Hanoi, together with Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Dong Thap, and Ho Chi Minh City, was one of the five provinces and cities with the highest scores in handling corruption in 2018, Kinhtedothi.vn cited the Vietnamese Government Inspectorate’s report on April 21.

This is the third time in a row that the Government Inspectorate has reported similar assessments which were conducted from December 16, 2017 to December 15, 2018.

Illustrative photo

Among the five provinces with the highest scores, Nam Dinh and Thai Binh have been consistently in the leading positions over the past three years, achieving scores of more than 80%. Next up are Dong Thap, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

These localities have shown improvement in their determination to handle corruption offenses as the total points of administrative and criminal sanctions, and asset recovery increased steadily (Dong Thap rose by 120%, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City increased by more than 140%, compared to 2016).

The report also shows that the anti-corruption work at the provincial level only reaches approximately 60% of requirements and the national average score is 59.575/100. The province with the highest score is Nam Dinh (80.37 points) and Ninh Thuan had the lowest one (32.16 points), indicating a big gap between the leader and the lowest ranked in the classification.

In 2018, in addition to the best performing provinces in terms of inspection work, many others still failed to issue inspection plans before the deadline stipulated in the regulations, to detect offenses, and make no legal recommendations after inspections.

In 2018, 56 administrative leaders were punished for irresponsibility leading to corruption. Among them, five people were prosecuted for criminal offenses, 45 disciplined, and six people are under disciplinary procedures.

The punishments have had a deterrent effect, thereby promoting the role and responsibilities of heads of agencies and organizations in the fight against corruption, said the Government Inspectorate.