Innovation marks of the People's Council of Nghe An province, term XVII, 2016 - 2021

Decide on key issues

Speaking atConference to summarize activities of the 17th Provincial People's Council, term 2016-2021 on April 16, comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee affirmed: The Party's viewpoints and guidelines, the State's legal policies, the policies of the Executive Committee, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee have been promptly institutionalized by the Provincial People's Council into 315 resolutions, promptly meeting the practical requirements of leadership, serving as a legal basis for People's Committees at all levels and specialized agencies to organize and implement. In particular, many resolutions on specific mechanisms and policies have been issued, creating an important driving force to promote economic development, ensure social security, maintain national defense - security, order, and social safety, which have been highly appreciated by the majority of voters and people of the province...

The 17th Provincial People's Council, term 2016 - 2021, consists of 91 delegates, an increase of 6 delegates compared to the previous term. The quality of delegates has been improved in both professional qualifications and political theory.

The Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council has 8 members, including: Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, 2 Vice Chairmen of the Provincial People's Council, Heads of 4 Committees and Chief of Office of the Provincial People's Council.

The delegations were established corresponding to 21 district-level administrative units, in which the Head of the Provincial People's Council delegation is mainly a district-level leader.

Panorama of the 20th session of the 17th Nghe An Provincial People's Council. Photo: Thanh Duy

From the beginning of the term up to now, the Provincial People's Council has organized 20 meetings, including 9 extraordinary meetings to decide on urgent and important local issues related to land management, investment in key projects, organization and personnel arrangement, etc. The Provincial People's Council meetings have had many innovations, ensuring seriousness, science and method. The Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council has closely coordinated with the Provincial People's Committee, the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee and relevant agencies in unifying the meeting agenda.

The chair's session management work has been innovated in a democratic, scientific and flexible direction. After each session, the approved contents are promptly completed, revised and issued. Information work before, during and after the session has been enhanced, creating conditions for voters and people to follow; most of the sessions of the Provincial People's Council are broadcast live. The installation of an online telephone line to directly receive voters' opinions and recommendations at the session has been welcomed by voters, acknowledging the openness and transparency of the local government.

The Provincial People's Council for the 2016 - 2021 term also issued 315 resolutions, including 54 resolutions onmechanisms and policies for socio-economic developmentin the province. Resolutions were issued promptly, specifying the issues assigned in the legal documents of the superior State agencies, proposing development measures in local areas, and at the same time proposing many specific mechanisms and policies with high feasibility, creating an important driving force to promote economic development, ensure social security, maintain national defense - security, order, and social safety, which were highly appreciated by the majority of voters and people of the province. When discovering that the content of the resolution was no longer suitable to reality and not feasible, the Standing Committee and Committees of the Provincial People's Council proposed that the Provincial People's Council promptly adjust, supplement or replace it to meet practical requirements.

Improve the quality of meeting activities

Performing the supervisory function, at the meetings, the Provincial People's Council reviews the implementation of tasks of agencies through 2 groups of reports: work reports of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council, the Provincial People's Council Committees, the Provincial People's Committee, the Provincial People's Court, the Provincial People's Procuracy, the Provincial Civil Judgment Enforcement Agency and specialized reports on various fields. Compared to the previous term, the 2016 - 2021 term of the Provincial People's Council reviewed 7 more reports. The reports were thoroughly examined, reviewed and comprehensively assessed on the implementation of tasks as well as the responsibilities of agencies and units in the assigned fields, pointing out what has been done, what has not been done, the causes and proposed solutions.

Delegates participate in questioning at the 17th session of the 17th Nghe An Provincial People's Council. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Multi-dimensional from reflection, information collection of functional agencies, press agencies, voters' recommendations, proposals of provincial People's Council delegates... From there, the content brought up for questioning are key, urgent issues that are of interest to voters and public opinion. Some of the contents of questioning can be mentioned as: The implementation of the new school model and "socialization" work in schools; the situation of social insurance arrears; Health Insurance Fund deficit; resettlement work, stabilizing production and life of people in areas affected by hydropower projects...

According to the assessment of the Provincial People's Council, in the past term, the question and answer sessions at the meeting were lively and frank (on average, each meeting had 15 questions). The new point in the term is that the Provincial People's Council re-questioned and organized an "open" question session at the regular meeting at the end of the term on the responsibilities of the Provincial People's Committee, heads of relevant departments, branches and sectors in implementing resolutions on thematic supervision...

In the 2016 - 2021 term, the Provincial People's Council, the Standing Committee, and the Provincial People's Council Committees organized 43 thematic supervision sessions. Of which,supervision of the Provincial People's Councilis a new form of supervision compared to the past and plays a very important role. The supervision topics of the People's Council are issues with many difficulties and shortcomings, which have a great impact on the socio-economic life in the province, and are considered and decided at the session. The supervision of the Standing Committee and the Provincial People's Council Committees focuses on specific areas, supervising the settlement of voters' opinions and recommendations, the settlement of complaints, denunciations and recommendations of citizens.

Along with that, the explanation activity at the meetings of the Standing Committee of the People's Council is a new form, but the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council has organized it in a systematic and orderly manner, with two sessions per year. The explanation sessions are organized seriously and with quality. The responsible subjects include both the presiding organizations and individuals and the coordinating organizations and individuals. Relevant and affected subjects are invited to attend in full. At the explanation session on the implementation of the resettlement policy of the Hua Na Hydropower Project, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council invited 3 Village Chiefs subject to resettlement (Pieng Cu, Huoi Siu - Huoi Lan, Pu Sai Cang) to represent the households to fully, objectively and truthfully reflect the lives of people in the resettlement area. Also through this new form of supervision, it has contributed to solving outstanding issues, meeting practical requirements, enhancing transparency and accountability of State management agencies to the people and society.

The Ethnic Council of the Provincial People's Council supervises the implementation of the project to bring electricity to villages and hamlets without electricity in Quy Chau district. Photo: Mai Hoa

Pursue the issue that voters reflect to the end

During the term, the provincial People's Council delegates have seriously implemented the contact with voters before and after the two regular meetings each year. The contact with voters has attracted the attention and participation of voters and raised the awareness of accountability and acceptance of functional agencies and local authorities; clearly demonstrating the connection between delegates and voters. The role, responsibility and skills of delegates in contact have been raised towards addressing specific issues, close to the content of the meeting and the socio-economic situation of the locality.

Regarding this issue, Comrade Cao Thi Hien - Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Council said that, in addition to the regular contact form, the Provincial People's Council has organized meetings with voters on topics, targeting those directly affected by the proposed policies to have more information to serve the consideration and decision at the session. Many issues that voters have reflected but have not been promptly resolved by the sectors, the Provincial People's Council delegates continue to follow up and pursue until they are satisfactorily resolved.

Comrade Cao Thi Hien also affirmed that the new point in this work is that the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council assigned the Committees to examine the results of resolving voters' opinions and recommendations by sector and field and to organize the examination of the Report on resolving voters' recommendations of the Provincial People's Committee. Based on the examination reports of the Standing Committee and the Committees, the Provincial People's Council passed a Resolution on resolving voters' opinions and recommendations, clearly stating that the opinions reflected at the previous session had not been resolved or were not yet finalized, and needed to be focused on resolving.

During the term, the provincial People's Council delegates received 1,354 opinions and recommendations from voters. The number and rate of recommendations resolved reached 94.6%. The quality of resolution and response was improved, including many outstanding and comprehensive results, which were recognized and highly appreciated by voters.

Voter Quynh Luu speaks at the meeting with delegates of the 17th Provincial People's Council. Photo: Viet Hung

Coordination is taken to the next level

The Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council closely and regularly coordinates with the Provincial People's Committee in the following activities: Preparing contents to be submitted to the session and organizing the implementation of the Resolution of the Provincial People's Council to bring the resolution into life; handling issues arising between the two sessions to create favorable conditions for the Provincial People's Committee in directing and operating; in meeting voters, receiving citizens, receiving and resolving complaints and denunciations of citizens.

Along with that, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council effectively coordinated with the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee in activities of meeting voters, synthesizing voters' opinions and recommendations. The coordination was carried out on the basis of the Regulations on coordination and annual assessment and experience drawing. The Provincial Fatherland Front Committee and its member organizations actively monitored the activities of State agencies and Provincial People's Council delegates, contributed opinions on government building, participated in monitoring and surveying activities on related issues. The close coordination between the Provincial People's Council and the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee and its member organizations created high consensus in the political system and among the people.

The coordination between the Provincial People's Council, the Provincial People's Court, the Provincial People's Procuracy and relevant agencies was maintained, ensuring the provisions of law, especially in preparing the contents of the sessions and performing the supervisory function. At the sessions, the Provincial People's Council reviewed the reports on the performance of the Provincial People's Court and the Provincial People's Procuracy.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Nguyen Xuan Son met with people of Nghi Trung commune (Nghi Loc). Photo: Mai Hoa

In the coordination work between the Provincial People's Council and the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, Major General Nguyen Huu Cau - a member of the 14th National Assembly, former Director of Nghe An Provincial Police said: "When the Provincial People's Council organizes a session, all members of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation attend. On the contrary, all information and documents of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation are reported in writing to the Provincial People's Council, thereby grasping the results of the National Assembly session. The Provincial People's Council is also the agency where we receive all aspects of the actual social life of our province, on that basis to select important issues when participating in the National Assembly session. The coordination relationship between the National Assembly Delegation and the Provincial People's Council can be said to be two but one, especially now that the Office of the National Assembly Delegation and the Office of the Provincial People's Council have merged".

Emphasizing this content, the Standing Committee of the 17th Provincial People's Council said that the issues reflected by voters and those beyond the province's authority, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council has a written report sent to the Provincial National Assembly Delegation and the National Assembly Standing Committee to pursue and find solutions to solve practical problems arising in local life.