Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long answers questions. Photo: Doan Tan/ VNA
A series of issues related to shortcomings in state management of judicial expertise and the handling of responsibilities for individuals who advise and draft documents with illegal regulations were questioned by National Assembly deputies to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long.
Overcoming the situation of issuing documents with illegal regulations
Delegate Nguyen Huu Thong (Binh Thuan) raised the issue that, although state management and judicial appraisal have been strengthened in recent times, there are still many shortcomings. The compensation regime and policies for judicial appraisers are still low and outdated, have not been resolved, and 2/13 ministries and branches have not yet issued appraisal procedures, leading to many cases and incidents being delayed in being handled, due to judicial appraisal work. The delegate questioned the head of the Ministry of Justice about fundamental solutions to solve the above problem.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long said that currently, the issue related to appraisal costs is implemented according to Decision No. 01/2014/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on the regime of compensation for judicial appraisal. Implementing the direction of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Justice has summarized, evaluated and is expected to submit a new document. During that process, we have to implement Resolution 27 on salary reform, including salaryization of all expenses and allowances, including specific expenses, so this has been delayed. The Ordinance on litigation costs also has some unclear provisions on how to spend and handle expenditure sources and expenditure activities.
According to the law and ordinance-making program of the National Assembly Standing Committee, the Supreme People's Court is submitting the Ordinance on litigation costs, which partially addresses judicial expertise. The Deputy Prime Minister requested the Supreme People's Court to continue to speed up the process of completing this document and submit it to the National Assembly Standing Committee for consideration and approval.
In response to the question of delegate Duong Khac Mai (Dak Nong) about fundamental solutions to overcome the situation of issuing documents with illegal provisions, affecting social life, rights and legitimate interests of agencies, organizations and individuals, but the consideration and handling of responsibilities mainly stops at the level of criticism and reminders, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice said that according to the provisions of current law, ministries and branches have the responsibility to self-check the legal documents issued by themselves. In addition to checking documents issued by the Ministry, the Ministry of Justice also helps the Government and the Prime Minister check legal documents under the authority of the Minister, Head of the ministerial-level agency and propose handling measures. This inspection mainly focuses on the authority to issue and the legality and drafting techniques of the documents.
“The self-inspection of legal documents by ministries and branches has not been very good. In 2023, except for the Ministry of Justice, only 4 ministries discovered about 20 documents with signs of violating the law or being illegal according to different criteria,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Le Thanh Long.
According to him, the reason is that ministries and agencies have not been proactive in implementing and the inspection and supervision mechanism is still at a low level. The Government is very aware of the importance of inspecting legal documents, and is proposing to amend and supplement the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents, in which it designs more specifically and details the acts related to the performance of the responsibilities of Ministers and Heads of sectors in the work of issuing documents, self-inspection and referring to the law on cadres and civil servants to have appropriate sanctions.
Regarding solutions, he said that the Ministry of Justice will further strengthen inspection and supervision work and work directly with agencies. A very important point is to properly implement Regulation No. 178-QD/TW of the Politburo on controlling power, preventing and combating corruption and negativity in law-making work.
There is leniency in the enforcement of administrative judgments
Questioning the head of the Justice sector, delegate Nguyen Thi Yen Nhi (Ben Tre) pointed out the fact that from the beginning of the year to May 5, 2024, 37/49 documents have been issued under the task of issuing documents detailing instructions for the implementation of laws, ordinances, and resolutions, with 12 documents still outstanding, accounting for 25%. This creates a legal gap, causing difficulties for state management at the local level, and difficulties in ensuring the implementation of citizens' rights and obligations. The delegate questioned the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister about specific, drastic, fundamental, and effective solutions to overcome the above situation.
Responding to delegates, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Le Thanh Long said that from October 1, 2023 to present, the Government and ministries must develop and promulgate 261 detailed regulations; of which 128 documents have been promulgated regulating laws that have come into effect and 133 documents regulating laws that will come into effect soon. Regarding the 128 documents detailing the implementation of laws and resolutions that have come into effect, 106 have been promulgated, with 22 still outstanding.
In 2024, the number of debt documents accounted for only over 17% compared to the same period in 2023, which was over 24%. Of the issued documents, up to 58 documents were issued at the same time as the effective laws and ordinances. Specifically, the series of decrees detailing the implementation of the Land, Housing, and Real Estate Business Laws.
However, the situation of slow issuance of documents still exists. The reason is that there are many documents with difficult content, which have been discussed back and forth until now without a solution, such as the Decree on representative organizations of workers, collective bargaining, Decree on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of network security, etc.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Government has recently urgently revised a number of articles of Decree 34 detailing the promulgation of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents, including simplifying a number of requirements related to impact assessment, relaxing requirements related to streamlining and strengthening inspection work... The Government is studying to revise and supplement the Government's working regulations in the direction of more closely regulating, urging better implementation of the process of submitting agencies and the Government Office, Government leaders to strengthen inspection, go to work directly to urge ministries and branches to be more active in drafting and promulgating detailed regulations. In the process of drafting the law, try to fully count and quantify the difficulties and challenges in the process of promulgating detailed regulations to have a direction for handling.
Regarding the content of the current high rate of unenforced administrative judgments mentioned by delegate Duong Tan Quan (Ba Ria - Vung Tau), Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long said that in 2024, the absolute number will increase. Accumulated up to now, there have been over 1,700 administrative judgments that the Government and the Ministry of Justice are responsible for monitoring. In the first 10 months of 2024 (reporting period from October 2024 - PV), 667/1,700 judgments have been executed, an increase of 244 judgments and decisions compared to the same period in 2023. Some localities that have not been able to handle the backlog so far are Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Binh Thuan, Dak Lak, Ho Chi Minh City, Lam Dong, Kien Giang and Hanoi.
“It is clear that we do not have the right attitude towards participating in administrative litigation in general and enforcing administrative judgments. There is favoritism among agencies in the provinces and administrative units,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.
He also mentioned short-term and long-term solutions, including considering amending and supplementing laws, strengthening inspection work, coordinating with the Supreme People's Court to summarize, evaluate and propose new solutions when amending and supplementing the Law on Administrative Procedures.
At the questioning session, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice also said that there were signs of group interests and local interests in the drafting of legal documents through economic corruption cases and conclusions of cases with violations announced by inspection agencies and examination agencies. However, the extent of group interests needs to be confirmed by evidence.
The Politburo has issued Regulation 178-QD/TW regulating the control of power, prevention and combat of corruption and negativity in law-making. Among the regulations issued by the Politburo in recent times related to various fields: inspection, examination, investigation, prosecution, trial, execution of judgments, law-making, etc., Regulation 178 to control power in the field of law-making is the most difficult. Due to the specific nature of law-making and institution-making, this is a collective project, going through different stages. The Ministry of Justice has advised the Government to thoroughly grasp the work of law-making, clearly identifying signs of group interests in this work. At the same time, the Ministry will continue to realize this issue in the upcoming amendment of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents.
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