Binh Duong tops fight against public corruption: annual survey

The Ho Chi Minh City’s neighbor got 8.15 points on a 10-point scale in the 2021 Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) released on Tuesday, the only one of the country’s 63 cities and provinces to top 8.

The corruption control metric measures the performance of public institutions and local governments in tackling corruption, willingness to curb corruption by local governments and citizens, and the level of tolerance among citizens for corrupt practices.

It comprises four aspects: limits on corruption in local governments, limits on corruption in public service delivery, equity in state employment and willingness to fight corruption.

Binh Duong is followed by the central provinces of Thanh Hoa and Thua Thien Hue with 7.81 and 7.77 points.

The northern Dien Bien Province was at the bottom with 5.42 points.

The five centrally run cities, Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang, HCMC, and Can Tho scored 7.08, 7.42, 6.78, 6.33, and 6.77 respectively.

According to the PAPI report, bribes for employment in the public sector remain common in both poor and wealthy provinces while personal relationships remain “important” and “very important” to get a job in five surveyed public offices at the commune level, even in top performers like Binh Duong and Thanh Hoa.

The rate of bribes paid to obtain land use rights certificates ranged from 40 percent to 90 percent in more than two-thirds of all provinces, and the problem was most serious in poorer provinces like Cao Bang, Dak Lak and Soc Trang.

At district public hospitals, 40-80 percent of people in more than two-thirds of all provinces had to pay a bribe to get healthcare services, it said.

The 2021 PAPI surveyed 16,000 respondents.

The study is done annually by the Center for Community Support Development Studies belonging to the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations and the UNDP.