The Increase of Corruption in Vietnam

Introduction

These days, corruption is the globally complicated issue which occurs in both developing and developed countries. People have tendency to profit due to office power, high-ranking position in society. In particular, from the middle of the twentieth century, corruption emerged as a malignant disease that threatens the entire economy, cultural and moral of mankind, devastating and hindering the development of all nations. As Ronak (2016) mentioned, rather than building school, hospital, better road, electricity, people suffer from corruption which is increasing in recent decades, they have to struggle for quality of life. Additionally, the Vietnamese Government stated that corruption or bribe remains a dramatically severe problem, there were a huge number of corruption cases have been discovered and indicted each year (Corruption a serious problem in Vietnam, 2016). In fact, the solution of corruption remains completely deadlocked, corruption does not diminish, in contrast, it seems to be aggravated (Dzitse & Prosper, 2013). According to Dien (2016), the law against corruption has been amended in recent years. However, there are several issues related to lack of principles and implement mechanisms. The research, therefore, focuses on four contents about corruption, including its definition, causes, detrimental impacts, as well as suggested solutions to prevent corruption.

Discussion of findings

The definition of corruption

In the research entitled “Business Anti-Corruption Portal”, there have been numerous different attempts at bring in definition of corruption, but there is no definitive definition fitting those types and degrees that the whole world could recognize. The simplest definition that corruption is the misuse of power, prestige and public status to gain the material and spiritual values of society or of others, according “What is corruption?”. This is an act of taking advantage of the administration of state property, budget to serve the interests of the individual rather than serving the public’s interest, abuse of positive and authority to usurp property. Thief, bribes, kickbacks, nepotism, fraud, embezzlements is all of the types in which everyone makes more effort to raise their money from others… Bribes are also one of the main tools of corruption. Bribery is considered as an act of giving money, or a valuable item, or other things that make the recipient feel satisfied, to expect the recipient to help him or her to commit an illegal act. In addition, corruption have been divided into two main parts: Major corruption and small corruption.

Major corruption occurs mainly in relation to large and widespread procurement projects in public and private construction projects, hospitals; in arms and defense contracts. Small corruption, also known as administrative corruption or bureaucratic corruption, is the type of corruption that occurs every day, when civil servants are exposed to the citizens directly.

Causes of corruption

In the age of globalization, corruption has become a detrimental epidemic. Corruption is popularly happened in situation such as bussiness, policy, sport, promotion, election campaign, and all of the aspects in their lives, as asserted by Vikram (2017). It is immediately obvious that corruption happens all classes, rural and urban areas, small and large organization, local and international governments (Anup, 2011). Corruption is caused by both objective and subjective causes. The first is subjective causes. Actually, various causes are absolutely complicated in corrupt environment. First of all, the primary and motive cause of corruption is human greed. The moral quality of cadres and authorities is degraded. Doménec (2014) also mentioned that personal greed is the big factor in many cases leading to corruption. Greed stems from the human mind which is psychological trend (Chimdi,2014). Money is very important, like a drug addiction (Mike,2008). For personal gain, people can do all, regardless of all tricks, all consequences to achieve money whether it is a violation of morality, law, discipline. Misuse of power, smuggling, illegal enrichment, public waste, bureaucracy and bullying citizens are all of corrupt behaviors for money. As Burke (2017) commented, individual greed always takes advantage of any opportunity to benefit for themselves. Forgery in work: Individuals who, for personal interests or other individuals, wish to use their powers and powers to commit one of the following acts: correction or falsification of paperwork contents and documents, fake signatures of persons with their positions and powers. This behavior occurs in the operation of a number of public authorities, especially in administrative agencies, where the citizens and businesses are regulated by the law. Some cadres and civil servants are not responsible for the attitude of public servants and the spirit of service. Instead, they often seek to take advantage of the unclear aspects of the procedures, they even set up conditions that would make it more difficult for citizens and businesses to offer citizens and businesses give gifts for themselves. Ranga (2017) and Domene (2014) all agree that factor is caused the risk of corruption is insufficient transparency, especially at the senior organization. This is lack of openness and transparency in management, asset declaration, asset use, and lack of transparency in documents, regulations and procedures.

Besides several subjective reasons mentioned above, there are significant objective reasons, which greatly affect the corruption situation. In the article entitled “Corruption in Pakistan “(2009), the most significant reason contributing this problem is insufficient policy. Corruption has chance to evolve increasingly when there is weak government institutions in the society, according to “Cause of corruption in Nigeria”. Elements in the political system must fulfill their role. However, the lack of clarity in the division of roles, functions and activities among elements in the political system has partly diminished the effectiveness management society. In some places, the government agencies are reluctant and passive to fulfill their responsibilities. As a result, weaknesses of the legislation to deal with corruption. Therefore, corruption occurs everywhere. Moreover, according to Domenec (2014) and Ranga (2017) stated that lack of heavy penalties and punishments also have influence on corruption. Legislation is the most powerful tool to prevent corruption. However, the law is not strict facilitating opportunities for corruption development.

Effects of corruption

Nataly (2014) claimed that corruption has a strong influence on economic, political and social development. State budget is lost associated with corruption of each case up to hundreds, even thousands of billion (Boham & Asamoah, 2011). According to Kayode (2013), corruption contributes to an illicit economy. Humans are willing to make counterfeit products, especially medicines that are less costly to produce, which is easy for their own interests. Bribes also lead to large losses in tax refund, tax exemption consideration. Corruption, especially embezzlement of property, has caused a large number of public assets to become private property. As reported by Manojbalakrishnan (2017), corruption promotes the condition for unsustainable political system. More generally, corruption is a major impediment to the country's innovation process and undermines confidence of citizens toward the leadership of the Party and the State. Kayode (2013) stated that politicians are also struggling to win the state treasury. Corruption sabotages staff, trivialize the legal system is directly related to the survival of the state. Moreover, corruption severely effects on society. According to Ranga (2017) noted, corruption leads to ignorance of lawmakers. For instance, it is natural to think of elections. Organizations and candidates can buy votes rather than winning in an equal way. It is alarming that corruption seems to have become normal in the opinion of some officials and civil servants.

Solution of preventing corruption

Corruption in many countries around the world shows that it is very important to closely combine the prevention and punishment of corrupt people. Because, in the fight against corruption, only focusing on prevention, but not strictly punishing the corrupt, does not guarantee the strictness of the law, does not limit corruption. On the contrary, corruption grows stronger. First of all, according to “Transparency International”, the “zero currency” is a strategy to say no to corruption, shy away from evils and corrupt people. In the corruption news “What can you do to fight corruption?”, everyone should enhance ethics, promote educational system, government encourages and propagates people not to give or receive bribes. Another solution is well implement the principle of publicity and transparency (Augusto, 2014). Transparency is one of the most important principles, a very valuable experience in preventing and stopping corruption. Robert (2015) reported that promoting the role of the functional agencies, especially the Inspection and Supervision Agency in detecting and handling corruption is very crucial. State officials must manage closely, apply disciplinary measures strictly. Especially, people belonging to civil servants need be fined heavy penalties than ordinary citizens.

Conclusion

Corruption, which is considered by the Vietnamese people as a national disaster, is a risk of stagnant country. It happens in countries and regions that are very different in ideology, history, culture, political and social systems. To emphasize the responsibility of the heads of agencies, organizations and units. To promote the role of the society, the mass organizations and the general public. With these above solutions, the party and the state have and will have positive effects in fighting against corruption. It is hoped that the research paper will improve the public's awareness of this issue and at the same time, contribute to undermining corruption.