Hanoi (VNA) - International anti-corruption experts on December 9 shared their experience with Vietnamese partners while gathering at a dialogue in Hanoi to discuss the enforcement of the anti-corruption law.
It was appropriate that this dialogue took place on the anniversary of International Anti-Corruption Day, which was marked globally on December 9.
This official UN-observed day called for stronger measures to curb corruption and uses the tag line "Break the Corruption Chain".
At the dialogue, international experience was presented suggesting that strict codes of conduct might be in place as a key priority.
"The anti-corruption law needs to contain effective mechanisms for prevention, detection and reporting of corruption, including incentives for officials, citizens and businesses to report corrupt behaviour," said Bakhodir Burkhanov, Deputy Country Director, UNDP Vietnam.
The UNDP official said protecting the media's rights to breaking and covering corruption stories was equally important and engaging communities was especially key to breaking the corruption chain.
"Anti-corruption is everyone's concern and can no longer be seen as a monopoly of the Government. Citizens and businesses have a part to play in fostering a culture of integrity, transparency and accountability," he said.
Taking the policy discussion forwards, UNDP hosted a thematic discussion on how anti-corruption and governance-informed development could help create a more equitable society in Vietnam through the evidence-based approach to policy research.
Jairo Acuna-Alfaro, Policy Advisor, UNDP New York represented two rigorous and pioneering policy papers at the dialogue saying that they had found interesting and useful evidence to advance the intention to substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all its forms.
The UNDP expert said the first paper entitled ‘Local governance, corruption, and public service quality: Evidence from a national survey in Vietnam' asks how corruption affects quality of healthcare and primary education. And how transparency, accountability, and citizen participation helps reduce corruption. The research results reject the idea that, in the absence of efficient institutions and administrative systems, corruption may facilitate development.-VNA
