National Assembly deputies yesterday,
Nov 15, approved new laws on inspection, public employees, and environmental
protection, as well as passing the State budget resolution for 2011.

The
revised Law on Inspection was approved with 81 per cent of deputies in favour.
Under the law, all inspections must be in accordance with the law to ensure
accuracy, objectivity, transparency and democracy and must not cause obstruction
to the normal operations of organisations or individuals subjected to
inspection. The law will take effect on July 1, 2011.

With
nearly 80 per cent of votes in favour, deputies passed the Law on Public
Employees, governing the rights and duties of public employees.

Under
the law, a public employee is defined as a Vietnamese citizen who is recruited
to work under a signed contract in a specified position within a public,
non-productive unit, and who receives his/her salary from the State-run unit’s
pay fund in accordance with Vietnamese law.

The law
will not takes effect until January 1, 2012.

The Law
on Environmental Taxation was passed with 80.5 per cent of votes in favour. The
law subjects certain substances to taxation based on environmental impacts,
including petrol and diesel fuel, grease, coal, hydrofluorocarbons, plastic bags
and insecticides.

The law,
which also will take effect on January 1, 2012, would also authorise the
National Assembly Standing Committee to consider and impose taxes on additional
substances not expressly listed in the law.

Lastly,
the State budget resolution was approved with 78 per cent of deputies in favour.

Under
the resolution, an estimated VND398.7 trillion ($20.5billion) in taxes would be
collected at the central level next year, and about VND206.3 trillion ($10.6
billion) at the local level. Central-level expenditures would total VND519.3
trillion ($26.6 billion), including VND126.2 trillion ($6.5 billion) to be
channeled to localities, primarily for support of agriculture and rural
development, with priorities given to provinces in the remote northwest, Central
Highlands and southwestern regions.

Pursuant
to the resolution, the Government would instruct relevant agencies and local
governments to complete their own budget allocation plans for 2011 before
December 31 for reporting to the next session of the National Assembly in March
of next year.

The
resolution also orders the Government to practice thrift as well as give
priority to ensuring sufficient resources to carry out social welfare policies,
including VND27 trillion ($ 1.4 billion) to increase the wages of State workers.

Complaints law

Yesterday afternoon deputies discussed the draft Law on Complaints, which
includes eight chapters and 75 articles.

Under
the bill, citizens will have two options: either to send a complaint directly to
an authority that has the right to make administrative decisions or to file a
court case.

Deputies
backed this regulation, saying it conformed to current policy and ensured every
illegal administrative decision could be brought to court for trial.

Many
expressed concern about how well some of the law’s provisions would work.

They
said some regulations had not yet met demand; it does not fully incorporate ways
to handle complaints in complicated cases where multiple parties are involved.

“I think
the draft should, in principle, regulate complaints with many people involved,”
Deputy Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy said.

The
deputy also called for punitive sanctions against those who lodged false
complaints and officials who refused to help citizens.

Deputy
Le Dung recommended the bill control the way complaints are lodged and
addressed.

Deputy
Bui Sy Loi suggested entrusting the Government with the task of regulating the
sequence and procedure for addressing complaints involving multiple people,
while maintaining citizens’ rights.

Regarding the suggested three-day time limit to handle a first-time complaint as
outlined in the bill, Deputy Tran Thi Phuong Hoa said it was too short. She
recommended raising it to five days, beginning the day a complaint is filed.

Hoa said
that addressing a complaint within 10 day as regulated in the current draft
would also not work.

“The
number of complaints increases year on year and it takes a lot of time to verify
those complaints relevant to land use issues,” she said.

Hoa
suggested keeping the 30-45 day time limit to address a complaint as regulated
by the Law on Complaints and Denunciation.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News