This picture taken on December 14, 2013 shows
Duong Chi Dung, former Vinalines chairman, standing trial at Hanoi’s People’s
Court. Vietnam on December 16, 2013 sentenced two former top executives at
scandal-hit national shipping company Vinalines to death for embezzlement, a
court official said, as authorities move to allay rising public anger over
corruption. AFP PHOTO/Vietnam News Agency.
Like just
about every developing country, Vietnam struggles with the issue of corruption.
It has been officially acknowledged at the highest levels as one of the key
factors holding back the country’s progress.
It is an
issue that seems intractable at times. And, at least in terms of the perception
of corruption and the willingness to weed it out, recent incremental progress
seems to have taken a step back, according to a study from the United Nations
Development Program.
The
Provincial Governance and Public Administration and Performance Index is an
annual survey that has been carried out nation-wide since 2011, and reflects
people’s experiences with government and public service delivery. It looks at
six areas of governance, including participation at local levels, transparency,
vertical accountability, control of corruption, public administrative
procedures and public service delivery. Almost 14,000 randomly selected
citizens were interviewed for the 2015 report, the result of which were
released earlier this year.
The
“Control of Corruption” dimension looks at limits on public sector corruption,
limits on corruption in public service delivery, equity in state employment and
willingness to fight corruption. All four of these areas scored lower than in
previous years. The survey also found fewer people believed authorities were
serious about fighting corruption.
Fewer of
those surveyed agreed that public officials did not divert public funds for
private use, ask for bribes when handling land use rights certificates or ask
for kickbacks when handling construction permits than in 2014. In terms of
corruption in public service delivery, the study looked specifically at the
health care and primary education systems.
There is
still a common practice of paying café tien, or coffee money, to your child’s
teacher to ensure they get proper attention, or to move up the waiting list to
see a doctor at a public hospital. Public sector wages are absurdly low, a new
doctor in the public system will make around $250 a month.
In a
paper for the journal Vietnam Law and Legal Forum, researchers from the
National Economics University who analyzed data from the 2014 PAPI report, laid
the reason for this custom on the remuneration doctors and teachers receive.
“Corruption
in these two sectors is widely recognized in Vietnam, and low wages for
healthcare workers and teachers and decreasing public investment in the sectors
are to blame,” the authors wrote. They further added, “It is commonly perceived
that, without additional informal incomes and under-the-table incentives,
healthcare staff and teachers would not feel motivated to be attentive to
patients and students.”
The same
paper offers several broad recommendations for countering the problem of
corruption in the country, such as encouraging more people to report
corruption, increasing transparency and participation in the political process.
These are all fine, but rather amorphous and uncertain in making some kind of
tangible and immediate impact. In the meantime, finding the money to bump
public sector pay packets might be worth a try.
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