Preparing for the issuance of the Resolution "Regulations on tuition fees in public educational institutions; tuition support levels for private primary school students who are eligible for tuition exemption and reduction policies according to regulations under the management of Nghe An province from the 2022-2023 school year to the 2025-2026 school year", with the spirit of getting involved from the beginning, through monitoring sessions, meetings with voters and studying related documents, the Culture - Social Committee of Nghe An Provincial People's Council found that there were 2 unsatisfactory issues in the draft Resolution on tuition fees in the province.
First of all, the collection level is considered quite high, causing difficulties for many parents. Along with that, the regulations on subjects as in the draft are still inadequate, such as communes in cities and towns in the province have the same tuition fees as wards (increased by nearly 300%); meanwhile, through surveys in communes such as Nghia Thuan (Thai Hoa town), Quynh Trang (Hoang Mai town) show that the living standards in these areas are not much different from those in rural communes...
Mr. Chu Duc Thai - Head of the Culture - Social Committee of Nghe An Provincial People's Council said: "We have participated in giving comments at a number of meetings of the Provincial People's Committee on the above shortcomings. The leaders of the Provincial People's Committee are very open-minded, seeing those shortcomings and agreeing with the Committee's proposed viewpoint, so the tuition fee was then brought to the lowest level within the framework of Decree 81 and the subjects that were also adjusted are communes in towns and cities, which have the same tuition fee as rural areas, not calculated as wards".
In that spirit, at the 7th Session of the 18th Nghe An Provincial People's Council in July 2022, the Resolution regulating tuition fees in Nghe An province was highly approved and passed by delegates.
From the practice of participating in the preparation “early, from afar” to build the resolution of the Provincial People’s Council, Head of the Culture and Social Committee of the Provincial People’s Council Chu Duc Thai said: “Analyzing a resolution in terms of policy shows that if we do not conduct a field survey, do not evaluate, collect information, do not compare with local practices, but only base on the legal basis of the superiors, many times the proposed policy will not be appropriate. The process of the Committee accompanying, giving opinions, giving opinions in each step of building the resolution and the drafting agencies receiving very specific information, from the fields of education, health, culture, sports... so when entering the verification stage before submitting to the Provincial People’s Council, the draft resolution is basically appropriate, approaching reality and legal regulations...”.
The resolution issued by the Provincial People's Council aims to concretize the Party's guidelines, policies and the State's laws, and is the basis for the Provincial People's Committee to issue decisions in the process of directing and managing the local socio-economic development. Therefore, the viewpoint of the Standing Committee of the Nghe An Provincial People's Council is to "prepare early and from afar" so that the resolution is feasible and highly effective, and soon comes into life; avoid the situation where the drafting agency prepares a draft resolution that is sketchy, formalistic, and the content is general and lacks specificity, leading to having to submit it many times before it is approved, affecting the progress of performing State management tasks in the locality, or causing difficulties in the implementation process.
Therefore, at the beginning of each year, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council requests the Provincial People's Committee to direct departments, branches and sectors to review and develop a list of resolutions that need to be submitted to the Provincial People's Council for consideration and promulgation during the year for the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council to consider and approve. This is considered a "hard list", only allowing additions and adjustments in cases where there are new regulations, amendments from the Central Government or urgent issues arising from local practice requiring the Provincial People's Council to promptly issue resolutions, then updating and supplementing are allowed. For example, at the beginning of 2023, the People's Committee of Nghe An province submitted and was approved by the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council a list of 33 resolutions that need to be issued during the year.
On that basis, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council proposed that the Provincial People's Committee assign relevant agencies to prepare procedures and processes for drafting resolutions early, without waiting until close to the Provincial People's Council session to rush to prepare; at the same time, assign the Provincial People's Council Committees to proactively participate and coordinate from the beginning with the specialized agencies of the Provincial People's Committee in preparing content; proactively attend meetings and seminars organized by sectors and the Provincial People's Committee to grasp information and contribute opinions right from the drafting stage of the resolution. This approach has proven effective in practice.
Implementing 3 national target programs, Nghe An is the province with a large number of projects and beneficiaries. The national target program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas implemented 9 component projects with 708 detailed projects; the national target program for sustainable poverty reduction implemented 2 component projects with 48 detailed projects; the national target program for new rural construction implemented in 411 communes with 988 detailed projects, so there were certain difficulties.
The total central budget capital plan allocated to Nghe An province to implement 3 National Target Programs for the period 2021 - 2025 including: New rural construction, socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas, sustainable hunger eradication and poverty reduction is more than 4,931 billion VND, of which more than 1,295 billion VND is allocated in 2022. Meanwhile, 2022 is the first year of disbursement of these capital sources, the pressure to carry out procedures according to regulations to speed up the disbursement of capital for National Target Programs is extremely large.
As soon as the Prime Minister assigned the central budget development investment capital plan for the 2021-2025 period and 2022 to localities to implement 3 national target programs, the People's Committee of Nghe An province urgently directed departments, branches and sectors to advise the Provincial People's Council to issue resolutions on principles, criteria and norms for allocating medium-term and annual state budget sources to local sectors and levels at the thematic session.
By June 30, 2022, Nghe An province is one of the earliest provinces in the country to complete the Resolution of the Provincial People's Council on allocation and the Decision of the Provincial People's Committee on assigning the implementation plan of the National Target Programs for the period 2021-2025 and 2022 in the province, meeting the progress required by the Central Government. At the thematic meeting held immediately afterwards, the Provincial People's Council officially approved the detailed project list of 3 National Target Programs in 3 resolutions, as a basis for the Provincial People's Committee to organize implementation.
If according to the practice, each year the Provincial People's Council only holds 2 mid-year and year-end sessions, then issues such as issuing policies to promptly disburse capital for the 3 National Target Programs as above will not be timely as required, affecting the rights of the people and the socio-economic development of the locality. Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Con Cuong District, Vi Van Quy, assessed: The 3 resolutions issued by the Provincial People's Council are very timely, creating an important legal foundation for provincial departments, branches, and localities to benefit from implementing socio-economic goals, poverty reduction in a synchronous, comprehensive and fundamental manner, promoting sustainable development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the province.
The above is one of many examples in which the People's Council of Nghe An province has taken urgent and thorough action, coordinated smoothly with the Provincial People's Committee and organizations in the political system, there is no such thing as "your rights, my rights" but rather sharing and supporting each other to improve the performance of each party's tasks.
In the working relationship between the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council and the Provincial People's Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council of Nghe An Thai Thanh Quy emphasized the principle: "Responsible, frank, open-minded and constructive" for the common goals and interests of the province; both implementing quickly, flexibly, effectively, not rigidly; while ensuring compliance with legal regulations, strictness. In addition to regular sessions, the Provincial People's Council can organize additional thematic sessions to meet objective practical requirements".
Standing Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee Le Hong Vinh affirmed: The organization of thematic meetings of the Provincial People's Council has contributed to helping the Provincial People's Committee to remove and solve many urgent and pressing issues from practical life related to the socio-economic development tasks of the province; at the same time, promoting the spirit of initiative, flexibility and urgency in the direction and administration of all levels and sectors.
