Successful anti-corruption initiatives

Projects, including several which are the result of ideas from the public have helped enhance transparency and accountability in the civil service. More in the following.

In 2012, the P55 project, which aims at encouraging community involvements in planning public infrastructure construction, was carried out by the Consultative Institute for Socio-economic Development of Rural and Mountainous Areas. With each project’s plan and budget publicised, local people are free to contribute their opinions and project effectiveness has been improved.

Tran Thi Minh Chau, Head, P55 Project said: "We realise that many local infrastructure projects have not been effective due to the lack of local community involvement. Those projects are not transparent. If people don’t participate in the planning process, they will care about preserving the infrastructure"

The P55 project is among 10 projects chosen by the Government Inspectorate to implement in the country’s mountainous northern provinces. These projects have been appreciated by the World Bank thanks to their practicality.

Bo Thi Hong Mai, Partnership Officer, World Bank Country Director’s Office in Vietnam said: "All of these projects are based on local community initiatives. They have been tested in localities. I think that can be an initial guarantee of the projects’ success".

However, anti-corruption campaigning remains quite a challenging task, involving many factors. Therefore co-ordination with local authorities is necessary in order to carry out the projects successfully.

Tran Duc Luong, Deputy Inspector General: "The Government Inspectorate will encourage co-ordination among all levels of authorities and social organisations. If obstacles are encountered during the implementation of the projects, inspectorate representatives will be sent to localities to solve the problems"

So far, Vietnam has organised 5 national anti-corruption programmes with 102 projects being granted sponsors, 97 of which have apparently proved successful.