Reinforce law to create enabling environment for society to participate, support and cooperate effectively with the State in anti-corruption
The fact that the State of Vietnam has direction to revise the Law on Anti-corruption has brought about an opportunity to improve its legal environment, address shortcomings that have restricted society’s roles, and facilitate for the active engagement of social actors in anti-corruption.
Ha Noi, June 28, 2016 – Although the role of social groups in the fight against corruption has been widely recognized and regulated by policies and laws of Vietnam, these non-state actors still lack necessary legal guarantee and primary conditions to perform their role fully and contribute effectively in anti-corruption.
“Society including citizens, press, businesses and civil society organizations, are indispensable partners of the State in anti-corruption. However, the current Law on Anti-corruption has not yet identified proper position for social actors in this field. The Law has no specific provision to encourage society to engage and cooperate with the State in anti-corruption proactively and positively,” said Dao Nga, Executive Director of Towards Transparency.
Most of the current regulations on society’s roles in anti-corruption are too general, put in mere principles and with focus on identifying the responsibilities of social actors rather than claiming their rights and proper accompanying conditions to ensure that these actors can implement their roles effectively.
“To mobilize wide and positive participation of citizens and build up social strength in the fight against corruption, the upcoming new anti-corruption law needs to address these shortcomings, restrictions, and at the same time introduce specific measures to encourage participation and enable collaboration mechanism among state and non-state actors,” Nga said.
In the workshop “Initial assessment on 10 year implementation of Law on Anti-corruption in a number of fields”, Towards Transparency (TT) and Institute of Public Policy and Law (IPL) also recommended the State to improve and specify measures to protect corruption whistle-blowers, unify relevant provisions that are separately regulated in Law on Anti-Corruption, Law on Denunciations and other legal documents.
The Law on Anti-corruption should also be supplemented with necessary sanctions which are consistent with the Penal Code (amended in 2015), to guarantee effective law enforcement and comprehensive adjustment of corrupt behaviour in both public and private sector.
First introduced in 2005, amended and supplemented in 2007 and 2012, the Law on Anti-corruption is considered the backbone of Vietnam legal framework on anti-corruption.
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- [Infographic] Fighting corruption: How the society in Vietnam has been engaged
- Corruption whistleblowers protection mechanism under current laws
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Towards Transparency (TT) is the national contact of Transparency International (TI) in Vietnam, operates with the purpose to contribute to national anti – corruption efforts in Vietnam.
Institute of Public Policy and Law (IPL) is a scientific non-governmental organization under direct management of The Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA), aims at contributing to rule of law, improving good governance and sustainable development in Vietnam.
For more information, please contact:
Nguyễn Thu Hương
Communications officer, Towards Transparency (TT)
E: [email protected]