Enhancing Accountability to Scrub Apparatus

According to Mr Tran Duc Luong, Deputy General Director of the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam, accountability of State agencies is a new legal concept in Vietnam. He said, it is necessary to clarify the connotation of accountability, requesters and explainers; and principles, contents, scopes, sequences, procedures, rights and obligations of requesters and explainers, thus adding oversight institutions to exercise public power of State agencies to enhance publicity and transparency in operations of State agencies to prevent and combat corruption and raise State management effectiveness. Besides, regulations on accountability are not only presented in Circular 02 and Decree 90, but also contained in many different normative documents. Joint Circular 01/2015/TTLT-GI-BNV, which came into effect on May 1, 2015, raises bonus money, tightens reward processes and procedures, and enhances protection for whistleblowers. On this basis, Circular 01 will generate positive results and encourage people to bravely report acts of corruption. Mr Luong also expects every staff member of the inspection sector, regardless of position, to thoroughly understand the spirit of this important circular to propagate and explain regulations it citizens.

 

He added that protection and rewarding is also an important and essential sanction to encourage citizens to report acts of corruption. The Law on Denouncement has a chapter on rewarding whistleblowers. Compared with similar laws in other countries in the world, our law has relatively clear expressions. But, the Law on Denouncement and instructive decrees still has shortcomings in protection of whistleblowers; therefore, Joint Circular 01/2015/TTL-TTCP-BNV was enacted to define rewarded people, better protect whistleblowers, define reward levels for whistleblowers, and simplify processes and procedures for receiving rewards.

 

According to Mr Nguyen Quoc Hiep, Director of the Institute of Inspection Science under the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam, bureaucratically, accountability is the acceptance of responsibility by civil servants and officials. State agencies and civil servants must be responsible for their assigned tasks and bear responsibility for what they cannot do. In fact, accountability in other countries comprises all issues related to the responsibility of State apparatus in general and of persons holding and exercising power, primarily understood in two directions: Accountability of inferiors to superiors (internal accountability) and the accountability of bureaucratic system to society (external accountability or downward accountability). From that angle, accountability is understood to come in two forms: Active accountability and passive accountability. Active accountability is agencies and individuals actively providing information and disclosing their operations. Passive accountability is agencies and individuals providing information at the request of stakeholders. According to experience in many countries in the world, the active disclosure of accountability is based on laws.

 

He said raising accountability also aims to enhance the publicity, transparency and accountability of public administration and public services, thus helping prevent corruption and waste. This is one effective and sustainable solution to fight corruption and extravagance. The accountability exercise of government agencies is also a basis for promoting oversight roles of publicly elected bodies and citizens over State administrative apparatus, civil servants and officials, creating favourable conditions for organisation and individuals to access information and decisions of State agencies. On the other hand, accountability also increases active dialogues, interactions and mutual understanding between government agencies with people and society, thus helping reduce complaints and denunciations which tend to be on the rise and place growing pressure on administrative bodies at all levels.