Many conflicting opinions on the establishment of provincial Fisheries Surveillance

While the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) authorized the Government to present a proposal to establish a provincial-level Fisheries Surveillance force, the Review Report of the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment (KH,CN&MT) had three types of opinions on this issue.

Presenting the Draft Law on Fisheries (amended) this morning, June 6, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said that the force responsible for ensuring law enforcement at sea regarding fisheries and directly carrying out the task of protecting aquatic resources at sea includes: At the central level, there is the Fisheries Control Department and 5 Regional Fisheries Control Sub-Departments; At the provincial level, there are Fisheries Sub-Departments of 28 coastal provinces and cities.

Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong

The unit assigned to organize the implementation of the task of protecting aquatic resources is the Inspection Department or the Legal Department, Inspection Department of the Fisheries Sub-Department under the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. To carry out this task, in 28 coastal provinces and cities, there are 94 ships, boats and canoes; the human resources performing the task are 345 crew members (of which 92 are civil servants, 71 are employees; 182 are contract workers).

"Thus, the establishment of provincial-level Fisheries Inspectorate will basically not create additional human resources and means, only generate state budget to pay allowances for this team, like the current Fisheries Inspectorate is about 9 billion VND/year" - Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong said when proposing the establishment of provincial-level Fisheries Inspectorate.

In the report on the review of the draft Law on Fisheries (amended), Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Phan Xuan Dung said there are three types of opinions on this issue.

The first type of opinion suggests continuing to maintain the current central Fisheries Surveillance force, not establishing a provincial Fisheries Surveillance system; but having a policy to increase resources and regimes for specialized fisheries inspectors, and legalizing regulations on the organization and operation of Fisheries Surveillance in the draft Law.

Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Phan Xuan Dung

The reason given by the delegates is that the Summary Report on 13 years of implementing the Fisheries Law has not thoroughly evaluated the activities and effectiveness of the fisheries inspection force as well as the fisheries control force. Therefore, transferring the specialized inspection force at the fisheries sub-departments of 28 provinces to fisheries control is not appropriate, but only needs to increase resources, regimes for inspection and have good coordination with the regional fisheries control. In addition, establishing additional provincial fisheries control forces will not be consistent with the spirit of Resolution 39.

The second type of opinion suggests that in addition to the central Fisheries Surveillance force, it is necessary to establish a Fisheries Surveillance system in 28 coastal provinces as in the draft Law on the basis of transferring from the specialized fisheries inspection force at the fisheries sub-departments, because the local specialized inspection force still faces many difficulties in performing its tasks because it is operating under the Inspection Law, does not have accompanying support tools, does not have coercive sanctions like fisheries inspectors, and does not enjoy policies and regimes when conducting inspections at sea like fisheries inspectors.

The third type of opinion suggests that in addition to the central Fisheries Surveillance force, depending on the specific characteristics of each locality, provincial Fisheries Surveillance should be established on the basis of restructuring the specialized fisheries inspection force in the locality.

“This will be a powerful tool to help overcome the situation of overexploitation of aquatic resources in the locality. The Government will base on the nature and requirements of each locality to regulate the establishment of fisheries control forces in some provinces accordingly, such as provinces with long coastlines, complex terrain, and a large number of operating vessels...” – Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment stated.

According to him, the conversion from specialized fisheries inspection force to fisheries control in some provinces with special sea areas will basically not create additional staff, ensuring implementation in accordance with the spirit of Resolution 39.

According to CAND