Positive results from the prevention of corruption in the Finance sector

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All units of the Ministry of Finance have developed and strictly implemented the code of conduct. Photo: Quang Hung.

Publicity and transparency are prerequisites

The Ministry of Finance continues to fully implement regulations on publicity and transparency from legal documents to each cadre, civil servant and officer; public hotlines and email boxes are available to receive feedback from people and businesses; and organize recruitment examinations strictly according to regulations.

The formulation, promulgation and implementation of regimes, norms and standards from management of state budget use, management of procurement and use of public assets, basic construction investment activities, internal expenditures are made regularly to prevent and combat corruption in financial and budgetary management and intra-sector management.

Agencies, organizations and units under the Ministry of Finance have all developed and strictly implemented the codes of conduct and professional ethics in order to help officials and public employees strictly abide by the provisions of law when performing tasks and preventing corruption. In the first nine months of 2019, the agencies and organizations of the Ministry of Finance have inspected the implementation of the code of conduct of officials and public servants at 332 units.

The inspection results have contributed to detecting and rectifying administrative discipline and improving public service ethics of officials and civil servants. Most officials and public servants of the Finance sector seriously abide by the codes of conduct and professional ethical rules in the performance of official duties, without authoritarian, authoritative or troubling attitudes to organizations, related individuals and businesses.

A solution that has been implemented by the Ministry of Finance for a long time and still works is to rotate, change positions and mobilize officials. Since the beginning of the year , across the whole sector, the Ministry of Finance's units have rotated positions and mobilized 11,575 civil servants, of which General Department of Taxation did it 8,350 times; General Department of Customs 1,734 times; and the State Treasury 1,334 times. This will avoid officials working in sensitive positions for too long, making them prone to corruption.

The transparency of assets and income is strictly implemented. The units of the Ministry of Finance have implemented the declaration of assets and income in 2018 in accordance with regulations. The total number of people who declared their assets and income in 2018 was 59,673 out of 59,743; accounting for 99.88 percent of the total number required (70 people who have not declared gave reason, including maternity leave, long-term sick leave, studying abroad and public seconded work). The number of public declarations is 59,673 copies; 100 percent compared with the number of declarations. After the declarations were made public, the units assigned officers to monitor and receive feedback for processing according to regulations.

Active reform and modernization

In recent years, the Ministry of Finance has focused on another effective solution to fight corruption as modernization reform. Over the past nine months, this work has been actively implemented.

In the first nine months of 2019, the Ministry of Finance removed 49 administrative procedures; amended and supplemented 15 administrative procedures and issued 33 administrative procedures in the fields of tax, customs, securities, public assets, banking and insurance with the aim to unify, synchronize and simplify administrative procedures, research how to solve administrative procedures, as well as enhance the application of information technology.

At the beginning of 2019, the Ministry of Finance started to implement the project of establishing the department of receiving and returning administrative procedure settlement through the single window mechanism at the Ministry of Finance to ensure the reception for individuals and organizations simply and quickly, creating a transparent and effective mechanism, reducing costs and time for individuals and organizations to implement administrative procedures. After 8 months of implementation, the total number of dossiers received and returned results at the OSS Section of the Ministry of Finance is 232; the number of files in progress is 143, while no records are overdue.

In terms of modernization, the information technology systems of the whole industry are operating well, creating great advantages for the industry's officials and the people and businesses.

Document management software is not only applied in internal document circulation of Finance but also connected to 31 ministries, ministerial agencies and 63 People's Committees of provinces. The Ministry of Finance's online public service system is providing 977 procedures.

The online tax declaration system, electronic tax payment service and electronic tax refund service have been expanded with nearly 100 percent of enterprises operating regularly. The establishment and pilot implementation of an electronic invoicing system has attracted 255 participating businesses with 825,078 validated invoices in the past nine months.

Customs has presided over the connection of the National Single Window with 13 ministries, participating sectors and 174 procedures. The total number of administrative records processed on the National Single Window portal is approximately 2.34 million sets of records and over 31,800 participating businesses. Continuing to expand electronic payment, the result of electronic payment with 40 banks coordinated with the collection of taxes from this method accounted for 93.71 percent of the total budget revenue of the General Department of Customs.

Centralized electronic information portal (E-portal), automatic customs management system at ports, warehouses and yards (VASSCM); and the system of online public services are being regularly updated and expanded.

The State Treasury system has made electronic payments to banks, ensuring the payment for transaction units is fast, accurate, safe and convenient. At the same time, gradually focusing the central budget on funds, improving the liquidity of the entire Treasury system; continue to maintain Interbank Payment systems, Centralized Management System of collection and stability, smooth management; implementing the next steps on budget management reform towards safety and efficiency; and combating corruption; deploying pilot of new version of online public services.

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These systems have contributed to minimizing the time and the rate of direct contact between the officers, tax collectors and people and businesses. Therefore, operational transparency is improved and corruption is effectively prevented.