Millions of cadres and civil servants must declare their assets and income in the new year

Speaking to VietNamNet, Dr. Dinh Van Minh, Director of the Legal Department – Government Inspector said that according to the calculation, the number of cadres, civil servants and public employees who must declare assets and income for the first time is approximately 3.5 -4 million people.

According to Mr. Dinh Van Minh, Decree 130/2020 on control of assets and income of persons with positions and powers in agencies, organizations and units comes into effect on December 20, 2020. But due to the complexity, the amount of asset declarers is big and there are a lot of new points so it can’t be implemented right away. This will start on 1/1/2021 and will be completed in the first quarter.

105 or more associate office positions must declare active annually

What new regulations are remarkable in the new decree compared to the previous ones, sir?

It can be said that both the 2018 Anticorruption Law and Decree 130 have many new points to ensure a more substantial control of assets and income.

The notable novelty is that the subject of this declaration of ownership is broad and focused. Previously, the declared object was only the head of the district or higher level, now all cadres, officials, even newly hired, must declare; only the officer is from the deputy department.

Dr. Dinh Van Minh, Director of the Legal Department – Government Inspector. Photo: TH

The Decree stipulates 4 objects of declaration of ownership: one is all the cadres and officials; the second is the subdivision into non-commercial public units and state enterprises; third are police officers, military, military defense; The fourth are the candidates for the National Assembly and the Popular Council.

Thus, the number of people who have to declare is very large, but what is fundamentally different is that each year they have to declare, now they only declare the first time and only once as a very normal activity in the staff profile. This object only makes additional statements when ownership increases by 300 million.

In addition, there are those who have to declare each year, who are at greater risk of corruption. They are people who hold the position of department director or higher; people who work in some fields prone to corruption such as: organization, personnel, management and use of public goods, public finances; Those who directly handle the affairs of citizens, agencies and organizations such as the preparation of red books, business registration procedures, …

The appendix to the decree lists 105 jobs, the cadres and officials of the deputy or higher department must declare their assets annually.

In addition, the representative of state capital in companies and 13 categories of public officials are considered to have a lot of power and have opportunities to control corruption. Including: inspectors, prosecutors, customs inspectors, match inspectors, market controllers, prosecutors, judges …

So which agency will monitor assets and income and what powers does it have to ensure accurate and truthful disclosure and can quickly and efficiently handle issues that arise and prevent dispersal? active?

The asset and income control agency is regulated in the direction of forming part-time agencies. This means that a new establishment will not be established, but additional tasks and functions will be assigned to some agencies. These agencies in the process of organizing the implementation, of course, must reorganize to fulfill their tasks.

This agency has very important powers defined by law to ensure that it can exercise control over assets and income. For example, this agency has the right to request information when it sees something in doubt, such as asking the bank to provide information about the account holder, requesting the real estate management agency to provide information about real estate. … This is also intended to limit the situation of property regulators using security reasons to avoid providing information.

It is also very important that this agency has the power to decide for itself. Before, to verify, I had to do a lot of paperwork.

In addition, this agency also has the right to require agencies, organizations and individuals to take steps to prevent property dispersion, property destruction, and asset transfer such as request for account lockout, Request not to change the property name …

These powers are very important and are related to the meaning of controlling assets and income so that on the one hand it can be controlled, on the other hand, to ensure that assets derived from corruption are subsequently recovered.

Lottery to find random people

One of the important content that many people are interested in when declaring assets is how to check to avoid form.

The verification of assets and income is one of the contents that has new features. Specifically, the asset and income control agency itself has the right to actively verify, can count on complaints, at the request of the competent authorities to attend to the work of the staff.

Even when there is a clear sign of dishonesty, such as a civil servant in a 5 or 7 year old car or villa, but in the declaration, there is no such thing, of course this agency has the right to ask questions. and necessary, the decision to proceed with the verification.

In particular, this time there is another form of random verification. That is, in addition to verifying when there are signs of dishonesty, complaints, requests to higher bodies … there is another type of randomness.

That means that anyone can be verified at any time for no reason. This form is to remind, “warn” all the people who declare the property, that no matter how much it is hidden, it can be verified at any time. This is also aimed at how the declarant should maintain responsibility and honesty when placing the pen to declare ownership.

However, speaking is random but does not mean absolute. Random here is still based on plans. For example, this year, the Central Anti-Corruption Steering Committee determines that certain areas with many errors and corruption will have directions to strengthen the inspection and supervision of cadres and public servants who work in this field. .

Each year, the Government Inspection will have guidance for the formulation of the verification plan and the ministries, branches and localities above have the department to build and implement.

We are currently very determined to select 20% of the agencies under our control annually. For example, the government inspector has 20 focal points, each year 20% are verified, which means that around 4 agencies are identified as “with many problems”.

In each agency, we can try to verify that 10% of public officials and employees are subject to the annual declaration, for example, if the agency has around 50 people, 5 people can be verified.

In these verified 10%, there must be a definitive head or deputy of the head of that agency, organization or unit. At that time, the lottery was drawn to find out who entered the verification category randomly, not randomly from the beginning.

Waiving a false statement is exempt from discipline

How do the income asset verification results affect the declarant?

The income asset check has the most important purpose of assessing whether the claimant is honest. If the declarant is found to be dishonest, the provisions of the Anti-Corruption Law and the new decree are quite strict, and they can be warned, not reprimanded.

This makes it likely that they will be demoted, demoted, fired, or kicked out. If they are being planned, they will be removed from the plan, they run for candidacy, they will be removed from the list, they are expected to be appointed no more … Now a person is preparing to be appointed. that, without being named again, is a very big problem.

However, the decree also stipulates that if the declarant is found to be dishonest, but actively resigns, they will be considered for a disciplinary exemption. It is not about erasing, but in the fight against corruption, how to be effective. For people currently in leadership positions, quitting is a very heavy job.

Also, I’m talking a lot about the culture of resignation now, so when leaders and managers are dishonest, they don’t have enough reputations to lead others. That shows humanity and values ​​the effectiveness of the fight against corruption, not necessarily just punishment.

How is the history of controlling the property of family members, relatives of officials to avoid being on behalf of the household, hiding the ball?

Currently, the declaration of assets is still limited, as only the ownership of cadres and civil servants can be controlled, which easily leads to the condition of other people.

In this matter, the National Assembly has argued a lot, many opinions also really want to expand the objects of the property of husband and wife, children, parents and relatives.

But legally it is a property right, a human right, a civil right that the adult has the right and responsibility. Furthermore, such provision also exceeds the capacity of the declarant.

For example, if a person claims to have children married, working far away or even abroad, they cannot force their children to disclose assets and income to declare according to the regulations.

However, if the property is named after someone else but there is a relationship of the person involved, it will also be handled. For example, the mansion, although it bears the father’s name, can still be fully managed by the authorities who prove the origin of the son’s money.

In the past, the law defined corrupt property as the property of a corrupt person, which means that when it is named after another person, it cannot be touched. Now, the concept of corrupt assets is the source of the corruption, so there is enough basis to handle even assets that have the names of others.

In the long term, for control to be truly effective, we must expand control to the entire society with fiscal tools, anti-money laundering, limit cash spending …

Thu Hang