Vietnam's National Assembly, the country's top legislature, on Monday approved a draft resolution on organization and operation of a central anti-corruption steering committee which has the rights to suspend corrupt deputy prime ministers, Vietnam News Agency reported.

Under the resolution approved by the National Assembly's Standing Committee, the steering committee, led by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, has the rights to propose authorized organizations and individuals suspend corrupt deputy prime ministers, ministers or equivalent posts, and directors and vice directors of commissions under the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee.

The steering committee's head, the prime minister, has the rights to suspend corrupt deputy ministers, and chairpersons and deputy chairpersons of People's Committees of cities and provinces.

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