Party General Secretary and President Nguyễn Phú Trọng speaks at a meeting of the Central Steering Committee on Corruption Prevention and Control in Hà Nội. – VNA/VNS Photo Trí Dũng

HÀ NỘI – Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong called yesterday for more determination and stronger actions to confront corruption.

Speaking at a meeting of the Central Steering Committee on Corruption Prevention and Control in Hà Nội, the leader said that a redoubling of efforts against corruption is urgently needed as it reflects the aspirations of both the people and the Party. 

Inspections and audits must be transparent, he said, emphasising the need to complete the settlement of pending cases, deal with shortcomings and pay more attention to key areas. 

Trong, who is also head of the committee, touched upon the upcoming all-level Party congresses and noted that those showing signs of corruption or degradation of political ideology and morality should not be included in the contingent of Party committee members.

Anti-corruption efforts should focus on land violations, money laundering, investment and equitisation of State-owned enterprises, he said, asserting the key task is to prepare for the all-level Party congresses.

The leader lauded better co-ordination and consensus between concerned agencies as well as the performance of the committee. 

However, he pointed out limitations in the fight against corruption related to the poor performance of some localities and asked the committee to keep a closer watch on the anti-corruption push in the localities.

In the first six months of this year, localities launched legal proceedings in 176 cases of corruption involving 425 people, up 13.5 per cent in the number of cases and 32.8 per cent in the number of people involved from the first half of last year.

Since the beginning of this year, Party committees at all levels and inspection committees issued disciplinary measures against 123 Party organisations and 7,923 Party members, 256 of whom were involved in corruption – 21 more than in the same period of 2018. 

Inspection and audit agencies proposed reclaiming more than 61.39 trillion VNĐ (US$2.63 billion) and 142 hectares of land, and imposing administrative fines on 692 collectives and many individuals.

In the remaining six months of the year, the committee said that petty corruption must be dealt with efficiently and investigations into 28 cases should be wrapped up. – VNS