Forms of Disciplinary Actions for Officials

Law on Officials 2008 (Law on CBCC) stipulates the forms of disciplinary actions applicable to handling violations by officials as follows:

For Officials

Officials are understood to be Vietnamese citizens, elected, approved, or appointed to hold positions and titles on a term basis in agencies of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the State, and socio-political organizations at the provincial and district levels, within the payroll, and receive salaries from the state budget.

When officials violate the law, depending on the nature and severity of the violation, they may be subject to one of the four forms of disciplinary action: reprimand, warning, demotion, removal from office, as stipulated in Article 78 of the Law on CBCC.

- Reprimand is a form of disciplinary action applied to officials who commit initial minor disciplinary violations;- Warning is applied to officials in the case of repeat offenses after being reprimanded or minor but frequent flaws, or initial violations with relatively serious nature;- Removal from office applies to officials in leadership or management positions who are not allowed to continue holding their leadership or management positions before the end of their term of office or appointment period. This form of discipline only applies to officials who are approved to hold positions on a term basis;- Dismissal means the official is not allowed to continue holding their position, title before the end of the term. Dismissal is considered the highest form of disciplinary action and is only applicable to officials.

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For Civil Servants

According to the Law on CBCC: Civil servants are Vietnamese citizens, recruited and appointed into ranks, positions, and titles, within the payroll, receiving salaries from the state budget or guaranteed from the salary fund of public service providers according to the provisions of the law.

Article 79 of the Law on CBCC stipulates six forms of disciplinary action: reprimand, warning, salary reduction, demotion, removal from office, and forced resignation, applicable to civil servants who violate the provisions of this Law and other related laws.

- The form of reprimand and warning for civil servants are applied similar to reprimand and warning for officials;- Salary reduction is a form of discipline applicable only to civil servants who commit the following legal violations:- Failing to perform assigned professional tasks without a legitimate reason, affecting the overall work of the agency, organization, or unit;- Misusing their position, deliberately acting against the law for personal gain;- Committing serious violations of the law on anti-corruption; practicing thrift, combating wastefulness; labor discipline; gender equality; combating social evils such as prostitution and other related laws involving civil servants.- Demotion means civil servants holding leadership or management positions are downgraded to a lower position. This disciplinary form applies to civil servants holding leadership management positions who commit the following violations:- Failing to complete management and executive tasks assigned without a legitimate reason, causing serious consequences;- Committing very serious violations of the law on anti-corruption; practicing thrift, combating wastefulness; gender equality; combating social evils such as prostitution and other related laws involving civil servants but were sincerely cooperative in self-examination during the disciplinary process;- Removal from office is the case where civil servants in leadership and management positions are not allowed to continue holding leadership or management positions before the end of their term or appointment duration. This form of discipline only applies to civil servants holding leadership, management positions. Cases leading to removal from office include:- Using illegal documents to be appointed to a position;- Failing to complete management and executive tasks assigned without a legitimate reason, causing very serious consequences;- Being sentenced to a suspended prison term or non-custodial reform;- Committing very serious violations of the law on anti-corruption; practicing thrift, combating wastefulness; gender equality; combating social evils such as prostitution and other related laws involving civil servants.- Forced resignation is the highest form of disciplinary action for civil servants and is only applicable to civil servants. Civil servants are subject to this form of discipline when committing one of the following violations:- Being sentenced to prison without parole;- Using illegal documents to be recruited into an agency, organization, or unit;- Being confirmed as drug addicts by a competent health agency;- Taking unauthorized leave totaling seven working days or more in a month or 20 working days or more in a year after the employing agency has given three consecutive written notices;- Committing particularly serious violations of the law on anti-corruption; practicing thrift, combating wastefulness; labor discipline; combating social evils such as prostitution and other related laws involving civil servants.

See detailed procedures, procedures, and authority for handling disciplinary actions for officials and civil servants at Decree 35/2005/ND-CP, Decree 34/2011/ND-CP.

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