Facts
In fact, when the country’s economy began facing problems in the late 1990s, Viet Nam’s government seemed to actually become even more inefficiently. As any Vietnamese business owner or even knowledgeable tourist can tell you, nothing gets down unless you offer some government bureaucrat a bribe. For many of us, that happens the moment you arrive in Saigon’s airport. You want to sail through customs nice and easy? Then slip a $5 bill in your passport as you give it to the airport official who stamps it. You want to keep your karaoke business free from police harassment? Make sure to get your monthly bribes in on time. The corruption that happens in the lower levels of the government is due to the corruption that happens in the high levels of government. If a police man is taking bribes that means that it is ok with his boss as long as he gets part of the money. When they actually detect the corruption it is only in the lower levels of government. For instance; the high levels only detected corruption in lower levels. Provinces detected corruption in districts; districts did the same with communes. No one said they had found corruption in their own organization.
Vietnam government detects 584 corruption cases in 2008 with involvement of nearly 1,300 people, which caused total losses of over 865 billion VND (roughly 54.1 million USD). Most of the cases were detected though denouncements, inspection, auditing, and information provided by press agencies and people.
