Petty Corruption on the Rise

"That citizens have to spend unofficial expenses to bribe officials to seek employment, complete land procedures, schooling procedures, health checks and disease treatments is rampant nationwide. Now, the citizens are very familiar with bribing. As a rule, thanking must be accompanied with enveloped money. This proves that our apparatus is having problems. The apparatus is running out of oil and it needs to be lubricated,” said Dr Dang Ngoc Dinh, a member of the research team of the Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) 2012 which was recently released in Hanoi by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam.

 

PAPI assessment contents are based on three interacting processes, namely policymaking, policy enforcement, and monitoring of public services provision.

Nearly 14,000 people in 63 provinces and cities were interviewed in the latest PAPI survey. When asked if bribes are required to get jobs in the public sector, 44 percent of respondents said yes (compared with 29 percent 2011. 42 percent of respondents said to have bribed to access medical care (compared with 31 percent in 2011). 32 percent of respondents said bribery is needed to secure land-use rights (compared with 21 percent in 2011). 25 percent said bribery for teachers is necessary to have their children cared at elementary schools (up from 17 percent in 2011). The average unofficial cost for land-use right certificate is VND123,000 but the amount reaches VND104 million in some cases.

 

When asked about the quality of public administrative services, 47 percent of interviewees believed that personal connections would be a much significant factor in gaining employment in the public sector, rather than on merit while only 26 percent said it did not matter.

 

The PAPI survey looks at six different dimensions of provincial governance and public administration. These include participation at the local level; transparency; vertical accountability; control of corruption in the public sector; public administrative procedures; and public service delivery.

The Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) is a joint policy research initiative implemented collaboratively by the Centre for Community Support and Development Studies (CECODES) under the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam since 2009 together with research supports from partners like the Commission on People’s Petitions and the Fatherland Front Magazine affiliated to the Vietnam Fatherland Front (from 2009 to 2012), the People’s Expectations Committee under the National Assembly Standing Committee (in 2012) and the Centre for Personnel Training and Scientific Research under the the Vietnam Fatherland Front (from 2013).

Notably, though petty bribery and corruption has become popular, citizens seem to be more conservative to denounce corrupt acts. When asked how much money (from VND10,000 to VND100 million) caused them to make denunciations, 25 percent of respondents said they never did no matter how much the money was. At the same time, very few people reported corruption when officials asked for less than VND500,000. People accusing officials of corruption when the value was over VND500,000 was negligible.

 

PAPI 2012 also that petty corruption is a nuisance to citizens but it is insignificant in comparison with costs and time to make denunciations while potentially receiving revenge. This indicates that in many cases citizens simply accept that bribery is necessary to be able to circumvent burdensome procedures. Therefore, citizens are willing to pay informal money to smoothen the jobs.

 

Dr Dang Ngoc Dinh said PAPI 2012 also shows that a significant amount of corruption goes unreported, either because the process of reporting it is too costly, or because citizens do not trust the procedures in place. This also shows that their tolerance for petty corruption increases.

 

According to PAPI 2012 ranking, Quang Binh province takes the lead with the highest score, followed by Thai Binh and Binh Dinh provinces. Bac Lieu, Kien Giang and Khanh Hoa provinces are at the bottom.

 

Ms Pratibha Mehta, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, said as a middle-income country, Vietnam is now starting to realise the potential and benefits of modern policy monitoring tools. Wealthier, better-educated citizens demand higher quality, more efficient administrative services from their government, less bureaucracy and in particular no corruption in the public sector. In its transition towards a more prosperous, democratic society and a thriving market economy, Vietnam’s public administration system will need to play a key role in poverty reduction, a goal that cannot be fulfilled by economic growth alone.