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Oct 12 2009

Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands support Vietnam to strengthen its inspectorate system

The Embassies of Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands signed the Joint Financing Agreement and their Bilateral Specific Agreements with the Government Inspectorate on behalf of the Government of Vietnam for the funding of the implementation phase in Hanoi on 13 October 2009.

The signing kicked off the implementation phase (2009 - 2013) of Vietnam’s Programme “Strengthening the Comprehensive Capacity of the Inspectorate System”(POSCIS)

The overall purpose of the POSCIS programme is to build an ethical, strong, professional  and modern Inspectorate system, consisting of the Government Inspectorate, specialised inspectorates attached to ministries, and to provinces and cities,  that are fully capable of fulfilling their mandates in inspection, complaint and denunciation settlement and anti-corruption.

The Programme includes a total of 10 sub-projects with selected ministries and provinces and while each of the projects has its own specific focus, they all aim at strengthening the capacity to prevent, detect and investigate corruption cases.

At the request of the Vietnamese Government for support from a group of Development Partners, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands have decided to fund the implementation phase of the programme. The support aims to help Vietnam address some of the key challenges the country  is facing today: a widespread corruption and an in-effective public administration, which have serious negative impacts both on the economic development of the country and on the everyday life of the poor and the vulnerable groups in the society.

Out of the total budget of the programme of USD 13.2 m, Sweden has committed to fund SEK 58 million (USD 8.24 m); Denmark will contribute USD 2.59 m and the Netherlands – USD 1 m. Contribution from the Government of Vietnam is approximately USD 1.4 m.

Sweden, as the lead donor, together with Denmark and the Netherlands are proud to finance to the implementation of the programme.  We believe that the Programme will improve the governance structures of the inspectorate system, strengthen institutional capacity by building democratic institutions and processes, contribute to the Government’s anti-corruption efforts, promote public administration reforms and a greater transparency and the rule of law. It is the expectation that the Government of Vietnam will use this support to strengthen its own efforts to combat corruption. Donor partners can engage in policy dialogue and provide financial and technical assistance, but corruption can only be fought if the Government of Vietnam shows a firm commitment and encourages government staff, the business community and civil society to address corruption in all its kinds whenever it appears.

The Ambassador of Sweden, Mr Rolf Bergman stressed: “A transparent, efficient and corruption free public administration is needed to achieve the targets of poverty reduction set by the Vietnamese government. An inefficient public administration and in particular in a system that is subject to corruption, is a very serious obstacle to development and poverty reduction. Corruption affects all people and in particular the poor and vulnerable”.

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