Back when my family built our house a few years ago, we had to pay some bribe for a local officer to get our construction permission, otherwise it will get delayed for who knows how long. On paper, gov's officer's salary is <500usd a month, yet several provincial secretary own large houses and villas. Where does the money come from ? You see this stuff reported once in a while in Vietnamese newspaper, and stuff that are not reported could be worse. Amomg Vietnamese people, government's corruption is well known, happens at every level, and everybody I know is treating it as an open secret.