Unifying the three grassroots forces will streamline the focal points without increasing the budget.

Recently, on behalf of the Government, reporting and receiving opinions from the National Assembly Standing Committee on the Draft Law on Forces Participating in Protecting Security and Order at the Grassroots Level, General To Lam - Minister of Public Security said that recently the Government has directed research and comprehensive and detailed assessment of the policy impact of this draft law.

In particular, the Government pays special attention to the impact on organization, regime, policy, and ensuring operating conditions of forces participating in protecting security and order at the grassroots level.

General To Lam - Minister of Public Security. Photo: Pham Thang

The Minister of Public Security said that currently, nationwide, there are about 300,000 people participating in activities in the civil defense force and part-time commune police.

Specifically, there are 66,723 civil defense members; 70,867 part-time commune police officers are still being used and 161,098 civil defense team leaders and deputy leaders.

The entire above force will be consolidated and unified into a force participating in protecting security and order at the grassroots level and arranged into security and order protection teams in villages and residential groups according to a model suitable to the conditions and requirements of each locality.

However, the number of civil defense teams that have actually been established has only reached 77%, equivalent to 79,672 civil defense teams out of a total of 103,568 teams that must be established. The country is still short of about 23,896 civil defense teams and about 47,792 civil defense team leaders and deputy team leaders.

Each province and city spends about 28.8 billion VND/year, ensuring balance.

The Government also clearly analyzed the concerns of the National Assembly Standing Committee regarding whether, after the law is promulgated, civil defense teams must be established in sufficient numbers to fully fill the positions of civil defense team leader and deputy team leader to act as team leader and deputy team leader to protect security and order.

The Government believes that if this law is promulgated and stipulates the establishment of a Security and Order Protection Team, and the arrangement of the positions of team leader and deputy team leader of the Security and Order Protection Team to also be the team leader and deputy team leader of the civil defense team, it will have a positive impact.

Specifically, when establishing civil defense teams that are lacking in accordance with the provisions of the law on fire prevention and fighting, there will be no need to select or appoint the positions of captain and deputy captain of the civil defense team.

This position will be held concurrently by the previously recognized security and order protection team leaders and deputy leaders. This will help streamline the organization and ensure feasibility. Therefore, it will not increase budget expenditure when the force is consolidated into one force.

The current average total expenditure of localities for activities, regimes, policies, and ensuring operating conditions of civil defense forces, militia, and part-time commune police participating in protecting security and order at the grassroots level is about 20 billion - 30 billion VND/year (average 2 billion - 2.5 billion VND/month).

According to the provisions of the draft law, it is expected that the force participating in protecting security and order at the grassroots level will receive monthly support; support for voluntary social insurance and health insurance; equipment of support tools, arrangement of locations and workplaces, etc.

The total expected average expenditure of a province or city to pay for regimes, policies, and ensure operating conditions for forces participating in protecting security and order at the grassroots level after being unified and consolidated is about 2.4 billion VND/month/province or city; on average about 28.8 billion VND/year.

Therefore, the draft regulation compared with the actual total expenditure currently being implemented by localities is "ensuring balance".

The Government has proposed to add the draft Law on Forces Participating in Protecting Security and Order at the Grassroots Level to the 2023 Law and Ordinance Development Program; and submit it to the National Assembly for comments at the 5th session, scheduled to open on May 22.

Previously, the National Assembly Standing Committee and the National Assembly's National Defense and Security Committee proposed to clearly affirm that the forces participating in protecting security and order at the grassroots level must be streamlined and in accordance with the requirements of Resolution 18/2017 of the Party Central Committee.

The National Assembly Standing Committee and the National Assembly's Defense and Security Committee also proposed improving the quality of operations of this force "without increasing the budget" and with resources.