Jairo emphasised the necessity to intensify the autonomy of anti-corruption agencies 

Jairo Acuña-Alfaro, Policy Advisor at the UNDP Vietnam's Public Administration Reform and Anti-Corruption team, said that it was important to ensure the independence and autonomy of the anti-corruption agency.

According to him, the amendment to the country’s constitution offered a good chance to foster more effective implementation of the Law on Anti-corruption.

“Putting the central steering committee for anti-corruption under the management of the politburo and moving the committee’s office to the Central Committee of Internal Affairs is a positive move to intensify the independence of corruption control institutions,” he emphasised.

He said that in order to enhance to role of the agency it was important to strengthen its independence as well as clarify the investigative functions of the anti-corruption agency.

“Concerning this issue, Vietnam should study the Jakarta Principles for Anti-Corruption Agencies,” he suggested.

Being an active member of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the country should carefully study the agency’s regulations on anti-corruption agencies. UNCAC stipulates that anti-corruption agencies are empowered with necessary independence to fulfil its tasks effectively without interference.

He recommended applying a mechanism to appoint leaders of anti-corruption agencies for particular terms so as to separate the posts from the influence of government leaders.

“Those who lead anti-corruption agencies should undergo an initial recruitment process. Any decisions to appoint or dismiss such posts must receive approval from the National Assembly’s working committee for senior human resources,” he noted.

He emphasised the need to intensify the body’s independence in order to strengthen law enforcement.

“Current measures to deal with corruption are ineffective due to inefficient enforcement, in addition to their weak investigative competence” he commented.

In addition, complicated bureaucracy has caused a lot of difficulties to anti-corruption agencies during their investigations, he added.