New points of the Law on supervisory activities of the National Assembly and People’s Councils of Vietnam

Coming into force from July 01, 2016, the Law on supervisory activities of the National Assembly and People’s Councils 2015 of Vietnam was promulgated to enhance the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of supervision by the National Assembly, People's Councils at all levels, ensure consistency in determining the objects, scope, authority, and supervision sequence of each monitoring subject; to ensure the rights and responsibilities of the supervisory object and the subject of supervision; to promote the role of supervision, contributing to improving the quality and operational efficiency of the state apparatus etc.

Enhance the effectiveness of National Assembly supervision activities

In comparison with the Law on Supervisory Activities of the National Assembly 2003, the current Law has supplemented a principled regulation on the effectiveness of supervision activities, which is that the supervisory activities of the National Assembly and the People’s Councils are supervisory activities of organs of state power”. This is a new supplement to clarify the nature of supervision by the National Assembly and the People's Council; clarify the relationship between supervision activities of the National Assembly and National Assembly agencies, National Assembly delegations and National Assembly deputies; between the People's Council, the Standing Committee of the People's Council, the Committees of the People's Council and the People's Council delegates in ensuring the effectiveness of supervision activities.

The current Law has also supplemented the term “supervision”, which is not only activities of “oversee, consider and evaluate activities of the agencies, organizations and individuals that are under the supervision”, but also including “taking actions to the best of their competence or as request of the competent authorities” (Article 2).

Based on the provisions of the Constitution, the current Law has supplemented the term of "supreme supervision of the National Assembly" and concretized as follows: Only the National Assembly has supreme supervision and supreme supervision activities are conducted at the National Assembly session. The Law has also supplemented supreme supervision activities that have not been regulated in the Law on Supervisory Activities of the National Assembly 2003 such as examining specialized-supervisory reports, examining reports by a provisional committee, casting vote of confidence for evaluation or dismissal of officials voted or ratified by the National Assembly; examining reports of The Standing Committee of National Assembly on supervisory requests of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Nationality Council, Committees of National Assembly, the National Assembly delegations and National Assembly deputies (Articles 16, 17, 18, 19, 20). The Law also clearly specifies the entity with the authority to submit to the National Assembly for examining legislative documents in contravention of the Constitution, laws or resolutions of the National Assembly; the entity with the authority to propose legislative documents in contravention of the Constitution, laws or resolutions of the National Assembly (Article 14). The Law supplements oversight authority of the National Assembly over the activities of the State Auditor General and the National Election Council.

In order to ensure that supervision proposals are more effective and feasible in practice, the Law supplements regulations on the order and procedures for the National Assembly to examine reports of The Standing Committee of National Assembly on supervisory requests of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Nationality Council, Committees of National Assembly, National Assembly delegations and National Assembly deputies; if a supervisee does not comply with a supervisory conclusion or proposal issued by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Nationality Council, a Committee of the National Assembly, an Association of National Assembly deputies or a National Assembly deputy, those authorities are entitled to propose The Standing Committee of National Assembly to request the National Assembly for consideration (Articles 20 and 33).

The Law also clearly stipulates the time limit for agencies, organizations and individuals subject to supervision to implement supervision requests and recommendations for each supervision activity, as in Articles 15 and 40.

Supplement regulations on supervision of People's Councils

The Law sets aside Chapter I to regulate general issues of supervision by the National Assembly and the People's Council. As for the specific contents of supervision by the National Assembly and the People's Council, they are specified in Chapter II (Supervisory activities of the National Assembly) and Chapter III (Supervisory activities of People's Councils).

The current law on supervision activities basically maintains the regulations on the subject and scope of supervision of the People's Council as prescribed in the Law on Supervisory Activities of the National Assembly 2003; amends and supplements the form of supervision (reporting, questioning, obtaining votes of confidence), specify the order and procedures for conducting supervision; regulates thematic supervision activities of the People's Council, the organization of the Supervision Team to carry out thematic supervision (Article 62).

​Expand the types of supervision activities of the National Assembly Standing Committee and the Standing Committee of the People's Council

The Law on supervisory activities of the National Assembly and People’s Councils 2015 of Vietnam annuls regulation on quarterly supervision programs, only regulating annual supervision programs. Concurrently, this Law also supplements certain supervisory activities of the National Assembly Standing Committee such as: review reports and supervise the resolution of voters' petitions; supervise the election of the National Assembly Standing Committee and People's Council deputies; consider supervision recommendations of the Nationalities Council, Committees of the National Assembly, Delegation of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly and Standing Committee of the National Assembly; recommend the National Assembly a vote of confidence for the person holding the position elected or approved by the National Assembly (Articles 31, 33, 34).

The Law supplements regulations on thematic supervision activities of the National Assembly Standing Committee, in which, there are regulations on establishing a Supervision Team for thematic supervision, clearly defining the composition of the Supervision Team when carrying out thematic supervision, supplementing the right to request expertise on issues the Supervision Team finds necessary.

Regarding the supervision activities of the Standing Committee of the People's Council, the law clearly stipulates the form and order of supervision of the Standing Committee of the People's Council as follows: consider answering questions from the questioned person during the period between two sessions of the People's Council, explanation at the standing meeting of the People's Council, promulgation of legal documents, resolution of voters' petitions and the establishment of the thematic supervision team of the standing People's Council (Articles 60, 68, 69, 70, 71 and 74).

Regarding supervision activities of the Nationalities Council, Committees of the National Assembly and committees of the People's Council

The Law on supervisory activities of the National Assembly and People’s Councils 2015 of Vietnam more clearly stipulates the content of supervision of legal documents (Article 40); supplements regulations on thematic supervision, explanation at the Nationalities Council, Committees of the National Assembly, recommendations to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly for consideration, submits to the National Assembly a vote of confidence for the person holding the position elected or approved by the National Assembly. Concurrently, annulling regulations related to joint documents because the new Law on Organization of the National Assembly does not regulate this issue.

The law supplements regulations on supervision activities of the People's Council committees such as: verify reports assigned by the People's Council and the Standing Committee of the People's Council, thematic supervision, supervision of legal documents of the People's Committee at the same level and the People's Council at the immediate lower level, supervision of the settlement of complaints, denunciations and petitions of citizens.

Supplement regulations on supervision activities of National Assembly delegations and National Assembly deputies; Delegates of the People's Council and delegates of the People's Council

The Law on supervisory activities of the National Assembly and People’s Councils regulates the organization for National Assembly delegates to question questions at National Assembly sessions and National Assembly Standing Committee sessions, how to determine the necessary number of National Assembly deputies to recommend to the National Assembly a vote of confidence for a person holding a position elected or approved by the National Assembly; supplement regulations on supervision of the National Assembly Delegation and National Assembly deputies in local law enforcement to suit the position and nature of supervision of each subject.

For the first time, the Law promulgates regulations on supervision activities of People's Council delegates and People's Council delegate groups as follows: the order and procedures for questioning and monitoring legal documents, local law enforcement, and resolving complaints, denunciations, and petitions from citizens; regulations on the People's Council Delegation Group to organize People's Council delegates to monitor the implementation of law in the area where the delegates are candidates for election.

Supplement regulations on responsibilities for regulating and coordinating supervision activities of the National Assembly and People's Council

The Law stipulates the responsibilities of directing, regulating and coordinating supervision activities of the National Assembly Standing Committee as follows: request the Ethnic Council and the National Assembly Committee to annually report on the proposed program, content, supervision plans of the Council and the Committee and adjust their supervision programs, plans, time and locations to avoid duplication and overlap in the content and location of supervision; request the Nationalities Council and the National Assembly Committee to coordinate in carrying out supervision activities in the same locality, agency and unit to ensure the quality and effectiveness of supervision activities (Article 36); regulates that the Standing Committee of the People's Council is responsible for regulating and coordinating supervision activities (Article 75).

Source: National Assembly’ s Portal

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