It is necessary to encourage people with positions and powers to return gifts that are not in accordance with regulations
Recently, according to the Government’s Anti-corruption Results Report, in 2022, there were 7 cases of returning gifts, totaling 135 million VND (Da Nang 5 cases, 131.1 million VND; Tea). Vinh 2 cases, 4.2 million VND). Public opinion believes that this number is too small and does not fully reflect the nature of the illegal gift-receiving that has occurred in recent years.
For example, a corruption case with a “kickback” amount of up to hundreds of billions of dong like the Viet A case, but those with positions and powers who received illegal gifts did not confess and return them. for handling, only when prosecuted, will the amount of “kickbacks” be discovered and confiscated for handling according to regulations.
Gift giving and return of gifts are specified in Article 22 of the Law on Anti-corruption 2018, guided in Section II, Chapter IV of Decree No. 59/2019/ND-CP dated July 1st/ 2019 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Anti-corruption. Accordingly, agencies, organizations, units and persons with positions and powers must not directly or indirectly receive gifts in any form from agencies, organizations, units and individuals related to the public sector. matters that are handled by themselves or under their management, specifically: When receiving an illegal gift, an agency, organization or unit must refuse it; In case of failure to refuse, the gift must be returned to the department responsible for gift management of that agency or unit for handling according to regulations. Persons with positions and powers, when receiving gifts in contravention of regulations, must refuse them; in case they cannot refuse, they must report to the head of their agency, organization or unit or the head of their immediate superior agency, organization or unit and return the gift for handling according to regulations.
However, nowadays the giving and receiving of gifts is very diverse, deforming in many different forms such as combining giving and receiving gifts on holidays, Tet, birthdays, weddings, housewarming, etc. … in order to evade the provisions of the law on anti-corruption. The object of gift giving is to get help and often take advantage of existing relationships or ask others to contact, lead, get acquainted and establish a relationship with a person with a position, authority or relative of that person. understand their needs, then meet that need by giving gifts that match their aspirations such as giving houses, cars, studying abroad for people with positions and powers, .. .
Therefore, in some cases, it is difficult for people with positions and powers to refuse to receive gifts; in return, a person who has the position and authority to handle work within his/her functions and duties to benefit the object who has given the gift as arranged to win a construction project bid or win an auction to exploit mineral; to be given priority to sign contracts to provide equipment and services to state agencies;… This is a fairly common corruption practice that requires effective solutions to prevent it.
Besides, many people with positions and powers, when receiving gifts in contravention of regulations, request the subjects who gave the gifts to receive them back; in case, the person who gave the gift does not receive it back but the person holding the position and authority still refuses to report to the head of his agency, organization or unit or the head of the immediate superior agency, organization or unit for further processing according to regulations (this is quite common); The reason for not reporting and returning the gift may be fear of public discovery, making noise, affecting agencies, units and individuals of the person with position, authority and the object who gave the gift. donate.
So, people with positions and powers usually get rich very quickly because they take advantage of their positions and powers for personal gain. Many corruption and negative cases were discovered, all of which declared huge amounts of money to “kickback” as expensive gifts given to people with positions and powers. Many illegal gifts have been confiscated to the state fund, but there are also gifts that are difficult to detect or detect but cannot be recovered due to lack of evidence and the fact that relevant parties do not acknowledge or hold positions of authority. , the authority has dispersed the property.
Receiving gifts in contravention of regulations is a prohibited act, so in order not to be handled, those with positions and powers when receiving gifts that are not in accordance with regulations must refuse, and at the same time, report them. and return the gift to the competent agency or person to handle the gift in accordance with regulations.
In order for people with positions and powers to voluntarily and honestly report and return gifts, it is necessary to have a mechanism to monitor and encourage those with positions and powers to return gifts. Accordingly, the person who returns the gift needs to be commended, rewarded and enjoy the percentage of the gift after reporting and returning the gift improperly. At the same time, for such cadres, there should also be attention in training, retraining, planning and prioritizing placement in higher positions to further promote their roles and responsibilities in their work. anti-corruption. In addition, the person who has given gifts in contravention of regulations must also be subject to legal sanctions such as administrative sanctions or criminal prosecution (if any).
According to: Vietnam Lawyers Electronic Magazine
