Party vows tougher action on corruption

The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has pledged sweeping reforms to reduce bureaucracy and address corruption, strengthen discipline, and open up official conduct to public scrutiny.
Secretary General of the Party Central Committee, Mr Thongloun Sisoulith, outlined the plan on Tuesday when delivering a draft political report at the 12th National Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. The draft was approved later in the day.
He said the Party aimed to become transparent, strong and united by making the fight against bureaucracy and corruption a top priority, to safeguard the integrity of the people’s democratic regime and hasten the advance towards socialism.
According to the report, the Party will continue to strengthen its organisational structure and unity, demanding strict discipline in both spirit and action.
He highlighted the determination to prevent, block, correct and completely eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy, distortion, and corruption within the Party and state system.
The monitoring, inspection and evaluation of how Party guidelines, policies and resolutions are carried out will become a central leadership task, with officials held politically responsible for their performance in this regard.
The Party will strengthen its inspection activities and take firm action against disciplinary violations, inadequate work that fails to resolve problems, the abuse of power for personal gain, embezzlement, and waste of state funds and assets.
Legislation concerning inspections will be enhanced, and will involve the Lao Front for National Development, the Veterans’ Union, mass organisations, the media, and all citizens in monitoring and inspecting the performance of duties entrusted to Party committees, state agencies, Party members, and all civil servants.
This means that the results of inspections will be publicly disclosed and any corrective actions taken will be publicised.
The Party will also introduce major reforms to leadership mechanisms at the local level by separating Party leadership from administrative roles.
Under this new approach, provincial, capital city, district and municipal Party secretaries will serve as the highest political leaders but will not be eligible for the post of governor or district chief.
Party and state bodies will be streamlined, making them more compact, efficient and flexible, while burdensome layers of bureaucracy will be reduced and more digital systems introduced.
Personnel management will follow the “up and down, in and out” principle, with promotions, transfers and removals based on actual results, political quality, and conduct rather than personal opinion.
The Party also plans to overhaul salaries, pensions and cost-of-living allowances to bring them in line with current economic circumstances, and improve morale among civil servants and the armed forces.
These moves are some of the far-reaching efforts of the Party to adhere to the country’s revolutionary mission under the theme: “Elevate the Party’s strong leadership role, actively build an independent and self-reliant economy, continue to nurture the people’s democratic regime, and advance steadfastly towards socialism”.

By Times Reporters
(Latest Update January 8, 2026)