Corruption in Vietnam
Corruption in Vietnam is pervasive and widespread, due to weak legal infrastructure, financial unpredictability, and conflicting and negative bureaucratic decision-making. Surveys reveal that while petty corruption has decreased slightly throughout the country, high-level corruption has significantly increased as a means of abuse of political power. Corruption is a very significant problem in Vietnam, impacting all aspects of administration, education and law enforcement.
Vietnam is an authoritarian one-party state under the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). The party claims that corruption has moved up the political agenda in the country, and the legal framework for tackling corruption has become "better developed". However, political academics have cited that such efforts are likely a cover for a political purge between factions of the party.
Vietnam also scores one of the highest rates in terms of bribery practices – the rate citizens have paid a bribe to key public institutions over the past 12 months, at 65%, is second only to India with 69%. Corruption is considered an obstacle for doing business in Vietnam, and the use of facilitation payments are widespread when dealing with frontline civil servants in all levels of society.
Ranking
Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, which scored 180 countries on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"), gave Vietnam a score of 42. When ranked by score, Vietnam ranked 77th among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the worst score was 12 (ranked 180), and the average score was 43. For comparison with regional scores, the highest score among Asia Pacific countries was 87, the lowest score was 17 and the average score was 45.
Pervasiveness of corruption in Vietnam
Vietnam is a developing country of about 96 million people. Due to the international view of corruption in Vietnam, in 2020, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam stands at only US$28.5 billion, far below its ASEAN neighbours.
Anti-corruption efforts
The Vietnamese government has claimed that it has taken efforts to combat corruption, although its effects remain to be seen.
Officials implicated by the anti-corruption campaigns in Vietnam
- Đinh La Thăng: former Minister of Transport, former Communist Party Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City, and former member of the Politburo.
- Nguyễn Đức Chung: former Major General of the Vietnam People's Public Security and Vietnamese politician. He is a former Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee.
- Nguyễn Thanh Long: Minister of Health from July 2020 to his removal from the Communist Party of Vietnam in June 2022 for involvement in the Việt Á corruption scandal.
- Trịnh Xuân Thanh: Former Vietnamese politician and businessman. He is the former head of the state-owned Petrovietnam Construction Joint Stock Corporation (a subsidiary of Petrovietnam) and the former Deputy-Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee of Hậu Giang.
- Nguyễn Xuân Phúc: Former President of Vietnam implacated in the Việt Á scandal. Resigned on January 23, 2023
- Dương Bá Thanh Dân: Director of the Department of Medical Supplies at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, in the Southeastern Province of Ninh Thuan, and his employee Nguyễn Đăng Đức.
- Đào Hữu Long: Director of Thua Thien Hue Provincial Registration Center.
- Tô Anh Dũng: Former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs due to allegedly receiving bribes up to add companies to a list of providers of repatriation flights.