Hanoi, June 12, 2013 – The Vietnam Anti-corruption Initiative Program 2013 (VACI 2013) under the theme “Strengthening Transparency, Public Integrity and Accountability, Minimizing Corruption” today awarded the top 24 initiatives to honor and support their implementation in the community, contributing to minimizing corruption.
Mr. Huynh Phong Tranh, Chief Government Inspector, Ms. Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank Country Director for Vietnam, and representatives of government agencies and donors attended the award ceremony.
VACI 2013 is co-organized by the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam (GI), the World Bank (WB) and co-sponsored by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Irish Aid, the Swedish Embassy, and the UK Department for International Development (DFID-UK).
The first VACI (in 2011) under the theme “Strengthening public integrity and law implementation for effective anti-corruption” was designed based on the success of the Vietnam Innovation Day 2009. VACI 2011 supported 34 projects and they have successfully implemented.
Winning projects in VACI 2013 are the best among 130 entries submitted by various agencies and organizations, including socio-political organizations, non-governmental organizations, universities, private sector, and local authorities. Winning proposals will have 12 months for implementation.
The final panel of jurors of this year’s VACI consists of domestic and international experts of various government agencies, international development partners, and non-governmental organizations. They have enthusiastically and impartially selected 24 most innovative and feasible initiatives, which will make practical contributions to anti-corruption work to improve transparency, integrity, and accountability. These are the most outstanding initiatives out of 40 shortlisted proposals to the final round. Each winning project will receive a grant up to 300 million VND, based on its proposal to implement the project in different provinces nationwide. The total amount of award this year is VND 6.6 billion.
VACI 2013 aims to seek and support the implementation of initiatives for more transparency, integrity and accountability and less corruption.
The program consists of two major events:
• An Innovation Competition: An open competition through a jury process whereby the most innovative and feasible proposals would be selected and awarded a start-up fund for implementation to improve transparency, integrity, and accountability to reduce corruption.
• Knowledge Exchange: A forum t for sharing experience and knowledge on the legal framework of anti-corruption and related issues. The topic of the forum this year was “Information and Communications Technology– Effective tools in fighting corruption”
