Whistleblowers and their relatives will be better protected if the Ministry of Public Security\'s draft decree and report on corruption-related activities is approved.
Under the draft, a witness protection scheme will operate, providing shelter for whistleblowers over their entire lives, including changing their appearance and curriculum vitae, relocating them in safe houses and keeping their homes, work, and place of study confidential.
In order to ensure the personal safety of the informers, they will also be protected in court while giving evidence and while travelling.
Whistleblowers will be offered a new job and assisted in completing essential documents.
Measures to prevent security leaks relating to corruption case witnesses will be undertaken such as prohibiting the recording of judicial hearings which involve witnesses providing evidence. Lawyers will also be compelled to protect the anonymity of witnesses.
The draft, the first Government-level decree on protecting anti-corruption whistleblowers, requires relevant ministries and agencies to ensure the civil rights and economic interests of witnesses.
Under the draft, witness protection programme beneficiaries would be allowed to ask for changes in the protective measures taken.
The draft also regulates that the families of witnesses will also be included in the scheme.
The head of the Anti-corruption Central Steering Committee\'s Southern Task Department, Phan Ba, said although many localities had their own regulations to protect witnesses, many people hesitated to report corrupt practices for fear of revenge.
Special witness protection regulations should be established to encourage people to speak up about cases of corruption, he said.
Lack of information about related regulations and policies also made people waver about giving evidence, he added.
If the decree, part of the national anti-corruption master plan until 2020, was approved, it would create a legal foundation to better protect witnesses and mobilise more people to get involved in the fight against corruption, he said.
Ho Chi Minh City police last year arrested Ngo Quang Truong, director of Hoang Hai Ltd Co in Hoc Mon District for taking out a contract-killing on a man who acted as a witness in his corruption case, according to HCM City\'s Phap Luat (Law) Online Newspaper.
After the victim denounced Truong for corruption to the authorities, the witness was physically intimidated to force him to withdraw his affidavit before being murdered last October.
Truong admitted that he had threatened the victim many times, but had failed so had hired people to murder the victim.
The Central Anti-corruption Steering Committee reported that in the first six months of this year, procedural bodies had uncovered 81 corruption cases, 122 cases were currently going to court and 100 cases related to corruption charges were currently being heard.
Eleven serious corruption cases were heard, including the case involving the top two leaders of the East-West Corridor project management unit as an example.
Huynh Ngoc Sy, director of the project, was sentenced to six years in jail for abuse of power and embezzlement while Le Qua, the project\'s deputy director, received a five-year term for the same charges.
Source: VNS