National Assembly Chairman: 'If you are told to sign without being told anything more, how can you sign?'

"If it were easy, it would have been done long ago"

Commenting on the draft at the 20th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee on the morning of February 13, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue highly appreciated the preparation work of the State Audit - the drafting agency and the examining agency. National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue emphasized that to date, there has been no document regulating the issue of administrative sanctions in this field. This is a special and difficult field, because "if it were easy, people would have done it a long time ago".

The draft shows 7 groups of violations (common and frequent violations in practice). For each violation, the violating individual or organization must be subject to one of the following administrative sanctions: warning or fine (up to 50 million VND for individuals and up to 100 million VND for organizations). The National Assembly Chairman requested clarification of the scope, who will be punished, what will be punished according to the provisions of this Ordinance, which acts are under the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations, which cases are under the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants, etc.

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

“This is not very clear, so it extends to the issue of remedial measures, such as regulations on returning the money benefited from the violation. For example, if someone bribes or buys something, only the auditor or the auditor's family member will benefit, but if they bribe, how can they benefit? So the subject must be the person who receives the money but has not yet been criminally prosecuted” – Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue analyzed and noted that “it is also difficult to issue regulations that are confusing and cannot be implemented”.

Or how to handle acts of bribery and kickbacks that only go through an "intermediary" and have not yet reached the recipient according to regulations, according to him, also need to be clarified.

Regarding the regulation on penalties for not signing audit reports, Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue shared that during his time as State Auditor General, he witnessed people who absolutely refused to sign reports or minutes.

“If you tell him to sign here but don’t say anything more, how can he sign? The pen is gone, the chicken is dead. But if there are reservations, people will sign to confirm the work, agree with which points, reserve opinions on which points. That is equal in both rights and responsibilities. People must have their own rights. When the time comes, if you punish them and tell them to sign here without saying anything more, how can they sign?” – Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue said.

Therefore, the National Assembly Chairman suggested a careful review, especially regarding the impact and feasibility, and when "the explanations are clear, the National Assembly Standing Committee will be confident in pressing the button to approve the draft. If not, promulgation will only solve a very narrow "gap".

Interfering in auditing activities: Who to punish?

Mr. Nguyen Phu Cuong, Chairman of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee, also expressed concerns about the feasibility of some provisions, especially regarding remedial measures.

Citing regulations on the act of concealing violations of the law on public finance and public assets, and illegal interference in auditing activities and audit results, Mr. Nguyen Phu Cuong noted that the scope and content are very large, so forcing the return of illegal profits is very difficult because in some cases, the profits are not received, and are unintentional.

Or punishing the failure to implement some audit recommendations, according to the Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee, there are some audit recommendations that cannot be implemented but are fined, which is not satisfactory.

“Up to now, many audit recommendations have not been implemented. For example, recovering 50 million or 100 million from this enterprise, but the enterprise has gone bankrupt, cannot be implemented. Or some recommendations that are not close to reality are also not implemented,” said Mr. Cuong.

Mr. Nguyen Phu Cuong, Chairman of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee.

According to Mr. Cuong, the regulations on penalties for illegal interference in audit conclusions are also unclear: “The provincial party secretary, provincial chairman, and minister cannot intervene; only the auditor general and deputy auditor general can intervene. Who should be punished for this?”

Chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee Le Thi Nga proposed clarifying the difference between the act of not providing information and documents and the act of refusing to provide information and documents because the draft currently stipulates different levels of punishment.

“Why is the penalty for not providing information lower than that for refusing to provide information? Is the penalty for not answering lighter than that for refusing to answer?” – Ms. Le Thi Nga raised the question.

Secretary General of the National Assembly Bui Van Cuong also said that the regulations are not thorough and do not meet the requirements. The draft stipulates penalties for refusing to send reports; not providing or refusing to provide information and documents; not responding or refusing to respond, explain... However, according to the Law on Handling Administrative Violations, an administrative violation is only handled once, so Mr. Bui Van Cuong said that according to the draft, paying the fine is enough and they are no longer responsible for sending reports or responding.

"This is a punishment for existence, unreasonable, lacking deterrence and creating loopholes for individuals and organizations to not provide information, in order to cover up other violations" - said the Secretary General of the National Assembly.

After discussion, the National Assembly Standing Committee voted to agree in principle, assigning the State Audit and the National Assembly's Law Committee to absorb the opinions at the meeting, complete the draft to resubmit in writing, and issue in February 2023, effective from May 1, 2023./.