VIETNAM, January 12 -  

HÀ NỘI — A total of 539 Party members were disciplined in 2022 for corruption and wrongdoings, a meeting of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-corruption was told on Thursday.

Chaired by Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng, head of the committee, the meeting's aim was to review anti-corruption performance in 2022, especially outcomes of handling corruption cases under the committee’s management as well as mapping out plans for 2023.

The meeting was told that last year, 47 officials under the management of the Politburo and the Secretariat received disciplinary measures, 15 more than in 2021.

Five members of the 13th-tenure Central Party Committee were relieved of their positions.

Two deputy prime ministers were also removed from their position.

Anti-corruption work in 2022 achieved positive results. In total, 1,123 defendants and 493 cases were prosecuted for corruption.

The Central Steering Committee on Anti-corruption established eight inspection teams. Through audits, more than VNĐ82.5 trillion and 883 hectares of land were retrieved. 3,530 collectives and 8,619 individuals received administrative fines.

Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng said the fight against corruption has been ongoing more extensively and intensively with the number of discovered cases increasing in almost all sectors.

He urged the committee to continue to strengthen cooperation and build more mechanisms and policies to avoid group corruption and group interests.

The committee will accelerate the inspection and prosecution of 10 key cases including the case in connection with the COVID-19 test kit overcharging scandal at Việt Á Technologies JSC, and rescue flight cases linked to the Consular Department, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The committee has decided to put the bribery case reported at the Vietnam Registry Department and a number of local registration centres under special scrutiny in 2023. — VNS