“I say frankly that there were people who came to see me to offer me money — 5,000 or 10,000 dollars — no small amount," Phieu was quoted by the newspaper as saying at that time.
Also in 2005, when the first Provincial Competitiveness Index was launched, the Communist Party commissioned an unprecedented survey that confirmed nearly a third of government employees in Vietnam admitted they would take a bribe, if one were offered.