Individual Corruption

Several sources indicate that corruption in the land management is endemic. For example, according to the World Bank’s Vietnam Development Report 2010, amongst the surveyed households who had used the service of issuance of Land Use Rights Certificates, most perceive the level of corruption within such service as ‘average’, while a smaller part perceive it as ‘serious’. This is also mirrored in Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer 2010, in which nearly one-quarter of households surveyed reported having paid a bribe to the land services in 2009 in order to obtain services such as buying and renting land.

Business Corruption

A 2011 study conducted by the Embassy of Denmark, the Embassy of Sweden and the World Bank, identifies several key risk factors for corruption in the process of land acquisition and land allocation. For example, it is difficult to get access to information regarding land-use planning, and therefore investors pay bribes to land officials in exchange for information privileges. The same report also mentions that land supply problems encourage corrupt behaviour amongst enterprises and officials, and because of the economic rents investors can extract in the future from selling the land, they may have incentives to offer a huge amount in bribes in order to secure the land.

Political Corruption

According to the US Department of State 2010, corruption in relation to land use has been widely publicised in the press in an effort to pressure local officials to stop abusing their authority. A 2008 study by the Finnish Embassy in Hanoi mentions cases of individuals and organisations illegally selling or sharing land for profit or bribing local officials to legalise land occupation. State expropriation of land for infrastructure, agriculture, resettlement and development projects, frequently involves corruption or other irregularities. According to the International Federation of Surveyors 2006, the three most common types of corruption crimes related to land are: 1) taking advantage of state projects to appropriate or share land, especially in forestation, residential areas and resettlement programmes; 2) abuse of power to award favourable positions, low prices and land, such as large area land-lease plots, to expedite related formalities and to seek profit through land grants, especially for investment purposes; and 3) authoritarian behaviour, demanding gifts or bribes to perform formalities related to land, such as land allocation, land lease, land rights transfer, land use certificate granting, land compensation and site clearance.

Frequency

The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2012:
- The process of registering property and securing property rights is relatively cheap and easy in Vietnam compared to regional averages, requiring 4 procedures and taking 57 days at a cost of 0.6% of the property value.

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012:
- Business executives give the protection of property rights in Vietnam, including financial assets, a score of 3.7 on a 7-point scale (1 being 'very weak' and 7 'very strong').

Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2010:
- 24.8% of the households surveyed reported to have paid a bribe to land services in 2009.

USAID: Vietnam Provincial Competitiveness Index 2010:
- 39% of companies report that they 'always' or 'usually' receive fair compensation if their land is expropriated.

World Bank: Vietnam Development Report 2010:
- 20% of households surveyed who have used the service of issuance of Land Use Rights Certificates since 2006 perceive the level of corruption within such service as ‘average’, 16% perceive it as ‘slight corruption’, while 15% perceive it as ‘serious’.