Nghị quyết 21/NQ-CP

RESOLUTION

PROMULGATING THE NATIONAL STRATEGY AGAINST CORRUPTION UP TO 2020

THE GOVERNMENT

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;
Pursuant to the November 29, 2005 Law Against Corruption;
Pursuant to Resolution No. 04-NQ/TW of August 21, 2006, of the Xth Party Central Committee's third plenum, on enhancement of the Party leadership of corruption and waste prevention and control;
Pursuant to the Government's Resolution No. 27/2008/NQ-CP of November 28, 2008; At the proposal of the Inspector General.

RESOLVES:

Article 1. To promulgate the National Strategy Against Corruption up to 2020.

Article 2. This Resolution takes effect on June 1, 2009.

Article 3. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies, the director of the Office of the Central Steering Committee Against Corruption, presidents of People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities, and heads of concerned agencies, organizations and units shall implement this Resolution.

NATIONAL STRATEGY

AGAINST CORRUPTION UP TO 2020
(Promulgated together with the Government's Resolution No. 21/NQ-CP of May 12, 2009)

I. CONTEXT OF PROMULGATION OF THE STRATEGY

For more than 20 years of renewal, the country has achieved tremendous achievements in all aspects. Achievements from the renewal of the political system and economic administration mechanism, administrative and judicial reforms, improvement of the legal system and international integration have created a significant premise for the fulfillment of socio-economic development targets and construction of a law -governed socialist state of the people, by the people and for the people. Nevertheless, together with these achievements, the country's renewal cause is facing many threats, including corruption.

Profoundly aware of the harm of corruption, the Party has adopted many resolutions promulgating guidelines, policies and solutions against corruption, especially the Resolution of the Xth Party Central Committee's third plenum on enhancement of the Party leadership of corruption and waste prevention and control t Resolution No. 04-NQ/TW of August 21, 2006). The Law Against Corruption has also been promulgated providing an important legal basis for corruption prevention and control. Vietnam has also actively participated in international and regional initiatives to contribute to the international community's common efforts in fighting corruption. The implementation of the above guidelines, policies and solutions has brought about initial important results which have been supported by the public and the international community.

Yet. the corruption situation remains complicated in many areas, especially in land management and use. construction investment, equitization of state enterprises and management and use of state capital and assets, causing adverse consequences in many aspects, eroding people's confidence in the Party's leadership and the State's management, posing risks of conflicts of interests and social resistance and widening the rich-poor gap. Corruption becomes a big obstacle to the success of the renewal cause and the Party's fighting capacity and threatens the existence of the regime.

This situation is mainly attributed to the incompleteness of the system of policies and laws; the strengthening of agencies and organizations in the political system fails to keep pace with socio­economic development; a segment of cadres and civil servants lacks professionalism and sense of self-improvement and practice of political thoughts, ethics and lifestyle; the implementation of anti-corruption policies and solutions set over the past years fails to meet requirements and its effectiveness remains low, especially the absence of an overall and long-term program and plan against corruption.

In the years to come, the transformation of the administration mechanism, construction of technical infrastructure, urbanization, reorganization and transformation of state enterprises and development of real estate, capital, science and technology and labor markets will create new conditions for sophisticated and complicated development of corruption. At the same time, deep and wide international integration will also create opportunities for the emergence of corruption cases on a larger scale which are more difficult to detect and handle due to involvement of foreign individuals and organizations.

Therefore, the formulation and implementation of the National Strategy Against Corruption up to 2020 is necessary, contributing to successfully fulfilling the tasks set in Vietnam's socio-economic development strategy up to 2010. with a vision to 2020. The National Strategy Against Corruption up to 2020 (below referred to as the Strategy) sets basic, long-term and specific objectives for each period and works out comprehensive and uniform solutions and a specific implementation plan with appropriate roadmaps and steps. This strategy also specifies responsibilities of agencies and organizations in the socio-political system in the implementation of the Strategy to ensure its enforceability and effectiveness.

II. VIEWPOINTS AND OBJECTIVES

1. Viewpoints

a/ Corruption prevention and control is the responsibility of the entire political system under the Party leadership, bringing into play the aggregate strength of branches and levels, emphasizing the responsibility of heads of agencies, organizations and units and promoting the role of the society, mass organizations and the people;

b/ Corruption prevention and control is an urgent and long-term important task throughout the course of socio-economic development and construction of the law-governed socialist state in the new period;

c/ To comprehensively apply anti-corruption solutions; to proactively take prevention initiatives and resolutely detect and handle violations in firm and focal steps with prevention being fundamental and long-term; to associate corruption prevention and control with thrift practice and bureaucracy and waste fighting;

d/ To develop a strong specialized force with political, ethical and professional qualifications as the core force in preventing, detecting and handling corruption in a specialized manner, which is furnished with appropriate equipment, tools and skills, to intensively and comprehensively cover all areas and aspects of the socio-economic life;

dd/ To put the anti-corruption process in the context of integration and take the initiative in effectively cooperating with other countries and international organizations; to attach importance to summing up the practical work of and selectively learn foreign experience in corruption prevention and control.

2. Objectives

a/ General objectives:

To stop and step by step drive back corruption, to gradually remove opportunities and conditions for corruption, contributing to building a clean, strong and effective state apparatus with incorruptible cadres and civil servants; to make healthy social relations through the uniform implementation of measures to prevent, detect and handle corruption; to consolidate confidence of the people and international community, boosting socio-economic development;

b/ Specific objectives:

- To stop and eliminate conditions and opportunities for corruption in policy planning and law making and enforcement, especially in the promulgation and enforcement of taw-applying documents.

- To increase examination and supervision of the performance of state power and prevent the abuse of positions and powers for self-seeking purposes on the basis of building an effective and transparent public-duty apparatus with honest, impartial, incorruptible, devoted and professional cadres and civil servants who are reasonably paid, to serve the people and society; to consolidate and develop standards on public-duty and professional ethics.

- To complete institutions and create an equal, fair and transparent business environment to attract domestic and foreign investment, contributing to boosting economic growth; to raise enterprises' sense of law observance; to step by step eliminate bribery in the relationship between enterprises and state agencies and in trade transactions.

- To raise the sense of responsibility, professionalism, fighting capacity and operation effectiveness of law enforcement agencies and specialized anti-corruption agencies and units which play the key role in detecting and handling corruption.

- To continue completing policies to handle corruption, especially criminal and criminal procedure policies; to establish a corruption measurement and supervision system.

- To raise the society's awareness and role concerning corruption, the Party's guidelines and policies and the State's laws on corruption prevention and control; to promote the proactive participation of organizations, mass organizations, the mass media and all citizens in anti-corruption efforts; to build up an anti-corruption culture and habit in the life of cadres and civil servants and people of all strata.

III. GROUPS OF SOLUTIONS

1. To increase publicity and transparency in policy planning and law making and enforcement

a/ To make transparent the process to draft, submit and promulgate policies and laws; and the process to prepare, submit and promulgate administrative decisions and documents in association with administrative procedure reform;

b/ To review and amend the law on state secrets toward narrowing down the scope of state secrets to a necessary extent;

c/ To materialize, and increase inspection to ensure strict implementation of, the Law Against Corruption's provisions on publicity and transparency in the operation of agencies and organizations of all branches and levels and in domains, especially in the implementation of social security policies;

d/ To make public and transparent decisions in investigation, prosecution, trial and judgment enforcement activities;

dd/ To formulate and implement a mechanism to ensure citizens' rights to access to information on the operation of agencies, organizations and units; to complete and strictly observe the regulation on spokespersons of state agencies; to elaborate and promulgate a law on information access; to impose sanctions on violators of citizens' rights to information access;

e/ To complete the mechanism to inspect, examine and supervise the publicity and transparency in policy planning and law making and enforcement.

2. To complete regulations on public duty and civil servants and improve the quality of public-duty performance

a/ To make clear assignment and decentralization; to specifically and clearly define functions, tasks and powers of each management level to tackle overlapping or vacated management.

To define powers and responsibilities of holders of each post, especially responsibilities of heads of agencies, organizations and units and to base evaluation of cadres and civil servants on their performance of those powers and responsibilities;

b/ To complete and strictly observe regulations on recruitment, receipt, appointment, re­appointment and transfer of cadres and civil servants to improve their quality; to resolutely and promptly handle violations in the management and employment of cadres and civil servants;

c/ To incorporate anti-corrupts on contents into programs on training and refresh training of cadres and civil servants; to increase education about incorruptibility and raise the awareness and responsibilities of cadres and civil servants in preventing, detecting and handling corruption;

d/ To continue completing and implementing the mechanism on the accountability of cadres and civil servants, especially leaders and managers; and mechanisms to relieve of duty, remove from office, allow resignation of or temporarily suspension from posts of heads of agencies, organizations or units where corruption occurs;

dd/ To basically reform wage and allowance regimes to ensure incomes of cadres and civil servants reaching the society's fairly high level; to implement reasonable wage policies in a number of particular domains; to study and supplement policies on treatment of cadres and civil servants;

e/ To publicize regulations, norms and standards on use of public assets by cadres and civil servants, firstly heads of agencies, organizations and units, and the implementation of those regulations, norms and standards.

To amend regulations on. and strictly handle violations in. management and use of public-duty houses:

g/ To amend and supplement regulations on transparency of assets and incomes towards gradually making transparent and defining the responsibility of explanation of origin of assets and incomes: to make via-account payment for all state budget expenditures for cadres and civil servants;

h/ To increase inspection and examination of the implementation of the law on public duty and civil servants, especially transparency of assets and incomes, public duty performance by holders of posts directly dealing with requests of citizens, organizations and enterprises.

To boost the formulation and publicity of codes of conduct and public-duty and professional ethics of cadres and civil servants and increase inspection of observance thereof in accordance with law.

3. To complete the economic administration mechanism and build an equal, fair and transparent business environment

a/ To complete mechanisms and policies on customs, credit, export-import and a number of other domains to ensure transparency, fairness and competitiveness for enterprises of all economic sectors.

To transparently and consistently implement economic policies for enterprises;

b/ To formulate and step by step complete mechanisms to enable enterprises to accurately and honestly account economic operations arising from production and business activities which are concurrently reflected in tax agencies' database; to conduct regular and compulsory audit for all types of enterprises;

c/ To create conditions for business and trade associations to join the formulation of policies and laws and propose amendments and supplements to redress mechanism and policy loopholes which are susceptible to corruption.

To strictly handle bribery in production and business activities, bidding and auction; to strictly handle trade frauds; to publicize names of violating agencies, organizations and individuals;

d/ To formulate and complete mechanisms on management and use of land and public resources, ensuring publicity and transparency and strict handling of violations;

To form regional bidding centers to centralize public procurement; to apply open auction to the sale, liquidation, assignment and lease of public assets;

dd/ To sum up the practical work of and complete the law on transformation and cquitization of state enterprises, paying particular attention to the valuation of corporate assets and handling of public assets during equitization;

e/ To complete the laws on finance, banking and capital, real estate and labor markets; to study and complete regulations on property tax and compulsory registration of real estate: to apply personal income tax registration and via-bank payment; to elaborate a Law Against Money Laundering.

4. To increase the effect and effectiveness of inspection, examination, supervision, audit, i investigation, prosecution and trial in detecting and handling corruption

a/ To study and amend the inspection law towards clearly defining the functions, tasks and powers of stale inspection agencies and separating administrative level-based inspection from branch-or domain-based one: to increase independence and accountability of inspection agencies.

Administrative level-based inspection agencies shall switch to administrative supervision and increase inspection of the performance of responsibilities and public duty and implementation of the law against corruption; and study and combine inspection organization and operation with the Party's inspection organization and operation.

Branch and domain-based inspection agencies shall concentrate on inspecting and examining all organizations and individuals in law observance; and strictly handle administrative violations, ensuring order and legal discipline in all socio­economic domains.

To increase the effect of conclusions of inspection agencies;

b/ To amend and supplement the legal system on audit in order to separate the scope of operation of the state audit from that of the finance inspectorate to tackle overlapping inspection and audit.

To complete Vietnam's audit standard system in compliance with international practice; to improve audit quality and effectiveness; to raise the responsibility of audit institutions and auditors for the accuracy and objectivity of audit reports;

c/ To study, formulate and amend laws towards increasing fines and relieving penal liability or reducing penalties for those who have committed acts of corruption but voluntarily made declarations and remedied consequences; to complete the regulation on handling of assets in corruption cases; to supplement regulations to prevent dispersal of assets in corruption cases, ensuring recovery and confiscation of those assets;

d/ To enhance training and improve professional qualifications and skills in corruption prevention and control and political, ethic and professional qualities for cadres and civil servants engaged in inspection, examination, audit, investigation, prosecution and trial operations.

dd/ To continue consolidating the organization and operation of anti-corruption units

To study and formulate appropriate treatment regimes and policies and concurrently increase responsibilities and strictly handle acts of corruption by cadres and civil servants of anti-corruption agencies and units;

e/ To complete the coordination mechanism for anti-corruption agencies and units in receiving and processing corruption-related information and denunciations and detecting and handling acts of corruption; to increase modem special-use technical equipment.

To study and step by step apply special investigation methods and techniques with strict order, procedures and conditions to increase the effectiveness in detecting acts of corruption.

5. To raise awareness about and promote the role of the entire society in corruption prevention and control

a/ To boost and diversify forms of public information to raise public awareness about signs and harm of corruption and the society's responsibility in corruption prevention and control; to create conditions lor people to actively participate in corruption prevention and control;

b/ To raise the role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations, social organizations and socio-professional organizations in corruption prevention and control;

c/ To promote the mass media's role in corruption prevention and control; to ensure prompt supply of accurate information on corruption cases for media agencies; to formulate a code of professional ethics and train in incorruptibility for reporters and editors;

d/ To promote the role of enterprises and business and trade associations in corruption prevention and control by forming and applying a healthy and non-corrupt business culture: to coordinate with competent state agencies in stopping and promptly delecting acts of harassment and bribe requests of cadres and civil servants;

ee/ To continue completing mechanisms to protect and commend denouncers and detectors of corruption: to honor and commend organizations and individuals with anti-corruption achievements; to strictly handle cases of taking advantage of denunciation rights to slander or cause internal disorder, affecting political security and social order and safety.

IV. ROADMAP AND ORGANIZATION OF IMPLEMENTATION

1. Implementation roadmap The Strategy shall be implemented in 3 phases:

 a/First phase (from now to 2011): Within its prescribed responsibilities, the Government shall direct levels and branches in performing the tasks set in the Plan to implement the Strategy (enclosed with this Resolution, not printed herein). The Government and concerned agencies and organizations shall proactively incorporate contents of the Strategy into their operation programs and plans and comprehensively implement solutions specified in the Strategy.

During this phase, to comprehensively implement solutions, concentrating on those to increase the capacity to detect and handle corruption. To enhance the handling of major corruption cases that cause public concern, and scrutinize domains vulnerable to corruption.

To review the first-phase implementation of the Strategy in late 2011; to supplement and complete the implementation plan to meet the Strategy's requirements for the next phase:

b/ Second phase (from 2011 to 2016): To promote achieved results, to concentrate on the tasks set for the 2011-2016 period by reviewing the first phase and requirements of the Party Central Committee, the National Assembly and the Government of the new term.

During this phase, to concentrate on solutions to complete institutions, paying attention to domains which remain stagnant and increasing preventive measures such as control of assets and incomes of cadres and civil servants; to improve the quality of public-duty performance; to complete the economic administration mechanism and build a healthy and fair business environment.

To review the 10-year enforcement of the Law Against Corruption to provide a basis for amending and supplementing the Law Against Corruption to suit the new situation.

To review and evaluate the Strategy implementation to 2016; to add new solutions to meet development requirements and comply with the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

c/ Third phase (from 2016 to 2020):

To promote achievements and concentrate on the tasks set for the 2016-2020 period by reviewing the second phase and new requirements of the Party ( cntral Committee, the National Assembly and the Government.

During this phase, to continue solutions implemented in the previous phases and implement remaining solutions to successfully achieve the Strategy's objectives.

To review the Strategy implementation in 2020.

2. Responsibilities of implementation

The Government and the Central Steering Committee Against Corruption shall assume the prime responsibility for implementing and directing ministries, branches, localities, agencies and organizations in implementing the Strategy within the ambit of their functions and tasks as follows:

a/ To direct ministries, branches. People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities and local steering committees against corruption in formulating and promulgating specific plans to perform the tasks set in the Plan to implement the Strategy;

b/ To assign the Government Inspectorate to assume the prime responsibility tor. and coordinate with the Office of the Central Steering Committee Against Corruption in. assisting the Government and the Central Steering Committee Against Corruption in monitoring, urging and examining the implementation of this Strategy;

c/ To assign the Ministry of Justice to assume the prime responsibility for. and coordinate with concerned ministries and branches in. reviewing the system of laws, resolutions and ordinances for the Government to propose the National Assembly and the National Assembly Standing Committee to make and promulgate amendments and supplements for implementation of the Strategy;

d/ To assign government agencies to coordinate with other agencies and organizations in implementing contents related to responsibilities of these agencies and organizations specified in the Strategy;

e/ To propose party committees of all levels to direct, examine and supervise the implementation of the Strategy.

3. Monitoring and evaluation of Strategy implementation

a/ To monitor, evaluate and report on the implementation of solutions specified in the Strategy and the implementation plan quarterly, annually and at the end of each phase;

b/ To survey the situation of corruption and Strategy implementation results; to survey, measure and assess adverse impacts of corruption on socio­economic development;

c/ To establish a mechanism to publicize evaluations of the corruption situation and the Strategy implementation.

Within the ambit of their functions, tasks and powers, the Government Inspectorate and the Office of the Central Steering Committee Against Corruption shall proaclively coordinate with concerned agencies and organizations in assisting the Government and the Central Steering Committee Against Corruption in monitoring and evaluating the Strategy implementation.

The Government instructs ministries, branches, local administrations of all levels, business and trade associations and enterprises to strictly implement the Strategy; and requests all levels of leadership of the Party, the State, the National Assembly, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuracy, the State Audit, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations, socio-professional organizations, media agencies and all people to participate in implementing, examining and supervising the implementation of this Strategy.