National Assembly Delegate Nghe An: Clarify in which cases people are inspected and supervised at the grassroots level

Overview of the group discussion session. Photo: Phan Hau

Delegates from Nghe An Delegation gave their opinions and participated in the discussion of the draft Law on Implementing Democracy at Grassroots Level. Delegate Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An Province, highly agreed with the name, structure, and scope of the draft Law; and at the same time, gave some comments.

Accordingly, the delegate suggested that it is necessary to standardize the concept of "residential community". According to the delegate's analysis, this concept is not only present in the project on implementing democracy at the grassroots level, but also in the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, the Law on Forestry 2017, and the Law on Land 2013. However, the three laws that have been promulgated as well as the draft Law on Implementing Democracy at the Grassroots Level are different.

Regarding the implementation principles, the draft Law stipulates: "ensuring the leadership of the Party, the management of the State and the core role of the Fatherland Front and its member organizations in implementing democracy at the grassroots level". Delegates suggested considering the phrase "member organizations" because in the Law on the Front and the Charter of the Front, these member organizations are alliance organizations of the Front; meanwhile, the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress clearly states: "The Party leads, the State manages, the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations are the core".

Thus, there is a complete difference in the concepts of “socio-political organizations” and “member organizations”, so delegates proposed to adjust them in accordance with the spirit of the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress; as well as the content of this Law project needs to clarify the core role of the Front and socio-political organizations to clearly demonstrate this mechanism.

Delegate Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province spoke. Photo: Phan Hau

Regarding the content of people's supervision, the Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province said that the draft Law has not mentioned enough. In particular, regarding the subject of people's supervision, although it mentioned the organization as the local government at the commune level, but regarding individuals, it only mentioned "cadres, civil servants, and people working in the commune-level government apparatus".

The delegate of Nghe An Delegation asked: Who supervises cadres, civil servants, and public employees in the government apparatus at all levels, other than the commune level? When, after working hours, cadres and civil servants return to their residence. Therefore, Ms. Vo Thi Minh Sinh proposed that for individuals subject to people's supervision, the term should be adjusted to "cadres, civil servants, and people working in the government apparatus at all levels".

Regarding the content of supervision, the delegates also suggested that people not only supervise the implementation of legal regulations on the organization of activities of local authorities at the commune level and the law compliance of cadres, civil servants and workers, but also supervise the implementation of decisions of the community when cadres, civil servants and workers return to their place of residence.

Also related to the draft Law on Implementing Democracy at the Grassroots Level, delegate Dang Xuan Phuong - Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education proposed to have regulations to avoid mixing the concept of "base" of the administrative system and "base" of other organizations in the political system, because according to the delegate's assessment, there is currently an unsynchronized approach.

Delegate Dang Xuan Phuong - Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education spoke. Photo: Phan Hau

According to the delegate of Nghe An Delegation, the draft Law needs to separate the issues of “people inspection” and “people supervision”. Mr. Dang Xuan Phuong explained: the approach to this issue needs to start from the root of the provisions of the Constitution. First of all, “People exercise State power at the grassroots level through direct democracy”, which means that people are informed, discussed, and give opinions on issues of the State apparatus at the grassroots level. Thus, to exercise this right, the subject is the people who only have the right to supervise, not the right to inspect the work of State management.

The second aspect is that “people exercise other basic rights in participating in economic and social life and community self-management”, so which content belongs to community self-management, people are inspected. From that, the question arises: how should the draft Law clarify different methods of inspection and supervision?

Delegate Dang Xuan Phuong also discussed and expressed some concerns when the draft Law mentioned the form of people giving opinions through social networks Zalo, Viber, Facebook... according to legal regulations. The delegate said that this is an issue that needs to be discussed carefully, especially which content can be consulted and which content cannot be consulted through social networking platforms?

At the same time, the delegate of Nghe An Delegation also requested the Drafting Committee to continue research to express more clearly and explicitly the two issues in the categories of "people participating in exercising State power through direct democracy at the grassroots level" and "people participating in community self-management work".