The Law on Organization of Local Government (amended) is one of four draft laws being considered for amendment by the National Assembly, which will soon take effect to serve the work of streamlining the apparatus. The law consists of 50 articles and will take effect from March 1, 2025, and was approved by 458/459 delegates participating in the vote (accounting for 95.82% of the total number of National Assembly delegates).
Maintain the organization of the People's Council
The Government proposes that at all administrative units at all levels, local government organizations include People's Councils and People's Committees, except in specific cases where the National Assembly stipulates that they are not local government levels.
Some National Assembly delegates suggested continuing to summarize and comprehensively evaluate the organization of urban government models in some localities, on that basis proposing appropriate local government organization models.
Presenting the report on explanation and acceptance in the working session this morning, Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee Hoang Thanh Tung said that the National Assembly Standing Committee would like to accept the above opinions and will coordinate with the Government to summarize the implementation of the urban government model in localities in the past time to have a basis to propose a suitable local government organization model and implement it comprehensively, synchronously and uniformly nationwide in accordance with the requirements in the Party's resolutions and conclusions on reforming and rearranging the apparatus organization in the past time.
The newly passed law stipulates that local government in administrative units is a local government level consisting of the People's Council and the People's Committee.
In case the National Assembly has regulations on not organizing local government level in a specific administrative unit, the local government in that administrative unit is the People's Committee.
Local government in rural areas includes local government at provincial, district and commune levels.
Local government in urban areas includes local government in centrally run cities, districts, towns, provincial cities, cities belonging to centrally run cities, wards and towns.
Local authorities in special administrative-economic units are prescribed by the National Assembly when establishing such special administrative-economic units.
Explaining the opinions of National Assembly deputies during the discussion in the hall earlier, the representative of the agency submitting the draft law, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra, said that the Government proposed to keep it as the current law because we are continuing to evaluate the overall organizational model of the entire political system, there will be adjustments, so for now, it will be temporarily kept as it is to "avoid gaps in the operation" of the local government organization system as well as the local government organization model.
“In the context of streamlining the organizational structure, the Ministry of Home Affairs is coordinating with the Central Organizing Committee to conduct a comprehensive assessment and study of the organizational structure model, including the local government system,” said Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Tra, hoping that National Assembly delegates would support the temporary plan to keep it as it is.
By passing the draft law, the National Assembly agreed with the Government's proposal to maintain the People's Councils at district and ward levels nationwide, except in places where the National Assembly issued a resolution to implement urban government (no People's Councils).
In addition, some delegates suggested considering the regulation that islands and archipelagos are district-level administrative units that can have commune-level administrative units to comply with the provisions of the 2013 Constitution. Some suggested specific regulations on delegating authority to the district-level People's Committee to directly manage or establish other specific administrative models when there is no commune-level administrative unit on islands and archipelagos.
The National Assembly Standing Committee said that in reality, there are currently a number of island districts that do not have commune-level administrative units, for example: Bach Long Vi (Hai Phong), Con Co (Quang Tri), Ly Son (Quang Ngai), Con Dao (Ba Ria - Vung Tau)...
The decision not to divide island districts into commune-level administrative units is based on characteristics, geographical conditions, population, requirements for management and socio-economic development, ensuring national defense and security, and is completely consistent with the 2013 Constitution.
When there is no organization of commune-level administrative units in island districts, the People's Committee at the district level will directly perform the role and function of state management in the area without having to establish a specific administrative model to avoid the emergence of organizational apparatus.
The level that solves the problem more effectively will be assigned to that level.
Some National Assembly deputies suggested that it is necessary to institutionalize the guiding viewpoint of "locality decides, locality acts, locality takes responsibility"; add to the draft law the requirement to promote digital transformation in the organization and operation of local governments to continue reforming administrative procedures, in line with current trends.
The National Assembly Standing Committee has accepted the above opinions and revised the provisions of the draft law to ensure adherence to the Party's guiding viewpoint on promoting decentralization and delegation of power between the central and local levels, between local authorities, promoting local initiative and creativity, ensuring the motto "locality decides, locality does, locality takes responsibility"; "whichever level solves the problem more effectively, assign tasks and authority to that level" as well as the requirement to promote digital transformation.
The above content is reflected in the entire draft law, especially the provisions in Article 4 (Principles of organization and operation of local governments), Chapter III (Determination of authority of local governments at all levels) and the provisions on specific tasks and powers of local governments (Chapter IV, Point c, Clause 1, Article 17, Point c, Clause 1, Article 20...).
"The contents of the draft law have received the consensus of the Government, ensuring timely institutionalization of the Party's policy on streamlining the apparatus and personnel work, ensuring consistency and unity with the amendment and supplementation of the Law on Organization of the National Assembly, the Law on Organization of the Government and the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents," said Mr. Hoang Thanh Tung.
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/quoc-hoi-dong-y-giu-nguyen-hdnd-cap-quan-phuong-xa-trong-ca-nuoc-3149187.html
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