Gifts at Tet and other special occasions are being used to mask bribes, and authorities need to take earnest steps to curb corruption, experts say.

Tet gifts on display 

Associate Professor Dang Ngoc Dinh, of the Centre for Community Support Development Studies, said excessive gifts on special occasions, such as Tet, and at weddings and funerals, are becoming symptomatic of the complicated corruption situation in Vietnam.

The government inspectorate recently launched a hotline for reporting cases of bribery and corruption during Tet.

Dinh said that while such a measure was welcome, it would not necessarily be effective because a bribe could easily be passed off as a legitimate gift.

"Only the givers and receivers would know," he said. "But we can generally understand that normal gifts are more symbolic while bribes would be more expensive. When corruption can't be curbed, people will continue giving bribes during special occasions."

Dinh said that while a gift might not be cash, the gift given was often chosen so it could easily be converted into money.

Historian Le Van Lan and economist Ngo Tri Long said the custom to give gifts during Tet has been corrupted.

Long said the government should direct agencies and officials to refuse gifts, but the practice is so commonplace and reaches down to the lowest levels of society that the opportunity for corruption can only grow worse.

Lan said, "Don't let this custom become a burden for many people, especially poor people."

Huynh Phong Tranh, the chief of the Government Inspectorate, said corporate sector corruption remains a serious and complex problem, especially in finance and banking, land and natural resources management and exploitation, and public investment.

The Corruption Perceptions Index 2014, released by Transparency International, showed that Vietnam ranked 119 out of 175 countries. Vietnam’s CPI score has remained unchanged for three years.

In 2014, Vietnam stepped up its fight against corruption, prosecuting a number of corporate entities for corruption, with several high-profile trials leading to death sentences, as in the case of former Vinalines chairman Duong Chi Dung, who was convicted of buying an outdated floating dock, causing a loss of VND700bn to the state.