Ministry of Health issues document contrary to Prime Minister's opinion

The Prime Minister's working group said that the Director of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Health had signed a document on the orders of the Minister that did not comply with the Prime Minister's instructions.

This morning, September 20, Minister and Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung led the Prime Minister's working group to work with the Ministry of Health on specialized inspection of import and export goods.

Minister Mai Tien Dung made it clear that the goal of the meeting was to make things better, not to pick holes or debate right or wrong.

3 sets cost businesses more than 28 million days

Minister Mai Tien Dung said that the Ministry of Health has many specialized inspection items, but it must ensure the requirements of state management while creating favorable conditions for economic development, removing difficulties for people and businesses, and fighting against group interests and local interests. Especially the issue of removing barriers and sub-licenses.

Minister, Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung

However, the Minister assessed that there are still many shortcomings in the specialized inspection of the Ministry of Health in particular and ministries in general. Inspections are still overlapping, one item is regulated by many documents, and is inspected by many ministries and agencies of the same ministry.

The inspection rate is large, the inspection records are numerous, but the violation detection rate is only 0.06%. This is a very small rate, while the inspection is manual, by senses, without published regulations and standards.

The Minister said that the list of declared items is still too large. If calculated in 2016, enterprises had to spend 30 million working days on specialized inspections and 14,300 billion VND. Of which, the 3 Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Rural Development, and Industry and Trade alone accounted for 28.8 million working days and more than 12,200 billion VND. The Ministry of Health alone with 5 categories and 5 inspection contents accounted for 86%.

Currently, customs clearance time only accounts for 28%, the remaining 72% comes from specialized agencies.

The Minister requested the Ministry of Health to specifically announce how many procedures, lists of goods and items are being inspected by specialized agencies or post-inspection, whether it is possible to evaluate and survey to apply risk management principles, and whether it is possible to switch from pre-inspection to post-inspection?

The Minister said that during the inspection in Hai Phong yesterday, at the specialized inspection agency of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, there was on-site inspection and on-site quality testing, but the Ministry of Health did not have any lab, everything went to Nui Truc (Food Safety Department - PV).

“The entire inspection is done by senses, while we cannot publish the standards and regulations, we only do the procedures but do not have any products. The fee for one set of documents is 1.05 million, multiplied by 407 sets, equivalent to 430 million, is that necessary?”, the Minister said.

Request to cancel documents contrary to the Prime Minister's opinion

Minister Mai Tien Dung conveyed 6 issues to the Prime Minister for the Ministry of Health's attention.

Firstly, the Ministry has only completed 5/9 tasks for 2016. Of which, businesses are most interested in amending Decree 38 on food safety.

Second, the list of goods still overlaps between ministries and branches. We must review and try to propose to the Government to unify the assignment of one agency to take the lead and other agencies to coordinate.

Third, the list of goods that has been issued but does not have an HS code and the list of goods that have not been issued need to be assigned an HS code for transparency in inspection.

Fourth, shortcomings in inspection work. This is the issue that businesses and industry associations are most concerned about, how to solve it for businesses.

“We raise issues related to health safety, but in fact we say one thing and do another, we do not check the products, we do not test product samples, we only make documents, those documents are the enterprises bringing another product to Nui Truc to make, many associations say so. We have enough basis to prove it,” Minister Dung emphasized.

He said that transparency is needed and that it is impossible to make excuses.

Fifth, there are shortcomings in implementing the national one-stop mechanism, having to undertake 55 procedures in the 2016-2018 period. In the 2016-2017 period, 27 procedures were registered but only 5 procedures were implemented, accounting for 9%, which is very low.

The Minister of Health said that the Ministry is determined to adjust the issues raised by the Prime Minister on the basis of publicity and transparency.

Sixth, the issuance of administrative documents is not in accordance with the Prime Minister's direction. Many associations have commented.

Specifically, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam held dialogues with businesses three times and concluded that there was no regulation requiring businesses to use iodized salt in food processing, but only requiring salt-producing businesses to supplement iodine. However, the Director of the Legal Department, following orders from the Minister of Health, signed an official dispatch that completely contradicted the conclusion.

“So is the issue of authority correct? The Ministry must also consider whether the Department Head has the authority to sign those implementing documents. I think not, no one has such authority,” the Minister emphasized.

The Minister said that sometimes we take the issuance of documents lightly without realizing how much restraint it creates and how many unnecessary sub-licenses it creates.

Minister Dung requested that, at this meeting, the Minister of Health must issue a notice to cancel Official Letter 1216 signed by the Director of the Legal Department. Signing that document is an abuse of power, creating a sub-license.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said the Ministry is struggling with the issues raised by the working group and is determined to adjust them on the basis of publicity, transparency, and creating maximum conditions for businesses.

"The procedures that need to be removed must be removed to avoid group interests and inconvenience for businesses. We must accept and correct any mistakes, and those that follow international law and cannot be removed for the sake of people's health. Because there are two sides here, one side shares with businesses, but the other side, some supermarkets and users, also strongly protest that it must be strict. Therefore, there must be harmony" - Minister Tien emphasized.

According to Vietnamnet.vn