Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam has been gradually curbing corruption, GovernmentInspector General Le Minh Khai said at the ongoing 37th session of the NationalAssembly (NA) Standing Committee on September 12.

Khai saidcorruption is on the decline, thereby helping to maintain the country’spolitical stability and socio-economic development and strengthen people’sconfidence.

The chiefinspector attributed the result to the good coordination between agencies insolving problems and the adoption of drastic solutions in dealing withcorruption cases.

Many corruptioncases have been investigated further to clarify the nature of appropriation andcorruption. It proved that there is no ‘restricted areas and exceptions’ in thefight against corruption, he said.

However,Khai said the quality in settlement of a number of economic and corruptioncases had not met the requirements. The recovery of assets in corruption caseswas still much lower than the value of property which was illegallyappropriated, he said.

Regardingthe existence of the “petty corruption” which causes trouble for residents andenterprises, the NA Judicial Committee proposed the Government clarify exactlywhat the problems are before offering solutions.

It wasnecessary to determine the responsibilities of ministers or heads of agenciesinvolved, the committee said.

Accordingto the committee, the punishments handed out have been strong enough.

As many21 leaders have been punished so far this year due to the occurrence of corruptionin their agencies, a decrease of eight people compared with the same periodlast year.

Inresponse to voters’ complaints, the NA Judicial Committee suggested theGovernment Inspectorate, ministries of public security, justice andconstruction, and other agencies review the situation and set forth measures tocope with corruption fighting in the future.

Thecommittee asked the Ministry of Public Security’s InvestigationPolice Department on Economic, Corruption-related Crimesand Smuggling, and Investigation Department of Supreme People’s Court tofocus on detecting corruption in anti-corruption agencies and law enforcementagencies in next year’s working agenda.

TheInspectorate Director General attributed the phenomenon to the fact that someleaders of localities and agencies didn’t set good examples and failed to taketheir duties in anti-corruption serious.

A lack ofefficient checks and balances and shortcomings in supervisingresponsibilities of high-ranking officials were also blamed.

Topromote the work, Khai said the Government would strictly abide by the Party’sregulations on corruption prevention and combat as well as the Law onAnti-Corruption and Prevention. The administration reform would be boosted andweakness in the work would be tackled.

Theinspection and prosecution of corruption cases would also be strengthened, hesaid./.