VIET NAM

ANTI-CORRUPTION IN VIET NAM NOWADAYS
Hoang Thi Thuy Hoa *I. ACTUAL SITUATION OF CORRUPTION IN VIET NAM
The situation of embezzlement, waste and corruption in Viet Nam has been going on formany decades, occurring in all areas of social life and at all branches and levels. Corruption
has greatly affected socio-economic development and reduced people's trust in the Communist
Party and the State of Viet Nam. According to Transparency International (TI), Viet Nam’s
CPI ranking in 2021 is 39/100 points, up 3 points from 36/100 points in 2020, ranking 87/180
countries and territories. This is also the highest CPI of Viet Nam in the period 2012-2021. In
the last 10 years, in general, Viet Nam’s CPI has improved from a low of 30 points in 2012 to
39 points in 2021. However, it is still lower than the regional average (42 points), and is among
the two-thirds (2/3) of countries in the world with serious corruption (under 50 points). Thisshows that corruption in the public sector is still considered very serious in Viet Nam.
The Summary Report on Communist Party Building and Charter Amendment at the 13th
Party Congress stated: “Corruption in a number of areas is still serious and complicated, withincreasingly sophisticated manifestations; The state of harassment of people and businesses isstill quite common, causing frustration in society. Corruption is still one of the threats menacing
the survival of the Party and the regime”. Every time people and businesses go to apply for acertificate of ownership of houses or land, go to a doctor, send their children to school, ortransfer schools, apply for investment capital, or build a construction project etc., they must
give some money as “lubrication” so that everything will run smoothly. This form of corruption
is “petty corruption”, causing frustration and discomfort for people and the whole society.
Corruption identification: From the current situation of the fight against corruption in ourcountry, the main types of corruption can be identified as follows:
A. Economic Corruption
This is a very common form of corruption that occurs in every corner of social life, fromhigh-ranking officials to low-level officials. But it’s easy to see that they use their assigned
positions and powers to harass and make it difficult to get money and material things. This
form can range from petty corruption, such as receiving envelopes filled with modest amountsof money, to large-scale corruption, such as taking bribes with the value of tens of billions ofdong, villas, land, cars etc.
B. Corruption in PowerThis is a form of corruption in which people holding positions and powers take advantageof their positions to bring close friends, relatives and bribe-takers into holding important
positions in the apparatus of the Party, the State and socio-political organizations for selfseeking purposes. This type of corruption is very dangerous and difficult to detect. When theyplace people without ethics and professional competence into important positions, it affects not
LLM., Department of International Cooperation and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matter,
Supreme People’s Procuracy of S.R of Viet Nam.

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only the immediate but also the long-term development, affecting the whole generation, and it
is difficult to overcome the consequences.
C. Political Corruption
This is a form of corruption of powerful people who influence decisions on mechanisms,
policies, and major decisions of the Party and State in order to benefit themselves, their families,
or a group of people. They may collude with people with the same power to change guidelines
and policies of the Party and State in order to seek benefits for their sector, locality, unit orgroup of people with the same interests, such as making regulations on tax policy, salary,appointment criteria, retirement or making investment decisions in big projects: building
airports, seaports, urban areas, etc.
II. POLICY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND STATE OF VIET NAM IN THE
FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION
Anti-corruption in Viet Nam is identified as the responsibility of the whole political system
and an important, urgent and long-term task throughout the process of socio-economic
development and promoting the rule of law in Viet Nam. The Party’s viewpoints on anticorruption are clearly reflected in the Party's Resolutions, Directives and Conclusions over time,
specifically: Resolution No. 04-NQ/TW, dated 21 August 2006, of the third meeting of the10th Party Central Committee on strengthening the Party's leadership in the fight against
corruption and waste (Resolution No. 04), determined to continue to improve the state
institution and strengthen the inspection, examination, audit, investigation, prosecution andadjudication of corruption cases to improve the effectiveness of the fight against corruption
and waste; Enhance publicity and transparency in operations and ensure integrity among
officials of inspection, examination, audit, investigation, prosecution and adjudication
agencies; Resolutely and promptly handle corrupt acts in anti-corruption agencies and units
and those who cover up corrupt acts and prevent the fight against corruption.
In recent years, the Communist Party of Viet Nam has continued to set out guidelines andviewpoints to further improve the quality and effectiveness of anti-corruption work, especiallythe detection and handling of corruption cases in the current period, specifically: Conclusion
No. 21-KL/TW, dated 25 May 2012, of the 5th Plenum of the XI Central Committee on
continuing to implement the Resolution No. 04 on strengthening the Party's leadership for theprevention and fight against corruption and waste, Directive No. 33-CT/TW, dated 3 January
2014, of the Politburo on strengthening the Party’s leadership in the declaration and control ofthe declaration of assets; Directive No. 50-CT/TW, dated 7 December 2015, of the Politburo
on strengthening the Party leadership in detecting and handling corruption cases, which
requires the implementation of many solutions to prevent and fight against corruption,
Directive No. 27-CT/TW, dated 10 January 2019, of the Politburo on strengthening the Party
leadership in the protection of whistle-blowers and those fighting against corruption.
At the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress, anti-corruption continued to receive theParty's attention and drastic action. Accordingly, the fight against corruption must be persistentand continuous, considered as a particularly important task and carried out with the motto “noforbidden zones, no exceptions”, implementing synchronous measures in “political, ideological,
organizational, administrative, economic and criminal” fields in the fight against corruption;
promote “control of power” to prevent corruption; promptly handle, transfer and replaceleading and managerial cadres when having negative manifestations, corruption, low- 176 - 176 -VIET NAM
reputation; strictly handle officials who are corrupt, extortionate, causing trouble to people andbusinesses; and gradually expand the scope of anti-corruption to the non-state sector to prevent
collusion between degenerate state officials, civil servants and those operating in the non-state
sector.
As the leading force of the state and society, the Communist Party of Viet Nam is also theleading and most resolute force in the fight against corruption. In February 2013, the Party
established the Central Steering Committee on anti-corruption under the Politburo, led by theGeneral Secretary of the Steering Committee. In 2014, the first National Conference on anticorruption was held. After that, the Party has had many policies and carried out a series ofactions to strengthen the detection and handling of corruption cases.
As a result, from 2014 up to now, the National Assembly of Viet Nam has developed,
supplemented, amended and passed about 100 laws and ordinances, including laws aimed atbuilding and perfecting the state institution on socio-economic and anti-corruption, step-bystep perfection of the mechanism of prevention such as: the Law on management and use of
public property; Law on property auction; Law on Denunciation (amended); Enterprise Law;
Law on Bidding; Law on management and use of state capital invested in production andbusiness in enterprises etc., or laws to strengthen the fight against violations and crimes related
to corruption such as: the 2015 Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of thePenal Code; the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code; the 2018 Law on Anti-corruption etc. Recently,
law enforcement agencies have detected a series of violations and crimes, and strictly handle
them according to the provisions of the law.
Up to now, anti-corruption efforts have made a strong step forward, achieving many
comprehensive, positive and clear results. Corruption is gradually being curbed, prevented,
repelled and is tending to decrease, contributing to maintaining political stability, strengthening
people's confidence, creating a healthy business environment, becoming an important factor
promoting socio-economic development in Viet Nam in recent years.
III. REGULATIONS OF VIETNAMESE LAW ON ANTI-CORRUPTION
A. The Penal Code 2015
Corruption and position-related crimes are specified in Chapter XXIII of the Penal Code2015, from Articles 352 to Article 366. In general, the provisions on crimes related to positionin the Penal Code 2015 inherit the previous provisions of the Penal Code 1999. In addition, thefollowing new content has been added:-

Expanding the scope of crimes related to positions and persons holding positions.
According to Article 352 of the Penal Code 2015, crimes related to position are not
only committed while performing “public duties”, a person holding a position is not
only a person who has certain powers while performing “public duty” (as stipulated in
the old Penal Code 1999), but also when performing “duty”. By that provision, thePenal Code 2015 has expanded the scope of crimes related to positions not only in the
public sector, but also in the private sector; acts of corruption arising in state agencies
and organizations as well as in non-state organizations, units and enterprises. (Forexample, the responsibility of managing assets of a limited liability company withcapital contributions from individuals, of a 100 per cent foreign-owned enterprise may
be considered and handled.)

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The concept of “bribery” and benefits given or received in some position-related crimes
has been extended to non-material benefits. Specifically, the crime of receiving bribes(Article 354), Abuse of power or position to influence another person for personal gain
(Article 358), giving bribes (Article 364), brokering bribes (Article 365), Abuse of
influence over an office holder for personal gain (Article 366), “bribery” or benefits
given or received include not only material benefits such as money, property, othermaterial benefits but also include non-material benefits, meaning the benefits that are
not tangible or have a monetary value but have the ability to bring satisfaction to therecipient.

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Provisions on third party beneficiaries in bribery crimes. Specifically, Article 354 on
the crime of receiving bribes and Article 364 on the crime of giving bribes both stipulatethat “bribery” can be enjoyed by the person holding a position or power or for anotherperson or organization. The specific regulation of the above-mentioned signs creates afull and direct legal basis for dealing with bribery in cases where the bribe is not enjoyedby the person holding the position or power but by the other person or organization withthe approval of the person holding the position and power.

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Additional regulations on bribery of foreign civil servants. Specifically, the act ofbribing foreign civil servants has been officially recognized as a case of bribery under
Article 364, paragraph 6.

B. Law on Anti-Corruption 2018
Institutionalizing the Party's Resolution on anti-corruption and the 2013 Constitution, theLaw on Anti-corruption 2018, which was approved by the 14th National Assembly at its 6th
session on 20 November 2018 on the basis of revising the Law on Anti-corruption 2005,
amended and supplemented in 2007 and 2012, includes 10 chapters with 96 articles. This is
one of the important steps in the process of perfecting the law on anti-corruption, not only
overcoming the limitations and shortcomings of the Law on Anti-corruption 2005, but also
playing an important role in synchronizing with new provisions of relevant legal documents,
contributing to improving compatibility with the United Nations Convention against
Corruption. In that spirit, the Anti-Corruption Law 2018 supplements and provides new
regulations on corrupt acts; objects and types of assets to be declared; on disclosure of assets
and income; regulations on what cadres and leaders are not allowed to do, and responsibilitiesof leaders and related persons.
C. Criminal Procedure Code 2015
In order to enhance the effectiveness of detecting and handling crimes in general andcorruption in particular, the Criminal Procedure Code 2015 has some new regulations asfollows:
1. Electronic Data
For crimes in the fields of economy, corruption and positions, the very important source ofevidence and documents to prove and clarify criminal acts is electronic data. This is a newsource of evidence specified in the Criminal Procedure Code, as provided in Article 99 of the
Code: (1) Electronic data is a symbol, writing, numeral, image, sound or similar form generated,
stored, transmitted or received by electronic means. (2) Electronic data is collected fromelectronic means, computer networks, telecommunications networks, transmission lines andother electronic sources. (3) The evidential value of electronic data is determined based on theway in which the electronic data is generated, stored or transmitted; measured to ensure and- 178 - 178 -VIET NAM
maintain the integrity of electronic data; and how the originator and other relevant factors are
determined.
Regulations on the collection of electronic media and electronic data (Articles 107, 196 of
the Criminal Procedure Code 2015) are as follows: Electronic means must be seized in a timely
and complete manner, accurately describing the actual situation and sealed immediately after
seizing. The seizure of electronic means and electronic data as evidence shall be carried out bycompetent criminal justice officials and may invite persons with relevant expertise toparticipate. When seizing electronic media, authorities may collect attached peripherals andrelated documents. In case the electronic data storage medium cannot be seized, the competentcriminal justice agency shall back up such electronic data to the electronic medium andpreserve it as evidence, and at the same time request the related agencies, organizations andindividuals to store and preserve the integrity of electronic data backed up by competentcriminal justice agencies, and these agencies, organizations and individuals must be held
responsible before the law. The recovery, search and assessment of electronic data can only bedone on the copies, and the results of recovery, search and assessment must be converted into
a form that can be read, heard or seen.
2. Special Investigative Measures
In order to meet the need to legislate special investigative measures for corruption, thePenal Code 2015 provides for the first time these measures in Chapter XVI, from Articles 223
to 228. Accordingly, only after cases are instituted may competent persons apply special
investigative measures, including: (1) secret audio and video recording; (2) wiretapping; and(3) confidential collection of electronic data. These measures can also only be applied to certain
types of crimes: (1) Crimes infringing upon national security, drug-related crimes, corruptionrelated crimes, terrorism crimes, and money-laundering crimes; and (2) other particularly
serious crimes.
Along with that, in order to ensure that the application of these measures is prudent,
avoiding violations of human rights and ensuring the evidence-based value of the data obtained,
the Penal Code 2015 also strictly stipulates the jurisdiction, order, procedure, as well as control
mechanism. Regarding the jurisdiction to decide on application, only heads of provincial-level
investigating bodies, heads of military investigating agencies of military zones or higher, bythemselves or at the request of the Chief Prosecutor of the provincial-level People’s Procuracies,
and the Chief Prosecutor of the Military procuracies of military zones have the power to issue
decisions to apply special investigation measures. The decision to apply special investigation
measures must be approved by the Chief Prosecutor of the same level before being executed.
The time limit for application of special investigation measures shall not exceed two months
from the date of approval by the Chief Prosecutor; complicated cases may be extended but notbeyond the investigation time limit. Information and documents collected by special
investigation measures shall only be used for the institution, investigation, prosecution andadjudication of criminal cases, and information and documents not related to the case must be
promptly destroyed.
IV. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN ANTI-CORRUPTION EFFORTS OF
THE PEOPLE’S PROCURACY
Globalization and international integration have had a great impact on the economic,
cultural and social development of countries including Viet Nam. In parallel with development,
globalization and international integration also require cooperation between countries to

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prevent, detect and handle violations of the law including corruption beyond the borders ofeach country.
Strengthening international cooperation has been a major policy in anti-corruption of Viet
Nam in recent years. Resolution No. 04 of the Third Conference of the 10th Party Central
Committee on strengthening the Party's leadership in anti-corruption has specifically identified
tasks on international cooperation on anti-corruption with the orientation: Actively participate
in anti-corruption international programmes, initiatives and forums suitable to Viet Nam'sconditions; implementing international commitments on anti-corruption, focusing oncommitments on building a transparent business and investment environment. Over the past
years, international cooperation in anti-corruption has brought Viet Nam many benefits, andViet Nam has gained a lot of experience and good practices from foreign countries on anticorruption, from which to research and apply appropriately into Viet Nam's anti-corruption
regime.
A. Implementing the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC)
Viet Nam, which officially became a member of UNCAC on 19 August 2009, is a country
that has been and is being evaluated in both assessment cycles of the Convention. Viet Nam
was recognized by the Convention Secretariat and foreign experts for its strict, straightforward
and responsible implementation, especially the preparation of self-assessment reports andorganization of field-assessment activities. In the first cycle, Viet Nam was one of the countries
that actively conducted the assessment of the implementation of the Convention early andcompleted the requirements set for the evaluation process on time. The second cycle focuseson assessing the provisions of the Convention in Chapter II (Preventive Measures) and Chapter
V (Recovery of Assets).
To fulfil its membership obligations after ratifying the Convention, the Prime Minister has
issued a Plan on the Implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
Accordingly, the Government Inspectorate is assigned to be the Permanent Agency toimplement the Convention. Other relevant ministries and sectors are assigned to assume theprime responsibility for, and coordinate in the implementation of the contents belonging totheir functions and tasks as prescribed by law. The Supreme People’s Procuracy (1) assumes
the prime responsibility for expanding bilateral and multilateral signing of the Agreement on
mutual legal assistance in criminal matters between Viet Nam and the Member States of theConvention, (2) receiving and implementing requests for mutual legal assistance in criminal
matters and requesting other Member States to provide legal assistance in accordance with the
Law on Mutual Legal Assistance 2007 and (3) coordinates with relevant agencies in
implementing contents related to the functions and tasks of the People’s Procuracy.
The Supreme People’s Procuracy has actively coordinated with the Government
Inspectorate and other relevant ministries, sectors to implement the Convention such as:
Joining the Inter-sectoral Working Group to implement the Convention and the Evaluation
Group on the implementation of the Convention; participate in the development and defenceof the National Report on implementation of UNCAC cycle 1 and cycle 2; participate in theevaluation of the country report on UNCAC implementation of China, Congo, Solomon Islands
and Austria as assigned by the Secretariat of the Convention.

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B. Signing Treaties on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters with Foreign
Countries
According to Article 64 of the Law on Mutual Legal Assistance 2007 and the provisions of
the Law on International Treaties, the Supreme People’s Procuracy is responsible for proposing
the signing of treaties on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters between Viet Nam andforeign countries. Since joining the Convention, the Supreme People’s Procuracy has presided,
coordinated with relevant ministries and sectors to successfully sign 12 treaties on mutual legal
assistance in criminal matters with other countries. including Algeria (2010), Indonesia (2013),
Australia (2014), Spain (2015), Hungary (2016), France (2016), Cambodia (2016), Kazakhstan(2017), Cuba (2018), Mozambique (2019), Laos (2020) and Japan (2021).
The signing of criminal legal assistance agreements with foreign countries contributes toperfecting the legal framework and promoting bilateral cooperation to improve theeffectiveness of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters in general as well as in corruption,
recovering corrupt assets, in particular affirming Viet Nam’s strict implementation ofinternational commitments in the prevention and fight of all kinds of crimes, including
corruption.
C. Mutual Legal Assistance on Corruption
1. Outgoing Requests for Mutual Legal Assistance
The Supreme People’s Procuracy has received 53 1 requests for legal assistance related tocorruption, positions from domestic proceeding-conducting agencies to send to the foreigncompetent authorities. Requests for assistance have included the following crimes:
Embezzlement of property; Deliberately violating the State’s regulations on economic
management, causing serious consequences; Abusing positions and powers while performing
public duties; Lack of responsibility, causing serious consequences; Abuse of positions andpowers to appropriate property; Money-laundering; Violation of regulations on management
and use of State assets, causing loss and waste; Fraud at work. Among the above requests, there
are eight requests relating to the recovery and return of assets to the State of Viet Nam. In
general, the implementation of mutual assistance requests of foreign countries has achieved
positive results. The countries have given support in terms of collecting documents andevidence, contributing to support the domestic criminal justice agencies to handle corruption
cases. Notably, the results of mutual assistance have successfully solved large and complicatedcorruption cases involving people holding high positions in the State apparatus such as: Thecase involving the East-West Highway Project Management Board (CPI Department); The caseinvolving the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (VinaShin case); The case involving theVietnam Maritime Corporation (Vinalines case); The case involving the Vietnam Railway
Corporation (JTC case); The case of property embezzlement and money-laundering by Giang
Kim Dat and his accomplices; The case of abusing positions and powers while performing
public duties, violating regulations on management and use of State property, causing loss andwaste, and violating regulations on land management committed by Phan Van Anh Vu and his
accomplices; The case of gambling and money-laundering by Phan Sao Nam and his
accomplices; The case of money-laundering and violations of regulations on banking activities
that was carried out by Tran Bac Ha and his accomplices, etc.
2. Incoming Requests for Mutual Legal AssistanceIn the same period, the Supreme People’s Procuracy received and implemented 24 requests
for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters related to corruption from other countries.
1

Statistics over the past 10 years.

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Crimes related to requests for mutual assistance are embezzlement of property, taking bribes,
giving bribes, money-laundering, abuse of position and power, abuse of power, etc. The
Supreme People’s Procuracy has paid close attention to the exercise of public prosecution andsupervision of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters during the process of domestic
criminal justice agencies in fulfilling foreign requests for assistance. Therefore, theimplementation of the request basically meets the deadlines and procedures at the request offoreign parties, contributing to affirming Viet Nam’s efforts in international cooperation infighting corruption.
D. International Cooperation on Recovery of Corrupt Assets
According to the provisions of the Law on Anti-Corruption 2018 (Article 91), the distraint,
freeze, confiscation and return of corrupt assets are international cooperation activities. The
Supreme People’s Procuracy is the Central Agency for international cooperation in recovering
corrupt assets in criminal proceedings; receiving and processing foreign requests for criminal
legal assistance in recovery of corrupt assets and requesting foreign countries to comply with
Vietnamese requests for criminal legal assistance in recovery of corrupt assets. Accordingly,
the Supreme People’s Procuracy has submitted 12 requests for mutual legal assistance toSingapore, Laos and Cambodia for recovery and return of corrupt assets for the State of Viet
Nam.
E. Bilateral, Multilateral and Technical Cooperation
The Supreme People's Procuracy has participated in many bilateral, multilateral
cooperation efforts on anti-corruption, including the International Association of AntiCorruption Agencies (IAACA), the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP), the AsiaPacific Regional Asset Recovery Interagency Network (ARIN-AP), the Southeast Asia
Network of Judiciary Agencies (SEAJust); bilateral cooperation with the Prosecutor’s Officeand law enforcement agencies of other countries with strong prosecutorial bases and developed
judicial systems, especially South Korea, Japan, Australia, Hungary, Russia, China, the UnitedStates and Germany; and technical assistance cooperation with international agencies andorganizations, including the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of
Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI).
V. SOME BREAKTHROUGHS IN THE RESULTS OF THE FIGHT AGAINSTCORRUPTION IN RECENT YEARSAlong with the development of the law, the determination to fight against corruption within
the Communist Party and State of Viet Nam is clearly demonstrated through the breakthroughresults in the fight against corruption in recent years. The Procuracy, according to Vietnameselaw, is the agency that exercises public prosecution and supervises judicial activities during theprocess of institution for criminal proceedings, arrest, custody, detention, investigation andprosecution, adjudication of criminal cases; taking many measures to improve the quality andefficiency of work, making an important contribution to the following results:
A. Decisive Direction to Accelerate the Investigation, Prosecution and Adjudication of
Corruption Cases in a Timely Manner with the Direction of “No Forbidden Zone, No
Exceptions, No Privileges, Whoever That Person Is”
In recent years, the Vietnamese State has shown a resolute attitude in detecting,investigating, prosecuting and adjudicating corruption cases. With the guiding viewpoint of theCommunist Party, the State of Viet Nam is “no restricted zone, no exception, no privilege,
whoever that person is”. Accordingly, some particularly serious cases which have long been

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considered a “sensitive and forbidden zone”, and many cases which have lasted from previous
years, have been directed to be dealt with decisively and strictly. This is a bright spot in theanti-corruption struggle, showing the determination of the Communist Party and State of Viet
Nam. Corruption cases which were assessed as particularly serious were monitored anddirected by the Central Steering Committee for Anti-corruption and were tried by the Court
with strict sentences, thereby creating a breakthrough in anti-corruption.
The Communist Party and State of Viet Nam have resolutely and strictly handled a numberof senior incumbent and retired officials who were involved in particularly serious andcomplicated corruption and economic cases. These can be mentioned as the handling of Mr.
Dinh La Thang, former member of the Politburo, in two big cases: first, the case ofembezzlement of property and the intentional violation of state regulations on economic
management, causing serious consequences that occurred at Thai Binh 2 Thermal Power Plant
and Quang Trach Vung Ang Thermal Power Plant; and, second, the case of deliberately
violating state regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences and abuseof position and power to appropriate assets related to the capital contribution of 800 billion
VND (35 million USD) at Oceanbank. Through two court cases, Mr. Dinh La Thang wassentenced to 30 years in prison and was forced to pay more than 600 billion VND (27 million
USD) in compensation. In the above cases, in addition to Mr. Dinh La Thang, there are many
defendants who have held high positions, such as three accused persons who were members of
the National Assembly, four accused persons who held the position of Chairman of PVN, Vice
President of the province;
Corruption develops more sophisticatedly, not only in economic sectors but also in law
enforcement sectors; not only among low-level officials but also high-ranking officials.
Resolution of the 4th Central Committee (term XI) assessed: A large number of cadres andparty members, including those holding leadership and managerial positions, including somesenior cadres, have experienced recession of politics, ethics, lifestyle…, partial, corrupt,
wasteful, arbitrary, unprincipled. Therefore, the Party and State have directed the improvementof the efficiency of inspection, examination, audit, investigation, prosecution, adjudication andstrict handling of violators of corruption and waste. Especially since 2016, after the 12th Party
Congress, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Head of the Central Steering Committee for
Anti-corruption, launched a broad, comprehensive and drastic anti-corruption campaign withthe motto: “Whoever that person is, in any position, there is no forbidden zone, no exception
in fighting and dealing with corruption.” Since then, anti-corruption efforts have achieved very
positive results, and many corruption cases from the central to local levels have been strictly
adjudicated, including members of the Central Committee and members of the Politburo. As aresult, in the recent five years, the entire Party disciplined nearly 1,400 party organizations andmore than 74,000 party members at all levels.
Among the disciplined, there are 82 provincial commissioners and equivalent; more than
1,500 district commissioners and equivalent; nearly 3,000 party members were disciplined in
the form of dismissal; more than 8,700 were expelled from the Party and more than 4,300
cadres and party members had to be handled by law. Major General Nguyen Van Tin, General
Department of Politics of the People’s Army said that from 2013 to 2020, the whole country
had more than 1,900 corruption cases investigated and adjudicated, and 131,000 Party members
were disciplined, including more than 110 cadres under the management of the Central
Committee (27 members of the Party Central Committee, former members of the Party Central
Committee, 4 members of the Politburo and 30 general-level officers of the armed forces).
Particularly in the first 6 months of 2021, related to corruption, there were 266 cases / 646

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defendants prosecuted, 250 cases with 643 defendants prosecuted. The Central Steering
Committee on Anti-corruption has inspected and disciplined 12 party organizations and 20
party members under the management of the Politburo and the Secretariat (including 3
members, former member of the Central Committee, 2 deputy ministers, 1 former provincial
president, 1 former deputy secretary of the provincial Party Committee, 13 general-level
officers in the armed forces). A series of large corruption cases with high-ranking officials werebrought to trial. The Party and State have determined that it must continue to resolutely andpersistently fight against corruption both in state agencies, organizations and enterprises insideand outside the State.
B. Enhancing the Efficiency of Asset Recovery
In the process of solving corruption and economic cases, in addition to ensuring theinstitution, investigation, prosecution and adjudication in accordance with the law, in recent
years, Viet Nam’s criminal justice agencies in general and the People’s Procuracy of Viet Nam
in particular have been active, proactive and aggressive in the recovery of assets lost andappropriated in cases. In addition to ensuring that prosecution, investigation and adjudication
are performed in a prompt, strict, accurate, fair and lawful manner, the Procuracy has
proactively set out requirements for investigation, requests for inspection and verification ofassets; closely coordinated with the investigating agencies to apply measures to seize distrained
assets, frozen bank accounts of related persons right from the stage of dealing withdenunciations, information on crimes and petitions for charge; promptly applied measures toprevent them from transferring, dispersing, concealing or legalizing assets; encouraged
offenders to voluntarily hand over the appropriated property, and voluntarily remedy thedamage caused in order to thoroughly recover the property to the State. The results of asset
recovery in recent years has changed in both quantity and quality, clearly showing the role andresponsibilities of the Procuracy in asset recovery.
As a result, criminal justice agencies recovered an amount of 66,747,243 million
VND/149,616,130 million VND (30 billion USD/68 billion USD), reaching 44.6 per cent of
the amount (in which, the amount of assets recovered in corruption cases were 4,623,981
million VND/66,747,243 million VND (2.1 billion USD/30 billion USD), accounting for 8 percent of the total recovered assets; for corruption cases in judicial activities alone, 22,063 million
VND (100 million USD) were recovered, reaching 58 per cent appropriated assets recovered
in corruption cases in judicial activities. In addition to the recovered amount, criminal justiceagencies have seized, distrained, blocked and requested to suspend transactions of many
valuable assets such as: distraint of 108 parcels of real estate; 159,565 shares; 175 taels of SJC
gold, cars; recovery of 68 parcels of real estate; 393,115 square metres of land; 1,336,690 cubic
metres of timber; USD 50,000; frozen 32,110.71 USD; suspended transaction of 5 land use
ownership certificates; seizing 8 land use ownership certificates and 433,770 kg of copper
sulfide ore.
According to statistics, the recovery rate of corrupt assets has reached over 31 per cent, inwhich the recovery of assets in a number of serious corruption and economic cases is quitehigh.

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