Strengthening the declaration and verification of assets and income of officials

Implementing the 2018 Law on Anti-Corruption and Decree No. 130/2020/ND-CP of the Government on verifying assets and income of officials and people with positions and powers in agencies, organizations and units, in recent times, ministries, branches and localities have effectively organized implementation.

The Ministry of Finance has organized a lottery to select officials to verify assets and income in 2022. Next are the General Department of Taxation, Da Nang, Government Inspectorate...

In the province, Hai Duong City is the first locality to implement random drawing to verify the assets of officials and civil servants in 2022. The Inspection Committee of the Hai Duong City Party Committee has verified the assets and income of 8 officials in 8 units. 7 people have declared their assets and basic income in accordance with regulations; in 1 case, the Inspection Committee of the City Party Committee decided to switch to inspection when there were signs of violations and disciplined them in the form of reprimand.

According to the report of the National Assembly Standing Committee on anti-corruption work in 2022, the Government said that nationwide, more than 540,000 people declared their assets and incomes, which were verified according to the instructions of random drawing. In 2022, 19 leaders were disciplined for lack of responsibility for corruption. Of these, 10 were criminally prosecuted, 1 was dismissed, 5 were warned, 3 were reprimanded, and 7 cases returned gifts to the unit.

The above situation shows that the verification of asset and income declarations for officials in positions of authority, especially those in leadership positions, must be strictly implemented to prevent corruption and negativity, and also promptly handle corruption cases discovered through asset declaration and verification. However, in the process of carrying out this task, a question arises: Why don't officials voluntarily declare to be verified, but instead have to draw lots? With the spirit of party members, key officials can set an example, voluntarily check, as a way to confirm their honesty, instead of passively waiting for the lucky draw to call their name!

Decree No. 130/2020/ND-CP of the Government stipulates the approval and implementation of the annual asset and income verification plan for at least 20% of the agencies, organizations and units under the control of the province or city. The people who need to be verified are randomly and publicly selected by drawing lots or using computer software. The number of randomly selected people must ensure at least 10% of the people required to make annual declarations at each agency, organization or unit, including at least 1 head or deputy head of the agency, organization or unit.

According to Decree No. 130/2020/ND-CP, before January 31 of each year, the head of the asset and income control agency shall approve the content of the verification plan; the Provincial Chief Inspector shall issue the annual verification implementation after submitting the content to the Provincial People's Committee Chairman for approval. The plan must ensure 20% of the agencies, organizations and units under its control authority. Particularly, the Ministries of Public Security, National Defense and Foreign Affairs must ensure at least 10%.

Thus, the time to plan and approve the plan to declare assets and income of the declared subjects is very urgent. The year-end work has just summarized the work of the old year and deployed the work of the new year, many and urgent. However, with a high sense of responsibility, overcoming difficulties, reviewing the implementation of Decree No. 130/2020/ND-CP of the Government to propose tasks for the coming time, it is necessary to have specific plans and measures to do well the declaration and verification of assets of officials, actively contributing to the fight against corruption with high results.

HOANG VU(Hai Duong City)