Corruption in Vietnam is pervasive and widespread, due to weak legal infrastructure, financial unpredictability, and conflicting and negative bureaucratic decision-making. Surveys from 2015 revealed that while petty corruption decreased slightly throughout the country, high-level corruption significantly increased as a means of abuse of political power in Vietnam.[1] Corruption is a very significant problem in Vietnam, impacting all aspects of administration, education and law enforcement.
Vietnam is an authoritarian one-party state under the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). In 2015, the party claimed that corruption had moved up the political agenda, and the legal framework for tackling corruption had become "better developed". However, political academics have cited that such efforts are likely a cover for a political purge between factions of the party.[1]
As of January 2018 Vietnam scored one of the highest rates of bribery practices – the rate citizens have paid a bribe to key public institutions over the past 12 months, at 65%, is second only to corruption in India with 69%.[2] In effect, as of 2012, corruption has been considered an obstacle for doing business in Vietnam, and the use of facilitation payments have been widespread when dealing with frontline civil servants at all levels of society.[3]