Strong decentralization according to the principle: 'Local decision, local action, local responsibility'

Key Contents

The Law on Organization of Local Government (amended) was drafted by the Government to submit to the National Assembly, consisting of 7 chapters and 54 articles. This is a draft law to implement the Party's policy of streamlining the organization of the political system, by not organizing district-level governments and implementing a two-level government model, while continuing to promote decentralization and delegation between central and local state agencies; between provincial-level local governments and commune-level local governments.

The issue of concern in the draft law is to promote decentralization to provincial and communal authorities with the principle of "local decision, local action, local responsibility" to promote the initiative and creativity of local authorities at all levels, unleash all resources for local development, contributing to the overall development of the country in the new era.

At the conference to collect comments on the draft law organized by the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province at the end of April 2025, the issue that delegates were concerned about was the principle of organization and operation of local governments must ensure democratic centralism; ensure professionalism, efficiency, modernity; promote people's mastery, especially the mechanism of supervision and accountability as an important foundation to promote the effectiveness of local government operations.

Regarding decentralization, delegation of power and clear definition of tasks and powers of local authorities at provincial and communal levels, delegates agreed with the viewpoint and principle of decentralization "locality decides, locality acts, locality is responsible".

For provincial-level local authorities, in addition to the tasks and powers prescribed in current regulations, the draft Law has added a number of provisions to promote decentralization from the Central Government to provincial-level local authorities, especially in promulgating mechanisms, policies, and areas of planning, finance, budget, investment, etc. of the locality.

For local authorities at the commune level to perform the tasks and powers of current local authorities at the district and commune levels, legal documents are issued to decide on issues within the authority, scope and management tasks of local authorities at the commune level.

Promote responsibility when decentralizing

The draft Law stipulates that based on practical situations, the Provincial People's Committee and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee are responsible for promoting decentralization and delegation of their tasks and powers to the People's Committee and the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee for commune-level issues to be implemented more effectively and practically, ensuring effectiveness and efficiency in state management and promoting local socio-economic development.

In particular, promoting decentralization and authorization to local authorities at ward level to manage and develop urban areas and urban economy; promoting decentralization and authorization to local authorities in special zones to grant autonomy in deciding issues to ensure independence, sovereignty, and national territorial integrity in seas and islands, promoting advantages and potential of marine economy, international economic integration, ensuring attracting people to live, protect and develop islands.

In addition to agreeing with the draft, Dr. Dinh Van Liem - Head of the Faculty of Law, School of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vinh University), said that it is necessary to specify the "boundary" of authority between the Central and local governments and between local government levels. It is necessary to clearly define "who decides", "who is responsible", avoid shirking responsibility and waiting for opinions from superiors according to the "ask - give" mechanism. At the same time, in the regulations on decentralization, it is necessary to clearly define responsibilities and implementation mechanisms to ensure transparency, efficiency, especially enhancing the real autonomy of local governments.

Dr. Dinh Van Liem also said: Japanese and German laws both establish a specific division of powers between the central and local levels, on that basis, it is possible to look up clearly in each field such as land, resources, environment, which level does what, avoiding overlapping or leaving blank the powers and duties of each level.

“

The law needs to specify the "boundaries" of authority between the central and local governments and between local government levels: "who decides", "who is responsible", avoiding shirking responsibility and waiting for opinions from superiors according to the "ask - give" mechanism.

Dr. Dinh Van Liem - Dean of Law Faculty, School of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vinh University)

Regarding the regulations on the tasks and powers of the Provincial People's Council, some opinions said that it is necessary to increase the actual power and be supervised by an independent mechanism when issuing specific policies; at the same time, the process of electing members of the People's Committee at the same level should be carried out before appointing the positions of heads of specialized agencies of the People's Committee, instead of appointing the positions of heads of specialized agencies of the People's Committee first, then carrying out the process of electing members of the People's Committee as is currently the case.

Regarding the duties and powers of the Provincial People's Committee, some opinions say that the regulations prescribe many powers, but lack regulations that bind accountability and a mechanism to monitor implementation.

Some opinions also pointed out some unreasonable provisions in the draft law, suggesting that they be considered for removal. For example, the provisions on the tasks and powers of the Provincial People's Council in the field of apparatus organization and government building are to decide on the number of civil servants in the agencies of the local government at its level and the total number of civil servants of the local government at the commune level, the number of employees receiving salaries from the state budget in public service units under the management of the locality according to the staffing quota assigned by the competent authority.

However, according to comrade Le Van Linh - Deputy Director of the Department of Home Affairs: On July 18, 2022, the Politburo issued Regulation No. 70 on the management of the political system's payroll, unifying the management of the organization, apparatus, and payroll of the political system from the central to local levels; in which, at the provincial level, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and the City Party Committee are in charge. Because the Law has not changed, for a long time, the assignment and use of payrolls have been based on the notification of the Provincial Party Committee, and the Provincial People's Committee has "distributed" and submitted to the Provincial People's Council to issue a resolution for implementation. Thus, it has inadvertently added another level of decision, prolonging the time. Therefore, it is recommended to remove this regulation for the Provincial People's Council, and after the decision of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Committee, on that basis, assigns payrolls and manages payrolls to agencies and units.

This also needs to be done similarly for the People's Council at the commune level, because the People's Council at the commune level cannot go against the decisions of the Provincial Party Committee, People's Council, and Provincial People's Committee; on the other hand, the staff at the commune level is strictly regulated according to the position, it cannot be "cut" and cannot be added.

“

Proposal to consider removing regulations on duties and powers for provincial People's Councils in deciding on civil servant payrolls in local government agencies.
local authorities and the total number of civil servants of the local government at the commune level,
Number of people working on state budget in public service units
Public sector under local management according to the approved staffing quota
competent authority

Comrade Le Van Linh - Deputy Director of Department of Home Affairs

The implementation of a two-level local government with a new management model and a large workload requires the Government to continue researching, revising and supplementing the draft Law on Local Government (amended) to submit to the National Assembly in the direction of stronger decentralization and delegation of power, increasing the initiative and self-responsibility of local governments at all levels and their leaders; at the same time, cutting unnecessary steps.

Along with that, there are measures and solutions to improve the capacity of the new commune-level government when it has to "shoulder" the functions and tasks of the current district and commune levels; with the provincial government, it is also necessary to innovate management methods and approaches when increasing the number of focal points from dozens to hundreds of units.