Minister of Public Security, Senior Lieutenant-General, Tran Dai Quang was featured on the weekly live show “People ask, ministers answer”, which aired on Vietnam Television on October 21 and answered questions on various hot issues.

 Minister of Public Security, Senior Lieutenant-General, Tran Dai Quang

White-collar crimes

Since early 2012, police have discovered 891 corruption cases involving 1,936 individuals. Compared to 2011, the number of cases was up by 583 and the people caught has doubled. Prosecution of cases has gone up by 24.7% and the number of people prosecuted increased by 26% to 693.

The Ministry of Public Security is still investigating corruption cases involving Vietnam Ship Building Group (Vinashin) affiliates such as the CAS Container Corporation in Hai Duong Province. There is also an ongoing investigation into scandals at Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines).

Speaking about Nguyen Duc Kien, who was arrested for serious banking misconducts and Duong Chi Dung, former Chairman of State-owned firm Vinalines, who was arrested on corruption charges after fleeing, Quang said that the police are investigating every lead to bring all those who co-operated in the cases to justice.

"Our goal is to hold everyone who was responsible to account as quickly as possible and bring closure to the matter," he said.

He also mentioned other prominent corruption cases such as Petrolvienam Construction JSC, Dong Phuong Knitting Company, saying that they are being handled expediently.

Police bribes

"The information we received both from the public and the media made it easier for us to act quickly," Quang said.

A number of officers were fired, prosecuted or deprived of their military status. Police chiefs were also held accountable for the actions of those under their command. He said that part of the problem is the low salary of officers, and this issue must be solved in order to correct the problem.

"Traffic police are under a lot of pressure, socially and career-wise. We need to take a wider policy approach to tackle the problem. To prevent bribe solicitation we will not only have to raise their pay, but increase the social status of our officers. There are plans under way to monitor the behavior of police officers," he added.

The number of young offenders on the rise

According to the statistics, 9,904 out of 122,277 prosecuted arrestees were under the age of 18, a jump of 7.4% from 2011. Many of them prompted public outrage because of the violence involved, including a number of murder cases.

Quang attributed this to declining family values, saying, "Many young people today don't have proper upbringing and are becoming increasingly materialistic and even hedonists."

The solution for this, he said, is better co-operation between schools and families.

However, he did not fail to mention some of the economic issues underlying the increase in such crimes, saying that when times are tough and jobs are difficult to find, people become desperate enough to take criminal action.