HANOI, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's anti-corruption fight has only met half of the government's expectations, according to a new anti-corruption assessment index.
The Provincial Anti-Corruption Assessment (PACA) issued by the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam (GIV)'s Anti-Corruption Bureau showed that the national average index reached 58.11 points out of 100 points, reported local VNExpress online newspaper on Friday.
"It indicates that the distance still left to meet the anti-corruption objectives set by the party and government," said Pham Trong Dat, the bureau chief, at a launch in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.
PACA is a pilot anti-corruption index developed by the GIV in coordination with South Korea's Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, and funded by the United Nations Development Program.
The index was first initiated in 2016 in all 63 localities nationwide, asking municipal people's committees to self-score with documents and evidence to prove their achievements in multiple criteria relevant to anti-corruption work. Their performances were also scored independently by the GIV.
However, the PACA Index 2016 was not made public "as it is a pilot program and yet to earn consensus between all localities," said GIV Deputy General Inspector Nguyen Van Thanh, promising that PACA 2017 will be published in full.
In addition, some criteria in the PACA Index demonstrate ineffectiveness in preventing corruption. For example, gift offering gained the worst score but the country failed to detect a single violation via inspection.
"The implementation of the measure is not strict and it is very difficult to manage as it also relies on self-discipline and ethics of public servants," Dat said.
