Son Nguyen
What captures strong public attention is perhaps an article on Nguoi Cao Tuoi newspaper weeks ago, which reveals huge assets including a mansion of Tran Van Truyen, former chief of the Government’s Inspectorate. The public attention is then cannoned to Truyen’s unexplainable acts when within the final six months of his tenure he signed decisions offering high positions for 60 officials in the Inspectorate.
Kim Quoc Hoa, editor-in-chief of Nguoi Cao Tuoi, pinpoints numerous acts he deems as irregularities committed by the former Inspector General. On a single day of August 3, 2011, Truyen signed 22 appointment decisions, says the journalist, adding there is a very good reason for the high-ranking official to make such haste.
“According to the National Assembly’s agenda at the time, the law-making body on August 3, 2011 approved the list of Cabinet members submitted by the Prime Minister. In the list, Huynh Phong Tranh is named head of the Government’s Inspectorate, replacing Tran Van Truyen. And (hours before the end of his term) Truyen signed many decisions on appointments,” says the chief editor.
Under prevailing regulations, the number of deputy chiefs in each department of ministries or equivalent agencies must not exceed three, but several departments under the Government’s Inspectorate had bigger numbers, according to Tuoi Tre. Specifically, both the Inspectorate Office and the Economic Inspection Department had six vice managers each, while the Bureau for Settlement of Accusations and Denunciations for Zone 1 had seven vice chiefs, says the paper.
“By no means should hasty, serial appointments be made in the 89th or even 90th minute,” says Vu Pham Quyet Thang, former deputy head of the Government’s Inspectorate, in Tuoi Tre, using technical soccer terms. The motive behind such a hasty behavior can be understood to some extent, he comments.
Seconding the opinion, Diep Van Son, a former official of the Ministry of Home Affairs, says in Mot The Gioi that “frankly speaking, there is a problem behind so many promotions.” Son remarks that in such cases, “negative elements are inevitable.”
The syndrome is not limited to the former head of the Government’s Inspectorate alone, as local media also mentions several other recent cases.
Nguyen Thanh Rum, former director of the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, also signed numerous similar decisions in the final two weeks of his tenure, according to Phap Luat. Within two weeks before his retirement due on March 1, 2014, Rum signed decisions picking 19 officials for senior positions, which is said to be abnormal by a leader of the HCMC government. In the wake of the strange behavior, the city government has asked the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to postpone the handover of such appointment decisions, but in reality, these appointees have assumed their new posts.
In another case covered by Nguoi Lao Dong, Nguyen Van Hoa, former head of Binh Dinh Province’s Market Monitoring Bureau, had signed 29 appointment decisions within only two months before his retirement early this year. It is noteworthy that most of the appointment decisions violated prevailing regulations, with a person earlier convicted of smuggling now being tasked with fighting smuggling, says the newspaper.
There are not any good reasons for the hasty appointments by State officials before the end of their tenures, except for some clumsy excuses taken by some.
In Tuoi Tre, a senior official of the Government’s Inspectorate says it could be that the former general inspector aware of his retirement tried to do a favor for his subordinates. Or in Nguoi Lao Dong, when asked why a driver was appointed vice office manager of Thanh Hoa Province’s Nong Cong District’s Party Division, the top leader there admits that “we clearly understand the wrong decision, but he (the driver) would be retiring soon, so we would like to do him a favor.”
The public, however, sees all such hasty promotions or appointments as good food for thought, and most rumors point to possible corruption.
It is high time for the country’s top leaders to scrutinize the final-day syndrome; otherwise public confidence in the integrity of the State machinery may be eroded. “Responsible agencies cannot remain silent, but must step in to make it black or while,” says Tuoi Tre.
The Saigon Times Daily
Đăng ký: VietNam News
