Merging the 3 offices of the National Assembly, People's Council, and People's Committee: 'The Chief of Office holds two whistles in one hand'

The pilot merger of 3 Offices: People's Council, National Assembly Delegation and People's Committee is being carried out in 12 localities. Many issues were raised when the National Assembly Standing Committee discussed a number of major issues of the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Government Organization and the Law on Organization of Local Government.

Amend the law to create a legal basis

Chairman of the Law Committee Nguyen Khac Dinh said that many opinions of National Assembly deputies and the review opinions of the Law Committee proposed to amend and supplement regulations on the support apparatus of local authorities to implement the policy of merging the three offices of the National Assembly Delegation, People's Council and People's Committee.

Regarding this issue, the Government's Submission stated that the merger of the Office of the National Assembly Delegation, the Office of the People's Council and the Office of the Provincial People's Committee is being piloted according to Resolution No. 56/2017/QH14 dated November 24, 2017 of the National Assembly and Resolution No. 580/2018/UBTVQH14 dated October 4, 2018 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

Chairman of the Law Committee Nguyen Khac Dinh. Photo: Quochoi.vn

During the process of drafting the Law, the Government carefully considered this issue and proposed not to stipulate in the draft Law issues that are being piloted, and not to conduct preliminary and final reviews according to the policies of competent authorities.

The Standing Committee of the Law Committee found that the policy of merging the Office of the National Assembly Delegation, the Office of the People's Council, and the Office of the Provincial People's Committee into a common advisory and support office was stated in Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW. Currently, 12 localities have implemented the pilot.

“If the regulations related to the local government support apparatus are not amended, there will be no legal basis for the arrangement and reorganization of the three Offices. And so, after the end of the pilot, to organize and reorganize the Offices differently from the current ones, the Government will have to submit to the National Assembly amendments and supplements to the Law to regulate this issue,” Mr. Nguyen Khac Dinh noted.

For the above reasons, the Standing Committee of the People's Committee proposed to immediately amend regulations related to the local government support apparatus to create a legal basis and anticipate the reorganization of the 3 Offices after the pilot.

"One neck, two heads, don't know how to turn around"

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Phung Quoc Hien said that currently 12 localities have merged 3 offices and through the pilot, it can be seen that "there is indeed a problem". If the office of the People's Council and the National Assembly Delegation and the elected system are merged, it is reasonable and no one objects, but the merger of the elected agency office with the People's Committee office creates problems.

“The Office of the People's Committee does not only do the work of 'delicious rice and sweet soup' but also does professional work. A Chief of Office raises an issue, one hand is a report, the other hand is an investigation, one hand holds two whistles, the Office is like one neck serving two heads, not knowing which way to turn”, the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly stated the reality and said that this issue needs to be considered.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Phung Quoc Hien. Photo: Quochoi.vn

Mr. Phung Quoc Hien proposed two options. One is to follow the pilot direction, which is to merge 3 Offices into one, "1 neck, 3 heads". Option 2 is to merge only 2 agencies, the People's Council Office and the National Assembly Delegation Office, and ask for the Central Committee's opinion last October to finalize. According to him, this approach is reasonable and in accordance with principles.

Mr. Phan Thanh Binh - Chairman of the Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Children and Adolescents also expressed concern that although the Offices serve, they have advisory status, in which advisory supervision in elected bodies is different from advisory implementation of the People's Committee.

"If the Provincial Party Secretary is also the Chairman of the People's Council, in addition to the Provincial Chairman and Head of the National Assembly Delegation, how should the General Office be directed?" - Mr. Phan Thanh Binh raised the question.

Commenting on this issue, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said: “This is the third time we have merged and separated. Let’s not split and merge again this time, because every time it happens, there are all sorts of problems.”

According to the National Assembly Chairman, the pilot project in 12 localities over 3 quarters can be evaluated in October to have a basis for assessing the impact at the upcoming National Assembly session.

Representing the agency in charge of drafting the bill, Minister of Home Affairs Le Vinh Tan also agreed that two options could be designed to seek opinions from competent authorities.

“I personally agree to have 2 offices: the People's Committee Office (a staff agency, not a service agency) and the People's Council Office and the National Assembly Delegation. But the Party's resolution says to merge 3, so we have to ask for the opinion of the competent authority on this issue,” Mr. Le Vinh Tan emphasized./.