Why not regulate policies for civil defense and militia?

3 core, regular support forces

At the 5th Session, the National Assembly Deputies discussed and gave their opinions on the draft Law on Forces Participating in Protecting Security and Order at the Grassroots Level. Based on the opinions of the National Assembly Deputies, the National Assembly Standing Committee (NASC) directed the presiding agency, the drafting agency and relevant agencies to study, explain, accept, revise the draft Law and develop a draft report explaining, accepting and revising. The draft Law on Forces Participating in Protecting Security and Order at the Grassroots Level submitted to the National Assembly for approval consists of 5 chapters and 34 articles.

The draft Law stipulates the consolidation of the civil defense forces, civil defense forces, part-time commune police, and the positions of captains and deputy captains of civil defense teams into a common force called the force participating in protecting security and order at the grassroots level. Some opinions suggest expanding the scope of the Law to cover all voluntary and self-managed forces participating in supporting the commune-level police in protecting security and order at the grassroots level.

Regarding the above opinion, the Ministry of Public Security has coordinated with the Standing Committee of the National Defense and Security Committee of the National Assembly to study and propose not to expand the scope of the Law; because: According to the provisions of Article 46 of the 2013 Constitution, all citizens have the obligation to participate in protecting national security, order and social safety.

Dialogue - Why are there no regulations on policies for civil defense and militia? — The three regular, core support forces are the civil defense force, the militia, and the part-time commune police.

The Law on People's Public Security (Clause 1, Article 14) stipulates that agencies, organizations and individuals operating in the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Vietnamese agencies, organizations and citizens abroad have the responsibility to participate, coordinate, collaborate and support the People's Public Security in performing its functions, tasks and powers as prescribed by law.

In order to specify the provisions of the Constitution, the Law on the People's Public Security and other relevant laws such as the 2020 Youth Law, the 2005 Veterans Ordinance, the 2001 Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting (amended and supplemented in 2013) and the charters of associations and unions, in reality, there are many volunteer and self-managed forces participating in supporting the People's Public Security in performing the task of protecting security and order at the grassroots level.

However, there are only three forces that provide regular, core support with a long-term implementation process nationwide, namely the civil defense force, the militia, and the part-time commune police; while forces from other associations, unions, volunteer forces, and self-governing forces... participate in performing the task of protecting security and order on the legal basis stipulated in relevant legal documents;

At the same time, the position, function, task, and organization of these forces are different from the three above-mentioned consolidated forces.

The objective of developing this Law is to create a legal basis for reorganizing and consolidating existing forces and positions into a unified force with concentrated functions and tasks, acting as the core in supporting the regular police in protecting security and order at the grassroots level.

Expanding the scope of regulation to include forces belonging to associations, unions, volunteer forces, self-managed forces, agency and enterprise security forces, and apartment building security forces will not be suitable in terms of position, role, and nature of activities between forces established by the government and voluntary and self-managed forces operating in residential communities and at the grassroots level.

Regarding the scope of regulation of the Law, the Government has discussed and carefully considered it and has sufficient grounds and foundations, so it is recommended that the National Assembly not expand the scope of regulation to ensure the consistency and unity of the legal system.

No minimum level of regular support

Regarding the proposal to prescribe a framework and specify the minimum level of regular monthly support, the level of support for voluntary social insurance and health insurance contributions in the draft Law, the draft Law does not prescribe a framework and does not specify the minimum level of regular monthly support, the level of support for voluntary social insurance and health insurance contributions.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, the force participating in protecting security and order at the grassroots level is a mass force selected to participate in the movement of the entire people to protect national security, under the management and with the grassroots government ensuring funding for payment of regimes and policies;

If the "rigid" regulations in the Law on the monthly regular support level and the voluntary social insurance and health insurance contribution support level are not suitable for reality, especially in localities with economic and social difficulties, it may put pressure on the budget for localities that are not yet financially autonomous.

Regarding this content, during the process of completing the draft Law, the Ministry of Public Security said that it had discussed, asked for opinions and localities agreed to regulate in an open direction as shown in the draft Law.

Dialogue - Why are there no regulations on policies for civil defense and militia? (Image 2). — At the 5th Session, National Assembly Deputies discussed and gave opinions on the draft Law on Forces Participating in Protecting Security and Order at the Grassroots Level.

Therefore, the Ministry of Public Security proposes to continue to maintain the content that the Government reported to the National Assembly in an open direction for local authorities to decide on the level of regular monthly support, decide on the level of support for voluntary social insurance and health insurance contributions for people participating in the force to protect security and order at the grassroots level to suit the actual conditions in each locality and ensure the feasibility of the Law.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, by the end of December 2022, the total number of villages and residential groups nationwide had decreased to 84,721 villages and residential groups (the draft Law dossier at the time of the survey was 103,568 villages and residential groups) and the basic salary from July 1, 2023 was adjusted to increase to VND 1,800,000 (the draft Law dossier is currently calculated according to the basic salary before July 1, 2023, which is VND 1,490,000).

In case 84,721 villages and residential groups all establish Security and Order Protection Teams, the whole country will have 84,721 Security and Order Protection Teams (on average each Team has 3 people) and the total estimated budget needed to ensure implementation according to the provisions of the draft Law is 3,505 billion VND/year. On average, 1 province or city needs to ensure about 55.6 billion VND/year, equivalent to about 4.6 billion VND/month.

However, because the draft Law stipulates that each security and order protection team can be in charge of one or several villages or residential groups at the commune level or in districts where there is no commune-level administrative unit, when implementing the Law, the total number of security and order protection teams may decrease, resulting in a decrease in the total budget for security protection.

Thus, if the Security and Order Protection Team is established with human resources first of all strengthened from the Civil Defense Force, the part-time Commune Police that are still being used, the captain and deputy captain of the civil defense team, and with the above estimate, there will be no increase in the number of people participating in the activities and no increase in the total security budget compared to the current actual payment.

In the long term, the total number of villages and residential groups will continue to decrease due to mergers, so localities will have conditions to focus on ensuring better policies and regimes for forces participating in protecting security and order at the grassroots level .

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