Why has the policy not been put into practice?

The opinion is that the promulgation of policies and laws is far from reality, making those who implement them, no matter how determined, discouraged because they cannot implement them, or they just do it while "listening" for fear of making mistakes and being responsible.

Border Guard officers instruct ethnic minorities on rice planting techniques. Illustrative photo.

Life is constantly moving, requiring policies and laws to always follow life and meet practical requirements. That is an objective requirement.

The following two examples of two National Assembly delegates show that reality requires us to innovate and stay close to life to issue policies and laws that ensure feasibility.

First example:

The opinion of the Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on National Defense and Security, Vo Trong Viet, reflects that many leaders often say "hot above, cold below", but many "local brothers do not agree".

Mr. Vo Trong Viet assessed that the recent socio-economic situation was stable, developing, drastic, creative and creating trust. However, Mr. Vo Trong Viet also said that the socio-economic picture of the country still has some shortcomings.

"First, the negativity and inertia in the government apparatus are too great," Mr. Vo Trong Viet commented and said that if this problem is not fixed and not resolutely addressed, it will definitely be a huge bottleneck.

“On this occasion, I would like to talk about some leaders who often say “hot above, cold below”. When I went to the locality, I saw that my comrades did not agree. They said that what the superiors did was wrong, but what the subordinates did was hot and they died,” said Mr. Vo Trong Viet.

The Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee also added: “People say, the people above don’t do anything, they just talk. You can get angry, but if you just talk, it’s not wrong. The people below do things, there are mistakes, so getting angry is wrong.” From there, Vo Trong, Mr. Viet suggested that this saying should not be abused…

Therefore, Mr. Vo Trong Viet suggested that in the coming time, the Government should pay attention to the issue of increasing decentralization, because if decentralization is done halfway like this, the locality will face many difficulties.

“If the Government tries to play the role of a locality, it will be seen that there is a blockage and that decentralization is not yet complete, it is very difficult to do and solve,” said Mr. Vo Trong Viet, and suggested that decentralization should be stronger. “Comrades, you see, everyone also said that everything is directed by the Government and the Prime Minister. So if the Prime Minister does not direct, then it is not done? Doing so will lose the autonomy of the locality.” After this comment, Mr. Vo Trong Viet said that if we continue to “think in a piecemeal manner, the incident will hinder the development of the country,” and suggested that the entire political system needs to focus on removing blockages in both legislation and execution for the country’s major, fundamental issues.

Second example:

Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The proposed that the National Assembly should change regulations on capital allocation for public investment projects to overcome the situation where capital has been allocated but not disbursed, such as the Long Thanh Airport Project.

According to the Law on Public Investment, when the National Assembly (NA) allocates capital, the next tasks will be implemented. Doing so will ensure that there is enough capital to fully implement, but it leads to social frustration, specifically, capital is recorded but disbursement is very difficult. Citing the example of the Long Thanh International Airport Project, Mr. Nguyen Van The said that when the NA agreed on the policy, the Government directed the Ministry to implement it. At that time, it was known how much money was allocated, but because this was a national key project, it had to conduct an architectural model competition according to international procedures, which took a lot of time.

“The entire bidding documents, bid evaluation, bid evaluation, and award announcement must follow the order, there is no other way, it takes a lot of time. Once we have the terminal architectural plan, we can conduct international bidding, bid evaluation, and award announcement… “These tasks take more than a year. Thus, just the architectural competition and project preparation take nearly 2 years,” said the Minister of Transport.

Also according to the process, the Ministry of Transport will report to the National Assembly about the Long Thanh Airport Project in October. After the National Assembly agrees, the Government will approve the project. Then comes the stage of deciding which unit will be assigned to set up the investment project. The selected investor will then invite bids and prepare technical design documents and estimates. It will take about 6-9 months to have the approval documents. From there, the construction bidding will take place, and then we will know who will do what. This also means that from the day the National Assembly approves the capital allocation for the Long Thanh Airport project, after going through all the stages,took 3 years"Following the public investment procedures, there is no other way," said Mr. Nguyen Van The, complaining that "we have allocated money but for 3 years we have only been concerned with procedures, not to mention site clearance."

Based on the above reality, Minister Nguyen Van The proposed to change the capital allocation and procedures of the Public Investment Law to be more appropriate. "It is clear that the progress is slow, but if we follow the Public Investment Law, we want to do it quickly, but there is no other way," said Mr. Nguyen Van The.

Thus, policies and laws have not yet entered life. Although subordinates try very hard to organize and implement them, it is very difficult to the point that they have to "listen" while doing them because they are afraid of making mistakes and violating discipline, with the typical saying "the superiors only talk, they don't do anything wrong, the subordinates get hot and die", to affirm that the policies still have many shortcomings. It is really necessary to share with the grassroots because of the delay and inertia in the public apparatus. We often say that we strongly decentralize to sectors, localities, and grassroots, but why is it still stuck and slow to change?

Even the Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The had to speak up, the progress of Long Thanh Airport is slow, he wants to speed it up but there is no other way if following the Law on Public Investment. It is really heartbreaking that the capital has been allocated, the money is available but after 3 years the procedures have not been completed, this is an inadequacy, a big waste, who is responsible for this?

The inadequacy of policies and laws is not new, but it has been following life for too long and has been very slow to change, as shown in the two examples above. The inappropriate provisions of policies and laws clearly demonstrate the lack of practicality of those who design and build them. If policies and laws are not appropriate, they must be amended so that they can be put into practice.