Vietnam police banned from carrying cash in anti-corruption move

Dec 8, 2011, 6:14 GMT

Hanoi - Traffic police in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City have been banned from carrying more than the equivalent of around 5 dollars in cash, in an effort to fight bribery, officials said Thursday.

The city's police chiefs have forbidden officers on traffic duty from having more than 100,000 dong (4.7 dollars) on their person.

Any sum exceeding the limit must be in a sealed envelope and have prior official approval, Colonel Le Minh Chau, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department, was quoted as saying by Vietnam Net newspaper.

Hanoi has called on all local forces to crack down on bribery, which has attracted growing media attention and public criticism this year.

Ho Chi Minh City officers caught violating the new rules will face punishments ranging from a verbal reprimand to dismissal, Chau said.

Nguyen Van Tuyen, director of the national Road and Railway Police Department, said the new regulations were 'very easy to put in to practice,' and the limit was 'enough for a meal and coffee.'

A bowl of pho, or noodle soup, typically costs around 30,000 dong, a coffee around 15,000.

With the new regulations, officers would no longer be able to pass off bribe money as their own, making it easier to investigate allegations of corruption, he said.

A policeman on traffic duty Thursday said he did not support the move. 'We are also ordinary citizens, and we need money for daily expenses,' the officer told dpa, requesting anonymity.

'If they strip-search us, it makes us feel like criminals,' he said. 'I think it violates my human rights.'

Some civilian observers were not convinced the move would work.

'These regulations are very strange,' said Vo Van Sen, director of the city's University of Social Sciences and Humanities. 'Are we to think the police department has no other way to control their officers?'

The officers might need more money for legitimate expenses such as vehicle repair, he said.

Nguyen Thu Nga, an office worker in Hanoi, asked 'how can Ho Chi Minh City police check their officers every day?'

'Let's see how many are actually caught with more than 100,000 dong in their pockets,' she said. 'Nothing will change. Corruption is systematic in Vietnam.'