Law on Thrift Practice and Anti-Wastefulness (THTK, CLP) was passed by the XIII National Assembly on November 26, 2013, at the sixth session, replacing the 2005 Law on THTK, CLP. This law was promulgated by the President on December 9, 2013, and came into effect from July 1, 2014.
Article table of contents
The Law on Practicing Thrift and Combating Wastefulness (THTK, CLP) of 2005 has been implemented and has demonstrated its effectiveness in life. However, this Law has also revealed limitations that need to be addressed. Therefore, studying amendments to the 2005 THTK, CLP Law to increase mechanisms and measures for THTK; clearly defining violations, and sanctions for wasteful acts to contribute to preventing and pushing back wastefulness is an urgent issue. At the same time, the mechanism to detect and combat wasteful acts is improved through increasing inspection, audit, internal audit, and expenditure control in the fields of THTK, CLP. Additionally, amendments to the 2005 THTK, CLP Law are necessary to align with related laws, such as the Anti-Corruption Law (revised), ensuring the consistency of the legal system.
Practice Thrift, Combat Wastefulness Law (amended) comprises five chapters with 80 articles. Compared to the current THTK, CLP Law, this Law reduces six chapters and six articles. This reduction is to eliminate overlapping content of the existing Law.
The amended THTK, CLP Law contains many new contents. Firstly, regarding the subject of adjustment and the scope of application, the amended Law has restructured and clarified the scope of THTK, CLP in managing and using state budget, state capital, state assets, labor, and labor time in the State sector; management, exploitation, and use of resources; production, business, and consumption activities of organizations, households, and individuals. Corresponding to the scope of adjustment, the Law stipulates three groups of subjects: 1- Agencies, organizations, individuals managing, using state budget, state capital, state assets, labor, and labor time in the State sector; 2- Agencies, organizations, households, individuals managing, exploiting, and using resources; 3- Other organizations, households, and individuals.
Regarding the principles of THTK, CLP, Article 4 of the Law supplements and clarifies that THTK, CLP is a regular task from policies, guidelines, and mechanisms to organization and implementation associated with inspection and supervision; THTK, CLP must be connected with administrative reform and ensure the completion of assigned tasks without affecting the operation of agencies and organizations. Another new point is that the 2005 THTK, CLP Law only regulated the field and form of disclosure, whereas the amended THTK, CLP Law has supplemented regulations: publicizing management and use of state budget, state capital, state assets, labor, labor time, and resources as a measure to ensure THTK, and prevent wastefulness. Furthermore, to facilitate THTK, CLP supervision and enhance the rigor in law enforcement, the amended Law has added regulations on publicizing THTK, CLP results and the results of handling wasteful acts.
Notably, the amended Law has supplemented and clarified several regulations related to detecting waste and handling information on detected waste; norms, standards, policies; and wasteful acts. The detection of waste and responsibility for handling detected waste information is an important new point of the amended Law, creating a mechanism to encourage organizations and individuals to participate in detecting and promptly providing information on wastefulness, contributing to waste prevention and identifying the responsibility of agencies, organizations, and individuals for waste occurrences. Information on detected waste in any form must be considered, handled, and promptly addressed by the head of the agency or organization where the waste occurred, and an explanation must be provided for the waste occurrence.
An important basis for objectively evaluating and effectively promoting THTK, CLP, the amended Law contains new provisions on the system of norms, standards, and policies. The Law specifies three groups of norms, standards, and policies; principles for issuing norms, standards, and policies; responsibilities for issuing and inspecting the implementation of norms, standards, and policies. The amended Law also stipulates violations in issuing, implementing, and inspecting norms, standards, and policies. These violations include: Issuing norms, standards, and policies contrary to principles; implementing beyond norms, standards, policies; not organizing inspections of norms, standards, policies implementation; not handling or reporting to competent state authorities for prompt handling of cases of non-compliance with norms, standards, policies, and penalties for violations.
Another notable point is that the amended Law has supplemented relatively comprehensive regulations on wasteful acts. These acts are detailed in several fields such as budgeting, assessment, approval, allocation, and disbursement, management, and use of state budget funds; funds originating from the state budget; wasteful acts in procurement, equipment, management, use of transportation means, working equipment, and communication means; wasteful acts in investment construction; management, use of office headquarters, working accommodations, and public welfare works. These regulations help in easily identifying wasteful acts, thereby making anti-wastefulness efforts more substantial and effective.
To address the limitations of the current Law and to ensure that THTK, CLP is implemented effectively and substantively, the amended Law has supplemented requirements for setting savings goals and targets, and requirements for combating wastefulness. From these goals, agencies, and organizations clearly identify implementation measures, with an emphasis on the monitoring mechanisms for THTK, CLP.
The amended Law overcomes the shortcomings of the existing Law and perfects the mechanism to combat wasteful acts through strengthening inspection, auditing, and internal auditing; adding regulations for cases using state budget funds for organizing conferences, seminars, discussions, business trips... requiring annual internal audits to promptly detect and handle violations.
To encourage agencies, organizations, and individuals to practice thrift, detect wastefulness, the amended Law supplements provisions for commendation and rewards sources for agencies, organizations, and individuals with achievements in THTK, and participating in detecting and combating wastefulness. At the same time, the Law also stipulates specific cases of violation handling and damage compensation.
Addressing the existing THTK, CLP Law’s provision where the end-of-year National Assembly session reports the results of THTK, CLP for the year, leading to inadequate data for the report year, the Law has been amended to require THTK, CLP results of the previous year to be reported at the first National Assembly session of the following year.
To ensure the amended THTK, CLP Law quickly integrates into life, competent authorities are currently reviewing and issuing implementation guidelines consistent with the amended Law.
Source: Nhan Dan Online
