On February 13, the National Assembly held a group discussion, including the draft Law on Organization of Local Government (amended). In addition to specific contributions to each provision, delegates focused on analyzing the need for stronger decentralization and delegation of power, while emphasizing the need to combine work assignment and empowerment to avoid shirking responsibility and delaying work progress.
Removing institutional "bottlenecks"
Delegate Hoang Van Cuong (Hanoi delegation) commented that decentralization and delegation of power in the draft Law on Government Organization (amended) is one of the key mechanisms to resolve existing institutional "bottlenecks".
“Without decentralization and delegation of authority, when implementing regulations are not appropriate, the implementing levels will have to continuously consult their superiors, causing a waiting situation. This is due to the behavioral management mechanism, which means the law provides detailed procedures and the implementing level must comply mechanically,” said Mr. Cuong.
"Therefore, assigning work without giving authority to carry it out will lead to waiting, relying, even pushing and having to ask," delegate Hoang Van Cuong emphasized and suggested that when decentralizing, that is, assigning work, it is necessary to give authority to carry out those tasks.
To solve this problem, delegate Cuong mentioned the direction of General Secretary To Lam: "The law cannot specify in detail each method, but only stipulates issues of principle and requirements. From those principles and requirements, power will be given to local levels, the levels directly implementing."
Agreeing with this view, delegate Tran Thi Nhi Ha (Hanoi delegation) said that one of the shortcomings and limitations pointed out in the summary process is the issue of responsibilities, decentralization, and delegation of power that are not consistent and unreasonable. "There are places that make excuses and do things on their behalf, and there are places that miss out and do not invest appropriately," Ms. Ha commented.
Ms. Ha affirmed that promoting decentralization and enhancing the responsibility of ministries, branches and localities is a policy that the Party and State pay special attention to. The motto "locality decides, locality acts, locality takes responsibility" has been directed by the General Secretary in many important conferences.
"The content of decentralization and delegation of power has been stipulated in the Law on Organization of Local Government, now supplemented in the draft Law on Organization of Government (amended), showing the Government's determination on this issue," said Ms. Ha.
Emphasizing that the Law on Organization of Local Government stipulates that decentralization must be stipulated in the law, while decentralization is stipulated in legal documents (such as decrees, circulars, etc.), Ms. Ha said that decentralization is a manifestation of power between local government levels, so it is necessary to be clearer about the conditions for exercising power so that the assigned powers can be exercised effectively.
According to Ms. Ha, decentralization is individual in nature, so in many cases, additional regulations must be implemented to ensure power, but at the same time, it is easy to encounter problems, especially the issue of budget allocation to carry out the tasks of the Government decentralized to localities. Therefore, regulations are needed to promote decentralization.
"Considering what content can be decentralized, we should decentralize it by law," delegate Tran Thi Nhi Ha recommended.
Meanwhile, delegate Le Quan (Hanoi delegation) said that if the State management organization is not streamlined and effective, costs are not cut and management methods are not innovated, institutional "bottlenecks" will appear, making it impossible to release resources and making it difficult for the country to develop.
"Therefore, it is necessary to focus on streamlining and reorganizing the apparatus, but more importantly, it is necessary to focus on innovating the state management apparatus and to focus more on resolving institutional bottlenecks," delegate Quan emphasized.
Ensuring monitoring and enforcement mechanisms
In addition to discussions on general policies, delegates also gave many specific comments on each provision in the draft law on issues such as organizational structure, monitoring mechanism and enforcement effectiveness.
Delegate Ha Phuoc Thang (Ho Chi Minh City delegation) said that the Law on Organization of Local Government is a fundamental law, governing local organizational structures. With the revolution in streamlining the apparatus being implemented, new laws need to be issued, conveying breakthroughs in management institutions, instead of just stopping at the level of amendments.
Mr. Thang proposed that the drafting agency should separate the regulations on urban government into the Law on Management and Development of Special Urban Areas and the Law on Organization of Local Government should only play the role of a "framework law" that sets out principles for the organization and operation of local governments nationwide.
"The framework law helps create a common platform to ensure consistency and coordination among government levels, from which localities can develop and apply specific regulations to suit their own characteristics," Mr. Thang explained.
Delegate Ha Phuoc Thang also proposed clarifying the concepts of "decentralization", "decentralization", and "authorization" to clarify the difference between these forms and to be transparent and convenient in the implementation process. He also suggested specifying in the draft law or assigning the Government to provide guidance in a decree on the types of tasks that can be delegated and tasks that cannot be delegated to avoid abuse.
In addition, delegate Thang also emphasized the importance of the mechanism for monitoring and controlling power and proposed to add sanctions for violations in the performance of delegated tasks. In particular, the law clearly stipulates the responsibilities of both the authorizer and the authorized party when there are violations.
"It is necessary to strengthen control and evaluation of the effectiveness of authorization by regulating periodic reporting on the implementation of authorized tasks, and adding a mechanism to revoke authorization if the unit does not perform effectively," said Mr. Thang.
In addition, delegate Dao Hong Van (Hung Yen delegation) said he highly agreed with continuing to implement People's Council administration at all levels of local government, especially at the commune level.
Mr. Van said that maintaining the People's Council at the commune level will ensure democracy and objectivity in the process of performing tasks. He also agreed with continuing to design to increase the initiative and responsibility of the chairmen of the People's Committees at all levels.
"When assigning responsibilities and decentralizing authority increases, in order to carry out tasks promptly and effectively, leaders must take greater responsibility and also have greater authority," Mr. Van analyzed, noting that power must be associated with responsibility and that inspection and supervision must be strengthened to ensure that power is not abused.
Regarding the issue of dialogue with the people, delegate Van said that collecting people's opinions should be done directly.
"In addition to in-person conferences, we can organize online or virtual conferences to solicit opinions on issues of public concern," said Mr. Van.
Expressing his satisfaction with the law's strong increase in decentralization, delegation of power and delegation of authority to all levels of government, Delegate Ngo Dong Hai (Thai Binh delegation) said that if we do not delve into the connotations of these concepts, there will not be truly clear and complete regulations and when it comes to implementation, there will be problems or they will not be strictly ensured.
Mr. Hai analyzed that the authority of any organization has two types: inherent authority and delegated authority.
"If we understand the hierarchy, decentralization is the highest. Therefore, when a subject is decentralized, it almost has 'complete power'. And, the power is assigned by a higher level, the decentralized person is only responsible for reporting and submitting for inspection and supervision," said Mr. Hai.
With the above viewpoint, delegate Vu Hai Quan (Ho Chi Minh City delegation) has some additional notes. Specifically, Article 19 is related to decentralization to local authorities. The Drafting Committee needs to carefully consider the scope of responsibility, the subjects receiving decentralization as well as the possibility of continuing decentralization to ensure feasibility and suitability to the reality of each locality. He also suggested considering a mechanism allowing superiors to delegate authority to subordinates in cases where the subordinates are capable of undertaking the task without further support from superiors.
Regarding the authorization to local authorities in Article 20, Mr. Quan suggested that it is necessary to stipulate a maximum implementation time to avoid abuse or prolongation. On the other hand, he also proposed to add regulations on the People's Council authorizing the Standing Committee of the People's Council at the same level to resolve a number of arising issues and clarify the content and procedures for implementing this authorization.
Particularly regarding the effectiveness of implementation, delegate Quan said that the amendment of the Law on Organization of Local Government should be implemented soon to meet the goals of reform and innovation of the apparatus in the political system. Accordingly, the provisions on innovation of the model of organization of local government as well as the mechanism of decentralization, delegation and authorization in the law must be implemented promptly to ensure the effectiveness of State management.
However, Mr. Quan noted the provisions of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents on the effective date of the document. He proposed that the time of implementation should be determined uniformly throughout the country and the effective date of the law should be from July 1, 2025.
TB (according to VNA)Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/giao-viec-khong-trao-quyen-se-dan-toi-dun-day-trach-nhiem-405143.html
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