Research on reorganization of district-level courts and procuracies

Discussing in groups at the National Assembly on the morning of February 13, Head of the Central Organizing Committee Le Minh Hung said "we must implement this year". According to him, Conclusion 121 of the Central Committee requires research to continue to arrange administrative units, reduce administrative levels to suit reality, expand development space, and strengthen local resources.

The Vietnamese People's Court system is currently divided into four levels, including the Supreme People's Court; High People's Court; People's Courts of provinces and centrally run cities; People's Courts of districts, towns, and provincial cities. Military Courts at all levels include the Central Military Court; Military Courts of military regions and equivalent; and Regional Military Courts.

The system of People's Procuracies includes the Supreme People's Procuracy; High-level People's Procuracies; People's Procuracies of provinces and centrally-run cities; People's Procuracies of districts, towns, provincial cities and equivalent. In parallel, there are also Military Procuracies at all levels including the Central Military Procuracy; Military Procuracies of military regions and equivalent; Regional Military Procuracies.

At the end of January, the 13th Central Conference agreed to streamline the police apparatus according to the model of 3 levels: ministry, province, commune, and no longer organize district-level police. The Government is finalizing the project to streamline the inspection sector to 2 levels: central and provincial, to seek opinions from the Politburo and the Central Steering Committee before submitting it to the National Assembly.

According to the Head of the Central Organizing Committee, in the coming time, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Party Committee will also direct continued research into the internal apparatus of mass organizations. The agencies "are implementing a huge amount of work, with strong steps to streamline the apparatus of the political system".

"The recent steps confirm that the Central Committee's determination is very correct, based on scientific, practical, legal and political grounds," he said. However, due to the short implementation time and high requirements, difficulties will arise, and "the Central Committee will face and coordinate to handle the difficulties as they arise."

Mr. Le Minh Hung also noted that the current work is only the first step, there are many tasks to be carried out this year and the next term. After the new apparatus comes into operation, the Central Organizing Committee, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Government Party Committee, and the National Assembly Party Committee will evaluate the operation of the new apparatus. The agencies will also conduct a general review of the payroll from the central to local levels, along with an assessment of the capacity and qualifications of the staff.

In the coming time, the agencies will also study and amend Party regulations and state laws and evaluate them "carefully and cautiously for further implementation". The goal is to complete the overall model of the political system in the shortest possible time, ensuring effective, efficient and effective operations, serving the requirements of national development in the new situation.

Amending the law to "not push the work to the Government"

Participating in the discussion, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that the two bills on Government Organization and Local Government Organization were developed in a "very special and urgent" context, associated with the streamlining of the political system. These two bills ensure that the administrative system operates smoothly and effectively, meeting reform requirements, bringing the country into a new era.

According to the Minister, the first new point of the two bills is the "completely different" way of thinking about law-making. These two bills are considered the original laws of the national administration, so they only stipulate the framework and issues of principle. This is the basis for designing specialized laws.

The two bills focus on clearly defining the authority of the Government and local authorities, in which the Government, as the highest State administrative body, exercises executive power and is the executive body of the National Assembly.

"We also designed laws that clearly define responsibilities so as not to push work up to the Government, because in reality, a lot of work is pushed up to the Government now," said Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra, adding that decentralization, delegation of power, and authorization are the core issues of the two bills.

There are currently 177 laws regulating the authority of ministers and heads of ministerial-level agencies; 152 laws regulating the authority of the Prime Minister; 141 laws regulating the authority of People's Councils and People's Committees; and 92 laws regulating the authority of the three levels of local government. These overlapping regulations make it difficult to decentralize and delegate authority according to the principle of "locality decides, locality acts, locality is responsible".