Eradicating corruption is an important and regular responsibility for all ministries, sectors and localities nationwide, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told a meeting held here yesterday to review the efforts of the National Anti-Corruption Steering Committee during the first quarter of the year.
In his capacity as chairman of the steering committee, Dung expressed his appreciation of the work done by committee members.
"Measures introduced by the committee have proven to be effective, and initial successes have been reported in both preventing and battling existing corruption," Dung said.
He asked the committee to focus efforts to lift the anti-corruption campaign to a higher plane in line with the spirit of the 11th National Party Congress and the Resolution of the 4th Party Conference on Party-building.
"In this fight, it is important to mobilise the aggregate strength of the entire political system," Dung said.
Due and fair settlement of corruption cases was also of great importance, he said. He urged the committee to pay greater attention to detection and prevention of corruption, including inspection and oversight efforts.
Agency leaders and Party members should be in the forefront in implementing Government policies and regulations relating to corruption, he added.
He also ordered law enforcement agencies, courts and the Government Inspectorate to hasten their work to prosecute cases of alleged corruption.
Earlier in April, the Government Inspectorate published a report revealing that VND30.7 trillion ($1.5 billion) had been "wrongfully spent" by several major State-owned corporations and institutions, including the Viet Nam National Chemical Corporation (Vinachem), PetroVietnam Group, Viettel, Song Da Corporation and HCM City National University. The inspectors called for the return of VND 3.7 trillion ($177 million) to State coffers.
Regarding plans for the second quarter, the committee listed a number of urgent tasks, e.g., helping the Politburo complete its draft review of implementation of the Resolution of the 3rd Party Central Committee of the 10th tenure and to complete an operating model for the National Anti-Corruption Steering Committee
