfaction rate among citizens regarding administrative procedures by 2026-2030. All documents must be processed electronically to allow citizens to easily track progress. All projects must be within publicly available master plans, avoiding scattered, haphazard, and crony-based investments – the breeding ground for a system of favoritism and corruption. This is not only a "battle" against outdated regulations but also a revolution in management thinking, shifting from "governance by administrative orders" to "governance by institutions, laws," and service.

Building a dynamic team of cadres who dare to think, dare to act, and dare to take responsibility, in accordance with the spirit of the Party's 14th National Congress Resolution, possessing sufficient virtue, talent, dedication, vision, strength, and revolutionary enthusiasm, and with mechanisms to protect cadres for the common good. Clearly identifying and resolutely and effectively combating acts of seeking positions and power through illicit means, shirking responsibility, exhibiting political opportunism, power ambitions, and "term-based thinking"; resolutely dealing with manifestations and behaviors that seek to exploit and transform the system into a system of favoritism for harassment, profiteering, and corruption among a segment of cadres and civil servants.

According to the State Administrative Reform Plan for the period 2026-2030, a key objective is: To strengthen innovation and take decisive action to further improve the quality and effectiveness of administrative reform, contributing to the successful achievement of the country's socio-economic development goals by 2030. Therefore, it is unacceptable to allow institutions to become mere mechanisms; eradicating the "request-and-grant" mechanism at its root is a practical action that contributes to concretizing the aspirations, vision, and strategic directions in the new era of national development.

    Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/cuoc-thi-bao-chi-bao-ve-nen-tang-tu-tuong-cua-dang-trong-tinh-hinh-moi/khong-de-ke-ho-the-che-bien-thanh-co-che-xin-cho-1040534