Inadequacies in handling administrative violations of cases of trading in prohibited goods

(Baonghean.vn) - That is one of the problems reflected in the supervision of the Provincial People's Council's Legal Committee at the Police and People's Procuracy of Dien Chau district on the morning of September 24.

The monitoring delegation, led by Ms. Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the Legal Committee of the Provincial People's Council, conducted monitoring of the handling of cases of violations of economic management order at the Police and People's Procuracy of Dien Chau district. Photo: Hoai Thu

Pointing out the shortcomings in legal regulations in handling administrative violations in cases of economic management order infringement, including the trade of explosives, a representative of Dien Chau District Police said: When contraband goods are seized domestically, there is often not enough evidence to prove the cross-border element.For counterfeit goods, many cases do not have enough funds for appraisal, because appraisal costs can sometimes be up to billions of dong.

The confiscation of goods worth 50 million VND or more must be submitted to the Provincial People's Committee for decision, so many procedures must be carried out from the district to the provincial level and often take a long time, so many cases are delayed in processing.

In addition, according to the law, vehicle owners must pay a fine equal to the value of the vehicle transporting the prohibited goods, but when reporting to superiors, it is difficult to handle. For example, forcing a passenger car owner to pay a fine of up to billions of VND (equal to the value of the vehicle) for transporting prohibited goods worth tens of millions of VND is almost impossible.

For violations of fireworks trading from January 1, 2017 and earlier, according to regulations, they must be suspended. However, when suspended for administrative handling, many subjects refused to pay the fine after the suspension decision was made.

Fireworks were discovered, seized and destroyed by Dien Chau District Police. Photo courtesy

Previously, reporting to the monitoring delegation, Mr. Tran Van Khang - Deputy Head of Dien Chau District Police said that from January 2015 to June 2017, Dien Chau District Police handled 65 cases with 63 subjects; of which, in the first 6 months of 2017, they handled 7 cases with 8 defendants; in 2015, there were 24 cases with 36 defendants. The cases of economic management violations that the locality handled were mainly related to firecrackers. Cases in other fields were almost not detected, or were detected but did not meet the conditions for prosecution and were only handled administratively. Besides, administrative handling is also very complicated.

Explaining the reason, Mr. Tran Van Khang said that the methods of the subjects are becoming more and more sophisticated, with many ways to deal with them. The lines of trafficking and transporting smuggled goods from foreign countries to Vietnam often collude with each other, and after being arrested, they often use tricks to take advantage of loopholes in the law to legalize paperwork.

The representative of the People's Procuracy of Dien Chau district said that from January 2015 to June 2017, in exercising the right to prosecute and supervise the investigation, the People's Procuracy of Dien Chau district initiated 43 cases with 65 defendants, of which proposed to prosecute 43 cases with 62 defendants, transferred 1 case with 1 defendant to another place and suspended 1 case with 2 defendants.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh - Head of Dien Chau District People's Procuracy spoke at the meeting. Photo: Hoai Thu

Regarding the practice of prosecution and supervision of judicial activities during the prosecution phase, 44 cases with 63 defendants were accepted; 44 cases with 63 defendants were resolved, of which 19 cases with 29 defendants were suspended because the court returned the case files for suspension according to Official Dispatch 91 of the Supreme Court.

Nguyen Van Thanh, Director of Dien Chau District Procuracy, also expressed concern that the regulation of only administrative penalties for the crime of trading in firecrackers would cause many consequences and the widespread use of firecrackers would occur.

At the meeting, delegates participating in the supervision discussed and expressed many opinions surrounding issues arising in the practice of handling cases of violations of economic management order in Dien Chau district.

At the end of the working session, Ms. Thai Thi An Chung and the working delegation received the feedback from the police and the Dien Chau District Procuracy regarding the handling of cases of violations of economic management order, especially the trading of fireworks; requested that the agencies report in more detail on the remaining issues in the work so that the monitoring delegation could grasp and submit them to the relevant agencies.

Hoai Thu