Responsibilities of the Heads of Agencies and Units in Directly Receiving Citizens: Regulations
What are the responsibilities of the head of an agency or unit in directly receiving citizens?
Based on Article 9 of Circular 04/2021/TT-TTCP, the responsibilities of the head of an agency or unit in directly receiving citizens are as follows:
- The head of the agency or unit must personally receive citizens to listen, consider, resolve, and direct the resolution of complaints, denouncements, recommendations, and reflections within their jurisdiction or within the jurisdiction of the heads of subordinate agencies or units in the work of citizen reception, document handling, and resolution of complaints, denouncements, recommendations, and reflections.
The head of the agency or unit is responsible for receiving citizens periodically or unexpectedly as prescribed by the Law on Citizen Reception and for inspecting and urging the handling of matters after citizen reception by the agencies or units.
- The citizen reception by the head of the agency or unit must be fully recorded by officials and public employees in the Citizen Reception Book or entered into the National Database on citizen reception, resolution of complaints, denouncements, recommendations, and reflections or citizen reception management software and stored at the citizen reception place. The directives of the head of the agency or unit in resolving complaints, denouncements, recommendations, reflections at the Citizen Reception Office must be documented and sent to relevant agencies, organizations, and units to implement according to the directives; a time frame for resolution must be stipulated in accordance with the law, and the responsible agency, organization, or unit must send the resolution results to the citizens.
- When receiving citizens, if the matter is clear, specific, substantiated, and within their jurisdiction, the head of the agency or unit must immediately inform the citizens; if the matter is complex and requires further study and consideration, they must specify the resolution time and the contact person for the resolution results.
- At the conclusion of citizen reception, the head of the agency or unit issues an announcement concluding the citizen reception.
Responsibilities of the head of an agency or unit in directly receiving citizens
How are complaints, denouncements, recommendations, and reflections received?
According to Article 7 of Circular 04/2021/TT-TTCP, the reception of complaints, denouncements, recommendations, and reflections is stipulated as follows:
- When a citizen comes to present directly without a written complaint, the citizen reception officer guides the citizen to write a complaint, denouncement, recommendation, reflection or fully, truthfully, and accurately records the citizen’s presentation; if any content is unclear, they request the citizen to further clarify, then read it back to the citizen and request them to sign or point to confirm the document.
- If a citizen comes to present and has a specific, clear written complaint with identifiable nature of the matter and the competent authority to resolve it, the citizen reception officer guides the citizen to send the complaint to the competent authority for consideration and resolution according to the law.
- If many people come to complain, denounce, recommend, or reflect on the same issue, the citizen reception officer guides them to appoint a representative to present; records the representative's presentation and requests the representative to sign or point to confirm the document.
- If a citizen presents multiple issues, including complaints, denouncements, recommendations, and reflections, the citizen reception officer guides the citizen to handle complaints, denouncements, recommendations, and reflections according to the law.
- The reception, recording of complaints, denouncements, recommendations, reflections, and guiding citizens to write complaints must be recorded in the Citizen Reception Book or entered into the citizen reception database software.
What are the principles of citizen reception?
According to Article 3 of Law on Citizen Reception 2013, the principles of citizen reception are as follows:
- Citizen reception must be conducted at the citizen reception place of the agency, organization, or unit.
- Citizen reception must ensure openness, democracy, promptness; simple and convenient procedures; confidentiality and safety for the whistleblower according to the law; objectivity, equality, and non-discrimination during citizen reception.
- Respect, facilitate, and provide favorable conditions for citizens to exercise the right to complain, denounce, recommend, and reflect according to the law.
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