The National Assembly discussed in the Hall the draft Law on Denunciation and the Law on Competition.

The Presidium includes: National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan; National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong; National Assembly Vice Chairman Uong Chu Luu (chairing the meeting).

In the morning, Member of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, Chairman of the Law Committee of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh presented a Report on explanation, acceptance and revision of the draft Law on Denunciation (amended). Delegates discussed in the hall about some contents with different opinions of the draft Law on Denunciation (amended). In the afternoon, Member of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, Chairman of the Economic Committee of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh presented a Report on explanation, acceptance and revision of the draft Law on Competition (amended). Delegates discussed in the hall about some contents with different opinions of the draft Law on Competition (amended).

In the morning, the National Assembly deputies focused on discussing the following issues: forms of denunciation; rights and obligations of the accused, the denouncer and the person handling the denunciation; multiple people reporting the same content; handling denunciations of violations of the law on state management in various fields and protection of denouncers...

Delegate Tran Van Mao - Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province spoke at the discussion session. Photo: Huyen Thuong

The National Assembly deputies basically agreed with the draft law's presentation, many deputies expressed their concern for the rights of the denouncer, the denounced and the person handling the denunciation. Speaking at the Hall regarding the forms of denunciation stipulated in Article 22 of the Draft Law, the deputies said that in the current era of information explosion, the form of denunciation via means such as fax, email, and telephone is one of the forms that both ensures the confidentiality of the denouncer and ensures convenience for the people. However, the current Law on Denunciation stipulates two forms of denunciation in writing and in person, but only less than 18% of denunciations are correct, and the majority of denunciations are either correct or incorrect.

National Assembly Delegate (Nghe An) Tran Van Mao expressed concern that the use of electronic means for denunciations would lead to the abuse of democracy in this activity to make widespread denunciations, causing difficulties and overload in handling petitions, complaints and denunciations, especially in verifying cases, affecting social security and order. Therefore, agreeing with the majority of other delegates, Delegate Tran Van Mao proposed to maintain the views on denunciation forms as in current law. Delegate Tran Van Mao also expressed opinions related to the contents of the statute of limitations for denunciations, the decision to withdraw denunciations and some other contents.

Delegate Nguyen Thanh Hien - Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province expressed his opinion at the discussion session. Photo: Huyen Thuong

In the afternoon, the National Assembly discussed in the Hall the draft Law on Competition (amended) submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and approval at this session. Speaking in the Hall, National Assembly Deputy (Nghe An) Nguyen Thanh Hien suggested that the National Assembly should conduct adequate research on the inclusion of public service units under the Law's regulations. Currently, there is still a large number of public service units that have not yet implemented autonomy and are still receiving budget allocations. These public service units are having to implement a roadmap to gradually transition to an autonomous mechanism in the form of State orders. For public service units that have not yet operated under an enterprise mechanism and are in the process of transferring fees into prices and moving towards State orders, implementing the provisions as in the draft law is not feasible and appropriate.

In addition, delegate Nguyen Thanh Hien also suggested that the draft should have clear regulations on a number of related contents to avoid the mechanism of asking and giving, creating conditions for businesses and state management agencies in implementing the law. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hien also stated that it is necessary to reform administrative procedures, shorten the time for granting exemption decisions for anti-competitive agreements, and the time limit for assessing economic concentration, etc.