Vietnam will establish a central anti- corruption steering committee, which can have the rights to suspend deputy ministers and equivalent posts if they have signs of law violation, the country's top legislator said.

Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong was quoted by local newspaper Youth on Wednesday as saying that the committee, to be led by the prime minister, can suspend the posts without having to ask for recommendations from authorized agencies first.

Currently, when dealing with higher posts, the committee has to ask for instructions from authorized agencies under regulations of the statue of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the country's laws, he said.

Vietnam is considering approving the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in the coming time, chief government inspector Tran Van Truyen was quoted by the newspaper. The country's Government Inspectorate will submit a plan on the issue to the government soon.

According to government statistics in June 2005, there were 176, 534 economic crimes between 1993 and 2004, including 9,960 cases of corruption.

The amount of money found in each corruption case during the 1990s averaged 710 million Vietnamese dong (VND) (nearly 44,700 U. S. dollars), but increased to 810 million VND (50,900 dollars) in the 2000-2004 period.

Source: Xinhua