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Corruption and corruption research in Vietnam - an overview

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Abstract

This article offers an introduction to both the state of corruption in Vietnam and how the research community is taking on an active role to support policymaking. It begins by contextualising corruption since Doi Moi, explaining that high corruption levels has opened the door to interest groups, and therefore to corruption. The article then discusses the different ways research helps us develop a better understanding of corruption, both through more traditional as well as innovative measurement techniques. The article reviews some of the more important literature on corruption, including its costs, and discusses the different methodologies and approaches employed to study and measure corruption. The article concludes by providing a short overview of how the corruption research community is organised, and then goes on to introducing this Special Issue.

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Notes

  1. The view that corruption undermines confidence in the Party and the State and that it should be tackled head-on is a recurrent feature in official pronouncements. These types of claims were already made by authorities in the 1990s, when a number of corrupt scandals erupted. Nong Duc Manh, Politburo Member and then National Assembly chairman commented around the time of the Tamexco scandal (1996) that corruption eroded confidence in the regime [22: 78], a claim he later re-asserted as a General Secretary of the CPV [5].

  2. In 2013, Members of the National Assembly cast their votes of ‘high confidence’, ‘confidence’ or ‘low confidence’ in top Government officials. Prime Minister Dung came second to President Truong Tan San. Votes of confidence go hand-in-hand with criticism and self-criticism campaigns for top Party cadres. PM Dung, for example, has admitted he made mistakes in managing the faltering economy [6]. In January 2015, the CPV Central Committee also conducted a vote of confidence on members of the Politburo, although little details trickled out.

  3. The country acceded to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2007, and has since signed up to or is the process of negotiating a number of multilateral agreements (e.g., the Trans-Pacific Partnership) and bilateral trade agreements with the European Union.

  4. Efforts were made to address abuse of power and corruption by establishing relevant entities: Anti-Corruption Commission, State Audit, etc. The Criminal Code was also revised to review the type of sanctions, and the supervisory power of People’s Committees and People’s Councils was also increased [8].

  5. Recently, Vietnam has introduced a Public Administration Reform Index to monitor and rank public administrative reforms across ministries and Provinces.

  6. [9] also remarks that the strategy from Party and State has been to co-opt civil society in order to keep things under control.

  7. In Law, land belongs to all of Vietnam’s people but is entrusted for management to the Government who acts as representatives for ‘land-owners’. This provides easy opportunities for politicians and other state officials to commercialise land. It has led to violent clashes between farmers and the authorities, for example in Hai Phong, where a farmer was handed a five-year prison sentence for attempted murder. Reports claim Doan Van Vuon, the farmer, fought police officers who had come to kick him off the land plot he was occupying [78].

  8. In the 1990s, an intelligence analysis described Vietnam as being “[…] in contention for the Imelda Marcos golden shoe award for outstanding achievement in the category of corrupt activities” [45: 155].

  9. To this day, Japan is one of Vietnam’s most significant ODA and trade partner.

  10. As [21] states: “PMU 18 precipitated the first public discussion in Vietnam, certainly as far as I am aware, of the fact that official positions are sometimes bought” (note 42)

  11. The case got much uglier as Dung claimed he was tipped by a high-ranked politician, Pham Quy Ngo, Deputy Minister of Public Security and member of the Communist Party's Central Committee (Mr Ngo. was leading the investigation into Vinalines). This triggered Dung’s exile to Cambodia, aided by his brother, before being captured by the authorities and brought back to Vietnam for sentencing. Pham Quy Ngo died shortly after of cancer.

  12. There is a growing list of people that have been charged with corruption (and for some, handed death sentences), particularly in the banking and financial sector. In fact, a case could be made for arguing that these ‘big corruption’ cases are common in Vietnam. They are symptomatic of an economic and political system marked by decentralisation and in which central Party and State authorities use these cases for political ends to purge, discredit and/or discipline opponents, party members and government officials. Older scandals include Tamexco (1996), Minh Phuong-Epco (1997), Tan Truong Sanh (1999) [22, 27]

  13. The Penal Code is currently being revised, and criminal liabilities for private sector corruption considered.

  14. Different agencies are responsible for the anti-corruption mandate: the Central Committee for Internal Affairs (CCIA), the Party Inspection, the Government Inspectorate, the State Audit, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), and the Procuracy.

  15. Data from 2005 shows that cadastral and housing agency, customs import/export management agencies, traffic police, public finance and tax agency, management/entities in construction industry were perceived to be the most corrupt organisations [94]. In 2003, more than half of foreign and local businesses complained that corruption and bureaucracy were major hindrances to doing business [66].

  16. This line of reasoning has been critiqued extensively [62].

  17. These weaknesses are acknowledged by the indices’ developers. Transparency International, for example, warns that the Indicators measure perceptions, not actual corruption. To minimize the effect of methodological pitfalls, [67] suggests that new indicators should aim to minimize sampling bias and misreporting, while increasing the scope of corrupt practices that are captured.

  18. What follows is not meant to be an exhaustive review of existing studies.

  19. The PCI is led by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (see http://eng.pcivietnam.org/)

  20. See http://papi.vn/en/

  21. In this approach, “the probability of participating in a non-sensitive activity is estimated for every individual in the sample using covariates available in the dataset for the control group. This estimation of non-sensitive activities is then subtracted from the total amount of observed activities engaged in by each individual in the treatment group. The difference is the probability of engaging in corruption for each individual in the survey.” [83: 29].

  22. This is not an exhaustive literature review. An online catalogue of available literature can be found here: http://www.vdic.org.vn/en/library/subject-list/194-subject-list/363-corruption-in-vietnam.html (accessed December 2014)

  23. This would contradict the earlier claim that the incidence of corruption is thought to have increased in the Doi Moi period; see page 3 and Table 1

  24. The Central institute for Economic Management, CIEM (under the Ministry of Planning and Investment), the Institute of Labour and Social Affairs (under MoLISA), and the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Development (IPSARD), under MARD, are often seen as producing quality research. The perceived effectiveness of these institutes, however, is in part associated with their ability to attract foreign funding and to work on high priority issues. As a result, these institutes are able to tap into international knowledge networks as well.

  25. Strategic refers to the long-term impact while transactional refers to the day-to-day interaction between firms, or between firms and government.

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Tromme, M. Corruption and corruption research in Vietnam - an overview. Crime Law Soc Change 65, 287–306 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-016-9605-y

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