The government of northern Laos’ Luang Namtha province has disciplined 41 state employees for violating the ethics of the ruling Communist Party, RFA Lao has learned, amid growing public frustration over widespread corruption in the impoverished southeast Asian nation.
The punishments, announced at a June 2 closed-door meeting entitled “State Employee Violations of Party Rules and Ethics” and chaired by Luang Namtha Governor Vieng Savath Siphandone, mark the first time civil servants in the province have been disciplined beyond a written warning, according to an official with knowledge of the situation.
“In previous cases, state employees [accused of violating party ethics] were only made to write self-appraisals,” said the official who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisal. “Now, these employees are facing disciplinary action and, in some cases, heavy discipline.”
Of the 41 state employees who faced disciplinary action, eight were expelled from the Communist Party without compensation for a “level 4 violation” of party rules, the official said. They were barred from future work for the government and face criminal charges.
Another seven were expelled from the party without compensation for a level 4 violation, but were not charged with any criminal offenses. Four state employees were demoted to lower ranks within the party with a temporary hold on salary increases for a “level 3 violation.”
The remaining 22 were also disciplined, but the level of violation they were accused of was unclear.
Four were removed from their positions within the party, but reassigned to other jobs, and also face a hold on salary increases. Twelve faced a reduction in party rank and six only received a warning.
A mid-level official from the interior ministry of the Luang Namtha Provincial Government, who also declined to be named, told RFA that the specific types of violations committed by the 41 state employees were not divulged to those of his rank.
"The interior ministry is not involved in discipline – it was ordered from higher up,” he said. “We don’t know about this because we were only privy to notices sent from above.”
Violations likely related to graft
However, an official with an international organization that maintains a presence in Laos told RFA that the violations likely pertained to demanding bribes “from Chinese investors or undocumented Chinese workers” in the province.
“Chinese investors send letters to the Chinese Consulate [in Luang Prabang complaining about demands for bribes], which then notifies the Lao government,” said the official. “When the Lao government compiles evidence, they arrest and discipline those who violate party rules.”
Reports of the disciplinary action come amid increasing public frustration with corruption in Laos, which the government has been slow – or unwilling – to decisively tackle. There has been a public call for the government to not only eliminate graft, but to also release the details of such cases and name the officials involved.
A resident of Luang Prabang province, also in northern Laos, told RFA corruption is a long-running problem in Laos and that the public is fed up with it.
“It's a contentious disease that is so bad it threatens to destroy the country,” the resident said. “[State employees] do it in groups and it isn’t limited to investment projects – even small business owners in the countryside have to deal with it.”
In one of the more recent public examples of punishment for corruption, on June 7, some 78 policemen who worked at the Lao-China border gate in Luang Namtha province were disciplined for accepting bribes to allow Chinese nationals to enter Laos to work illegally.
Translated by Sidney Khotpanya. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.