An official of the special force tasked with fighting the practice of siphoning gasoline and replacing it with unidentified liquids among tanker drivers has said it has remarkably decreased in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 7 following Vietweek coverage (Issue 002, January 13-19, 2012).

However, no one knows whether this is a temporary reprieve and if the fraudsters are just waiting for reactions from related agencies.

The public is relying on responsible agencies to deal firmly with the problem and ease their concerns, because the agencies are the only ones with resources and authority to do so. The media can only discover and report what they find.

Therefore, if the agencies do not take bold measures to get rid of this practice in a thorough manner, it is very likely that it will crop up again in more sophisticated forms.

Dismissal, or even jail terms, for a couple of unscrupulous drivers will not be enough. What the public needs is the authorities’ determination to clean up the whole process - from importing gasoline to selling it to customers. Corrupt employees and employers need to be punished strictly as well.

This is no longer a matter of the gasoline’s quality, but one of citizens’ safety. Spurious gasoline is suspected to be the main cause in numerous instances of vehicles catching fire recorded in the country since last year.

In fact, during the Tet holiday (January 23-30), vehicular fires causing serious damage were constantly in the news, heightening public concern. “Now we do not know whether we are riding a motorbike or a ball of fire,” a reader commented.