Delegate Le Thanh Van: Avoid inserting interests when making laws

Mr. Le Thanh Van proposed that the head of the draft law drafting committee be someone outside the industry to avoid inserting interests and controlling power right from the legislative stage.

On the morning of May 23, the National Assembly discussed the draft Law and Ordinance Building Program for 2024 and adjustments to the 2023 program.

Mr. Le Thanh Van (Standing Member of the Finance and Budget Committee, delegate of Ca Mau delegation) said that the law-making process still has some shortcomings, including the lack of strict legislative discipline, the responsibilities of leaders are not clearly defined, and the process of building the law program still has embedded interests.

"Currently, the drafting committee is made up of people from the agency that proposed the draft law, so the perspective is not objective. The structure of the drafting committee needs to change in the direction of having the participation of many scientists, professional agencies and those directly subject to regulation," said Mr. Van, believing that this demonstrates a receptiveness to social criticism.

Delegates from Ca Mau province proposed to soon resume the development of the law and ordinance program for the entire term, based on the content of the resolutions of the Party Congresses of each term to determine the legislative policy and annual priority. Adjusting the annual law and ordinance development program should be limited to the lowest level because continuous changes demonstrate inconsistent legislative and policy thinking and short-sightedness.

"Regular adjustments are like a driver stopping to repair his car from time to time. How can he drive smoothly? Frequent changes also make legislative proposals immature, vulnerable to group interests, local interests, and the quality of the laws is not high," he said, adding that the situation should not be such that a law is rejected by the previous National Assembly and then restarted in the new National Assembly.

Delegate Le Thanh Van, standing member of the Finance and Budget Committee, spoke on the morning of May 23. Photo: National Assembly Media — Delegate Le Thanh Van, standing member of the Finance and Budget Committee, spoke on the morning of May 23. Photo: *National Assembly Media*

Delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Anh (Standing member of the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment) said that in recent times, based on practical requirements, the National Assembly Standing Committee has issued 11 resolutions to adjust the program. This demonstrates the National Assembly's strong support for the Government, but "also reveals a lack of predictability".

Meanwhile, some important laws, which have encountered many practical difficulties, have been slow to be reviewed for comprehensive amendments, so they have to be drafted in a short time or submitted to the National Assembly for resolution. This leads to a lack of uniformity and instability in the legal system, for example the Law on State Budget, Investment, and Public Investment.

Ms. Kim Anh suggested that when a government agency proposes to amend a law or proposes to add a draft law to the legislative agenda, it is necessary to clarify the necessity and impact. "The responsibility for screening belongs to the Ministry of Justice, the Government, and the proposing agencies," she said.

The female delegate suggested that the Government strengthen discipline and require drafting agencies to strictly comply with regulations on promulgating legal documents. The spirit is that the Government and the National Assembly agencies "resolutely do not include in the program draft laws that are not well prepared, do not meet the conditions, and do not have clear basic policies and scope of regulation".

Delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, speaking on the morning of May 23. Photo: National Assembly Media — Delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, speaking on the morning of May 23. Photo: *National Assembly Media*

Delegate Nguyen Van Huy (Thai Binh) also assessed that the current legal system is not really synchronous and complete; there are still overlaps and contradictions; regulations are not highly feasible and need to be amended and supplemented many times.

It is worth noting that in legal documents there are still many provisions of general principles, not specific enough to be applied immediately, but many documents must be issued to specify and guide implementation. Meanwhile, the issuance of these documents is often very slow, not timely put into practice, there exist many different understandings and ways of doing things.

Delegate Huy proposed that the National Assembly and the Government assign tasks to specialized agencies to develop policies and laws, clearly establish mechanisms and policies in law-making proposals, and take responsibility for policies in draft laws and ordinances included in the Program.

Son Ha - Viet Tuan

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