Pay attention to listening and resolving voters' legitimate aspirations

Expand and diversify forms of receiving voters' petitions

The People's Council of Nghe An province has many innovative solutions, expanded the reception channels, strengthened supervision, thereby, bringing efficiency in resolving opinions and recommendations of voters. Since the beginning of the 18th term of the People's Council of Nghe An province up to now, voter contact activities have continued to attract the attention and participation of voters of all classes; strengthening the close relationship between People's Council delegates with voters and people. The Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council has solutions to diversify forms of voter contact, thereby receiving more than 700 opinions and recommendations.

At the 7th session (taking place from July 12-14, 2022), Nghe An Provincial People's Councilthrough the ProjectInnovate and improve the quality and efficiency of the activities of the 18th Provincial People's Council, term 2021 - 2026, including receiving voters' petitions through voter contact conferences of Provincial People's Council delegates before and after regular sessions (usually each year, there are 4 voter contact meetings for 2 regular sessions); through online telephone lines at the Provincial People's Council meetings and expanding voter contact in villages, hamlets, residential groups, contacting voters at workplaces, places of residence, at enterprises; contacting voters by topic.

The 7th session of the 18th term People's Council of Nghe An province. Photo: Thanh Duy

In addition, voters can express their thoughts, aspirations, recommendations, and feedback through meetings and discussions with the Provincial People's Council delegates; by phone or by email. Some Provincial People's Council delegates also attend Party cell meetings to receive and listen to voters' opinions. The time for contacting voters is flexible and appropriate to the contact subjects.

Expanding and diversifying channels for receiving feedback and opinions helps the Provincial People's Council receive more information, more promptly, fully and multi-dimensionally from life without being limited and just waiting for the voter contact period. There is a reality, invoter contact conferenceIn some places, the main constituents are representative voters; or the conferences are held at a time when some voters cannot attend and reflect due to work, so many of the people's thoughts and aspirations do not reach the relevant levels.

The People's Council of Nghe An province has also organized a number of meetings with voters on thematic issues on mechanisms, policies and regulations developed by the Provincial People's Committee and submitted to the Provincial People's Council; coordinated meetings with voters of National Assembly deputies with People's Council deputies at all levels to facilitate the organization and synthesis of voters' petitions. The petitions must state the full name and address of the petitioner to promptly inform voters of the results of the settlement and response of the competent authority. The settlement of voters' petitions has received attention from the Provincial People's Committee, all levels and sectors, creating positive changes, with increasing accountability and acceptance.

National Assembly deputies of constituency No. 4 of Nghe An province and provincial People's Council deputies of constituency No. 1 met with voters of wards: Ben Thuy, Truong Thi, Trung Do (Vinh city). Photo: Thanh Duy

Since the beginning of the term, the 18th Provincial People's Council has received more than 550 petitions, complaints, denunciations, recommendations and reflections from citizens; classified and forwarded 225 petitions and letters from citizens to competent authorities for settlement; many outstanding and long-standing cases have been resolved, meeting the people's aspirations.

In the complicated situation of the Covid-19 epidemic, districts, cities and towns have applied online forms to collect opinions and recommendations from voters. At the same time, they receive feedback through the fanpage of Nghe An Provincial People's Representatives; through the Nghe An Provincial People's Representatives' Electronic Information page. The Office of the National Assembly Delegation and the Provincial People's Council also organizes the reception of opinions and recommendations from voters through the Nghe An Provincial People's Representatives' Electronic Information page... Voters' opinions will be compiled and sent to the Provincial People's Committee for direction and resolution.

In conjunction with expanding the channel for receiving feedback, the Office of the National Assembly Delegation and the Provincial People's Council advised the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council to set out the requirement to resolve and respond to voters' feedback from the authorities more frequently and promptly. The results of the resolution are sent directly to the correct address of the petitioner, reflector, and proposer; overcoming the situation of responses through local authorities but not reaching voters, leading to the same problem, the same voter reflecting and recommending to officials at many levels.

Voters make recommendations at the voter contact conference. Photo: Pham Bang

Strengthening supervision and monitoring of the settlement of voters' petitions

After receiving the opinions and recommendations of voters, the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial People's Council will send documents to competent agencies for resolution and set a specific deadline. To enhance the effectiveness of this work, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council requests the Provincial People's Committee to report monthly on the results of resolving voters' recommendations. The Office of the National Assembly Delegation and the Provincial People's Council also prepares a monthly report on the people's petitions to submit to the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council meeting. At the same time, after the meeting, it will issue a notice to urge the resolution of voters' recommendations and complaints and denunciations of citizens.

Based on the report on the results of handling voters' opinions and recommendations before, during and after each session from the Provincial People's Committee, the Standing Committee and the Provincial People's Council committees conduct an investigation; any recommendations that are not specifically resolved, do not provide solutions, roadmaps and time for resolution are requested by the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council to continue to be resolved, through a resolution on the results of handling voters' recommendations by the Provincial People's Council, as a legal basis for implementation at all levels and sectors.

In addition, opinions, recommendations and reflections of voters and people that are universal in many localities or cause public outrage are selected to be included in the monitoring and survey programs of the Provincial People's Council, the Provincial People's Council committees and questioned at the Provincial People's Council session; or explained at the meeting of the Provincial People's Council Standing Committee.

Since the beginning of the term, the 18th Provincial People's Council has organized many meetings to explain the work of granting certificates of land use rights, house ownership rights and assets attached to land; the work of managing and using public assets after merging administrative boundaries and public service units in the province. At the same time, it has supervised suspended projects, projects behind schedule, and improper land use; the work of training and developing human resources in the province... This approach has increased the responsibility of "following up" on issues and contents that voters and people are interested in, reflecting and recommending.

Officials and specialists of provincial departments and branches receive feedback from voters and people via online phone lines at provincial People's Council meetings. Photo: Mai Hoa

In addition, many opinions and recommendations of voters were urged to be resolved by the Provincial People's Council through the issuance of policies such as the Resolution on a number of policies to support agricultural and rural development; tuition support levels for private primary school students; policies to support preschool teachers; support policies for a number of social protection beneficiaries; amendments and supplements to the resolution on the number, titles, allowance levels, regimes and policies for non-professional workers at the commune, hamlet, block and village levels.

Some shortcomings and limitations in resolving voters' petitions

In fact, over the past time, there have been issues of concern to voters that have not been completely resolved and have not met their aspirations, such as: Environmental pollution; abandoned agricultural land; compensation for site clearance of some construction items that have not been fully and promptly allocated budget, leading to slow progress; settlement of old collective housing, handling of public property headquarters in some localities, anti-corruption work; policies and regimes for hamlet cadres; investment in traffic and irrigation infrastructure projects...

In addition, some contents have been answered and explained by the levels and sectors but have not been resolved; the inspection, monitoring of results, progress of settlement and response to voters' recommendations are sometimes not thorough and regular. Some opinions and recommendations of voters are still general, unclear and specific (some cases are not reflected correctly), causing difficulties in researching, receiving, resolving and responding to voters. The coordination of information on the results of settlement of voters' recommendations on mass media is not very effective.

The main reason is that some opinions and recommendations from voters are related to many sectors and levels (such as management, urban planning, environment, real estate, transportation, etc.), and coordination in resolving voters' recommendations is not really effective. Some agencies and units, when assigned, are not proactive, resolute, and serious in handling issues arising within their functions and tasks, and their operational efficiency is not high. The responsibility of the heads of some agencies and units has not been promoted; the spirit, responsibility, initiative, results, and quality of advice of a number of cadres, civil servants, and public employees have not met the requirements. The direction, advice, and implementation of some contents of some sectors are not resolute.

The project of Commercial Service Area and Office for Lease in Hung Dung Ward (Vinh City) has changed from 1 investor to 3 investors but is still not completed. Photo: Thanh Cuong

In addition, many opinions and recommendations from voters need to be processed such as: Construction, maintenance, repair, upgrading of traffic works, irrigation, mechanisms, policies... These are recommendations that require time, especially resources, specific roadmaps and the consensus of many agencies and units, while the review and resolution are only carried out in a short time, leading to certain limitations in the progress, quality of resolution and response. On the other hand, these recommendations often last a long time but are difficult to resolve in reality, because the province's resource allocation is still limited.

In addition, the implementation of Decision No. 25/2019/QD-UBND dated July 11, 2019 of the Provincial People's Committee on promulgating the Regulations on receiving, handling and responding to voters' petitions in Nghe An province has some shortcomings and limitations, such as the lack of specific instructions on informing voters of the results of handling petitions from the People's Committee at the commune level, so in many cases voters do not receive the results of handling, leading to multiple petitions on the same content. The results of handling and responding to voters' petitions have not been regularly posted on the Provincial Electronic Information Portal and the Electronic Information Pages of departments, branches, and sectors and in the press and mass media. Many localities do not post the results of handling voters' petitions at the headquarters of the People's Committee at the commune level.

Solutions to improve the quality of handling voters' petitions

To improve the quality and effectiveness of handling voters' opinions and recommendations, first of all, all levels and sectors need to strengthen State management in relevant fields, increasingly better meet voters' legitimate aspirations; consider handling and responding to voters' recommendations as an important and regular task of agencies, sectors and localities.

Along with that, amend and supplement Decision No. 25/2019/QD-UBND dated July 11, 2019 of the People's Committee of Nghe An province to overcome existing shortcomings and inadequacies. At the same time, based on legal provisions and practical situations, organize a review of existing shortcomings and inadequacies in mechanisms and policies to submit to the Provincial People's Council to issue a Resolution for implementation.

Strengthen the provision of information during voter meetings to overcome the situation of voters making repeated petitions. For petitions of voters that the province cannot allocate resources for, there must be a definitive solution to avoid the time for petition resolution being prolonged. Timely publish on mass media the results of the resolution and petitions of voters so that the people are widely informed; contribute to providing information of the people to elected agencies and elected representatives.

The Provincial People's Council's monitoring delegation inspected the compliance with environmental protection laws in Nghia Dan district. Photo: Tien Dong

The Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council, the Provincial People's Council committees, the Provincial People's Council delegations and especially the Provincial People's Council delegates continue to improve the quality and effectiveness of voter contact. Strengthen the application of information technology and digital transformation in voter contact activities, monitor the settlement of voters' petitions. Diversify the forms of receiving voters' opinions and petitions, research and develop software to receive voters' petitions on digital platforms and in various and suitable forms.

At the same time, continue to coordinate the contact between National Assembly deputies and People's Council deputies at all levels. The synthesis and classification of voters' opinions and recommendations must ensure accuracy, clarity, and compliance with the functions and responsibilities of each level and sector, creating favorable conditions for competent authorities to receive and resolve. On the other hand, it is necessary to continue to maintain the synthesis of full names and addresses of voters who have expressed opinions so that relevant agencies can send responses to voters as soon as possible, in order to overcome the situation of voters making multiple or overlapping recommendations at provincial People's Council meetings due to not receiving resolution results from relevant levels and sectors.

Strengthen the supervisory role of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council, the committees of the Provincial People's Council, and the delegations of the Provincial People's Council in receiving, resolving, and responding to voters' petitions, especially in sensitive areas such as compensation for site clearance, environmental pollution, and "hot" issues that voters are concerned about.

With innovations from the beginning of the term until now, along with drastic and synchronous solutions, the 18th Provincial People's Council is actively improving the quality and effectiveness of receiving and resolving voters' opinions and recommendations. Thereby, contributing to strengthening the trust of voters and people in the Nghe An Provincial People's Council - the local State power agency, representing the will, aspirations and mastery of the people./.

Phan Trung Tu (Office of the National Assembly Delegation and Provincial People's Council)