Strapped for resources to weed out wrongdoers, Vietnam is experimenting with a new way to get enforcement help - promising whistle-blowers and frontline officers a share of the ill-gotten gains from cases they help to crack. Two new programmes adopted in the past year pledge a percentage of the proceeds from busted corruption and drug cases to those who help bring them to light. A local government in Ho Chi Minh City is believed to be the country's first to adopt such a programme. District 5 vows 10 per cent of the 'value of the case' as a reward for whistle-blowers, up to a maximum of US$625. To crack down on drugs, a new national law promises 30 per cent of the proceeds from busts as a reward to police and other frontline enforcement officers credited with assisting in the busts. Nguyen Nhu Phat, deputy director of the State and Law Institute in Hanoi, said the authorities saw the need to encourage the public and frontline officers to help. Vietnamese citizens have a legal duty to report violations, Mr Phat said, but were usually reluctant to do so. In corruption cases, those with information would usually be part of the corruption ring itself.
