What's the difference between civil servants participating in the association and 'both playing football and blowing the whistle'?

“If a civil servant at the Food Safety Department joins a milk association or a civil servant at the Ministry of Industry and Trade joins a fertilizer association... then it is “both playing football and blowing the whistle”.

National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Sy Cuong - Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee expressed his views when giving comments on the draft Law on Associations at the Conference of full-time National Assembly Delegates on the afternoon of September 8.

Civil servants participating in the association will affect their management duties.

Expressing regret that the draft Law on Associations does not clearly define what an association is, delegate Nguyen Sy Cuong said that the provisions in the draft are still confusing and unclear, not knowing which is which: non-governmental organizations, associations, and funds. Then the law regulates foreign non-governmental organizations but not domestic ones, many provisions are not uniformly understood throughout the entire law, leading to difficulties in adjusting the law even when it is enacted.

According to Mr. Nguyen Sy Cuong, due to the ambiguous concept, this law makes the management of civil servants more confusing. He does not agree with the fact that civil servants are government employees but freely participate in non-governmental organizations and are members of associations because this affects the task of state management.

National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Sy Cuong

“For example, if an official from the Food Safety Department participates in a milk association, or an official from the Ministry of Industry and Trade grants licenses for fertilizers but participates in a fertilizer association... then it is “both playing football and blowing the whistle”, which is not appropriate at all. Or if a person working in a bank participates in a gold trading association, then everyone is in harmony” – Mr. Nguyen Sy Cuong said, adding that if the situation of freely participating in associations is followed, the law will not create discipline.

Referring to the case of restricted right to establish associations as stipulated in Clause 2, Article 7 of the draft law, civil servants, soldiers, and police are not allowed to found associations, register to establish associations, lead or manage association activities, except in cases assigned by competent authorities, Delegate Nghiem Vu Khai said that it is necessary to base on the reality of our country to determine appropriately.

“In reality, due to the assignment of the competent authority, some heads of associations are civil servants, such as Vice President of the Federation of Associations, and members of the Presidium of the association. So what is the concept of executive leadership, is that leadership?”, Mr. Khai gave an example.

Considering that due to the characteristics of our country, civil servants participate in the association to a certain extent, delegate Nghiem Vu Khai suggested that the above regulation should be amended in the direction that civil servants, police, and soldiers participate when approved by competent authorities, instead of stipulating "not allowed to participate except in assigned cases" to be more suitable for international integration.

Association must stop "clinging" to budget milk sources

Speaking at the conference, Dr. Hoang Ngoc Giao - Director of the Institute for Research on Law and Development Policy (under the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations) raised the question: “What is the purpose of making laws on associations? Is it to ensure the right to form associations for the people or to manage associations or both? Perhaps both are the right direction to ensure the right to form associations for the people but do not underestimate the role of state management. Management is to create conditions, not to eliminate or control the right to form associations.”

Mr. Hoang Ngoc Giao also frankly stated that the major problem arising in the activities of political, socio-political, socio-political-professional organizations today is that they operate in an administrative, inefficient, formalistic manner and use a large budget. That is not to mention human resources and staff.

“The Party is right to have a resolution and document stating that the staffing level will be stable until the end of 2016, and from 2017, it will implement contracts or provide financial support to carry out assigned tasks. The Budget Law also clearly states that these organizations must follow the principle of self-sufficiency, only supporting assigned tasks. So does this law solve this problem or not? I think it should and should have a part regulating the principles of budget spending and accountability. Because if it is completely excluded, there will be no place to solve it, we must look for laws to solve the transparency and accountability of these organizations” – Mr. Hoang Ngoc Giao expressed his opinion.

With the policy of gradually reducing subsidies for specialized organizations that follow the spirit of autonomy and self-sufficiency, Mr. Giao believes that we should create mechanisms such as granting the right to raise funds, receive non-governmental aid and support from Vietnamese enterprises on the principle of transparency "so that they can survive and not depend on the budget's mother's milk".

However, from another perspective, some delegates said that, regarding the costs for associations, we should also analyze the benefits they bring, both economically and politically and socially. Therefore, it is necessary to study regulations to create conditions for development, create equality among associations, reduce subsidies and contribute to social stability./.

According to VOV