National Assembly: Corruption still on the rise Presenting the 2013 anti-corruption report at the NA session on Tuesday, Inspector General of the Government Inspectorate Huynh Phong Tranh said that corruption is still very serious and takes place in many localities, fields and levels.  Disturbing acts have been reported at a number of government officials and employees in the country. Corruption and wastage still occur in land use and management, credit, banks, capital and asset management at some State-owned corporations, causing huge economic losses and drawing public criticism, Tranh said. However, Tranh said that the number of detections of corruption is still modest. Violations have been uncovered mainly through the public, letters of denunciation, the media or examination of inspectors and auditors. Commenting on the Government’s corruption fight, Nguyen Van Hien, chairman of the NA’s Justice Committee, said that corruption detection via inspection, auditing and denunciation is still weak. These shortcomings have lasted many years but fixing the problems is a slow process. A survey of the committee shows that law enforcement forces at localities have launched many inspections but just a few corruption cases have been found. In some localities, as many as 804 inspections were made over a two-year period, but only one or two corruption cases were uncovered. Corruption fighting is still modest compared to the ongoing critical corruption situation, Hien said. Earlier, local voters via the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front expressed concerns over corruption fighting and prevention, saying that detection efforts of corrupt acts are still weak. It has even been reported that anti-corruption forces have committed negative acts, handling cases with administrative measures to avoid proper criminal investigations. Some officials even have covered up for offenders or omitted wrongdoers from investigations. Voters and local people have suggested law enforcement forces to speed up inspection and investigation into critical corruption cases, especially the 10 cases that have drawn much concern from the public. The 10 cases include those at Vinalines, Vinashin and ACB with the scandal of Nguyen Duc Kien and others at State-owned bank branches. Source: SGT