Inspection of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment: Government Office's advice is not up to standard

The inspection by the Prime Minister's Working Group at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment clearly demonstrated a spirit of frankness and objectivity.

Minister and Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung speaks at the inspection of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

On December 21, the Prime Minister's Working Group led by Minister and Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung inspected the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) on the implementation of tasks assigned by the Government and the Prime Minister.

From the beginning of the year to December 5, the Ministry has completed 501 tasks, with 92 remaining unfinished tasks, of which 7 are overdue.

The Prime Minister's working group spent most of its time explaining and clarifying seven delayed tasks, as well as clarifying seven major issues requested by the Prime Minister.

Minister Mai Tien Dung also requested the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to report any problems encountered during the implementation of the task to the Working Group for synthesis and reporting to the Prime Minister. If any problems arise from the Government Office, the Government Office will also take responsibility.

The Government Office's advice on "giving out the topic" is not standard.

Regarding the task of developing a master plan for exploiting the Red River, which has been overdue for nearly 4 months, a representative of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said that the appraisal council has met and will report to the Prime Minister this December. However, the representative of the Ministry said that this "assignment" is not accurate, it should be to develop a water resources plan for the Red River basin.

According to Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha, this is a very urgent task, so the Ministry is still implementing it.

Hearing this opinion, Minister Mai Tien Dung immediately asked the representative of the functional department under the Government Office to report. The representative of the functional department said that during the implementation process, if the "question" is found to be inaccurate, the Ministry should make a recommendation again.

However, Minister Mai Tien Dung did not agree with his subordinate's explanation. He affirmed that the Government Office must admit its mistake to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

“Thus, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has been working while proposing to revise the assignment. The assignment on August 5th required a report in August, so how can it be done in more than 20 days? The time to carry out this task must be calculated in months, because planning is very difficult, even though this is an urgent task,” the Minister said frankly.

“Moreover, the Government leaders have agreed to revise the topic, but the Department leaders did not know. Once again, on behalf of the Government Office, I apologize to you all,” the Minister continued.

Another delayed task is the development of a project on a domestic coordination mechanism to address environmental issues in free trade agreements. The General Department of Environment explained that the delay was due to new developments related to the future of the TPP after the US presidential election, so more time is needed for further research. “It will be submitted to the Minister next week at the latest, and then submitted to the Prime Minister this December,” the General Department leader pledged.

Regarding the drafting of the Decree regulating the functions, tasks, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, which is now 21 days past the deadline, the Ministry said it will try its best to submit it in December, but there are still a number of different issues that need further clarification.

Notably, the Ministry has 4 delayed tasks related to the settlement of 4 complaints and denunciations. The Ministry Inspectorate said that 3 cases will be completed in December, and 1 case has requested to be postponed to January 2017. "These are urgent tasks assigned by the Prime Minister, outside the inspection plan approved by Minister Tran Hong Ha at the beginning of the year. Every year, the Ministry handles about 15-20 cases, this year alone there are 40 urgent cases, including very complicated cases that have lasted for up to 20 years," said the representative of the Ministry Inspectorate, requesting more time for similar cases.

Checking 336 large enterprises for waste discharge

Explaining the issues raised by the Prime Minister, Minister Tran Hong Ha said that the Ministry has implemented the review and handling of responsibilities of organizations and individuals related to the marine environmental incident. Currently, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is coordinating work, waiting for the opinions of the Central Inspection Committee, the opinions of the Politburo, and the Secretariat on a number of related groups and individuals. The Ministry will handle according to the provisions of the law to ensure strictness, accuracy, and democracy, and issues under its authority will be handled immediately.

Regarding warning and forecasting, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said that although the storm forecasting system has received investment, it is still very inadequate, only better than Laos and Cambodia compared to the region. In addition, 2016 was a year of very erratic climate change.

However, the Minister also mentioned the results in forecasting, such as in the recent flood in the Central region, the leaders of the provinces all said the forecast was very accurate, otherwise the damage would have been even greater.

Regarding the state management of the environment, the Minister added that after the marine environmental incident, according to the Prime Minister's opinion, the Ministry has inspected 336 enterprises that discharge 500 m3 or more of waste per day and is finalizing the conclusions. If according to the law, up to 90% of enterprises in general do not meet environmental requirements. The Ministry will have a specific report to the Prime Minister to see the "general picture" of the current environmental situation and propose solutions.

Regarding the issue of land accumulation, Minister Tran Hong Ha said that the most important thing is to study mechanisms and policies so that people can feel secure in contributing land for production, because people are still not confident when handing over land to others.

The Minister also said that he is researching and implementing many synchronous solutions to strengthen state management of minerals and handle illegal sand and gravel mining on rivers.

In particular, admitting that the local staff still has many shortcomings, such as in the district-level Department of Natural Resources and Environment, staff hold concurrent positions, and in the commune level, each term may have a different person, Minister Tran Hong Ha said that the Ministry is promoting the application of information technology following the model of the Government Office. He also commented that the spirit of a creative, active, honest, disciplined and orderly Government is spreading from the Government Office to the Ministry.

Prime Minister requests to do it quickly, do it immediately, do it neatly

Concluding the inspection, Minister Mai Tien Dung assessed that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment had provided a complete, specific report and clear explanations of the issues. With a huge workload, the Ministry has been very active and tried hard in carrying out its tasks, partly thanks to the Ministry establishing a Ministerial Working Group to urge subordinate units to carry out the tasks.

“Comrades raised the issue of many tasks assigned in a short time. But the work requires speed. The Prime Minister's spirit is that we cannot prolong the time to perform the task, we need to focus on doing it quickly, doing it right away, doing it neatly. The Government's working regulations also clearly state that if any Ministry does not respond within 5 days, it is considered as agreeing, if any problem occurs, the Minister must take responsibility,” the Head of the Working Group stated.

The Head of the Prime Minister's Working Group requested the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to promote the spirit of a creative, honest, and active Government, determined to carry out assigned tasks on time, ensuring quality, and at the same time properly implementing commitments to the National Assembly and the Prime Minister, especially issues of great public concern related to marine environmental incidents.

In particular, the urgent task of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is to build a marine environmental monitoring and warning system for four central provinces, and promptly announce that the marine environment is completely clean so that people can feel secure in producing and using seafood.

Along with that, pay attention to promptly responding to business recommendations sent to the System for receiving and responding to business recommendations operated by the Government Office.

Regarding the organizational structure, the Minister said that currently only the Government Office has submitted to the Prime Minister for signing and promulgating a Decree on organizational structure, functions and tasks. The working group will also report to the Prime Minister to assign the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment as the sole focal point for environmental management, avoiding the current situation of overlapping and dispersion of this task to the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

According to baochinhphu.vn