Local authorities must be held accountable to the Government if they allow rampant crime in their jurisdictions, Deputy Prime Minister Trương Hòa Bình said yesterday. — Photo vnexpress.net

HÀ NỘI – Local authorities must be held accountable to the Government if they allow rampant crime in their jurisdictions, Deputy Prime Minister Trương Hòa Bình said yesterday.

Bình, who is also head of the National Steering Committee for Crime Prevention and Combat, also known as Committee 138, issued his warning at a national tele-conference from Hà Nội on boosting implementation of a national crime prevention programme.

The Deputy PM criticised neglect and irresponsibility among some local leaders who have failed to direct, supervise and inspect law enforcement. He said surging crime in some areas was proof of weak and ineffective management.

A report released at the conference said last year a total of more than 54,500 cases of criminal violations were recorded, a decrease of 4.4 per cent over the previous year.

However, despite a decrease in the number of criminal cases, an increase in complicated and large-scale organised crime had become a new challenge for law enforcement across the country.

According to Lieutenant General Đỗ Kim Tuyến, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Public Security’s Police Department, said the number of criminal gangs, many of them extremely dangerous to society, had grown.

Killings occurred more often and with unimaginable cruelty, said Tuyến, pointing to a continual surge in the number of crimes by drug addicts.

Drug smuggling also proved a big challenge for police in the last year, Tuyến said.

He said economic crimes and corruption had become more sophisticated and occurred in many sectors, with financial crimes posing serious threats to the banking system. 

During the year, competent forces solved 42,558 criminal cases, arresting 80,210 suspects. The forces also brought to light 16,823 economic crimes and 244 corruption cases, investigated 669 hi-tech crimes and handled 17,622 violations of environmental laws. A total of 18,742 drug crimes and 234 cases of human trafficking were uncovered. 
Deputy Minister of Defence Senior Lieutenant General Lê Chiêm said drug syndicates mainly operate in areas bordering Laos, Cambodia and China. 
Meanwhile, Tuyến said that despite a 6-per cent decline in the number of human trafficking cases, the number of victims increased by 12 per cent.  Areas bordering China reported the largest number of human trafficking cases. 

Bình stressed the need to combat organised crime, including the surge in dangerous trans-national crime and gang activity.

Bình also said drug addicts should be carefully supervised because they were among the most likely to commit crimes to feed their habits. The Deputy PM asked the Ministry of Health to concentrate more on research for medicines to control and prevent addictions.

Commenting on a report released at the conference saying that about 300,000 addicts nationwide are undergoing drug rehabilitation programmes, Bình said that was a huge number, and called for the MoH to intensify efforts to undertake special health care programmes for such people. — VNS