On February 5, 2025, at the National Assembly House, continuing the 42nd Session, under the direction of the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh, the National Assembly Standing Committee discussed and gave opinions on the draft Law on Organisation of Local Government (amended). Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra attended and briefly presented the Government's Submission on the draft Law on Organisation of Local Government (amended) at the Session.
Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra presented a summary of the Government's Submission on the Draft Law on Organisation of Local Government (amended). Photo: QH
Briefly presenting the Government's Submission on the Draft Law on Organisation of Local Government (amended). Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra stated that the amendment of the Law on Organisation of Local Government aims to implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress thoroughly, Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW of the 6th Central Conference, 12th tenure and Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW of the 6th Central Conference, 13th tenure on continuing to innovate and reorganise the apparatus of the political system, building and perfecting the socialist rule-of-law state of Vietnam in the new period, especially building a state administration that serves the people, is democratic, rule-of-law, professional and modern.
The Draft Law on the Organisation of Local Government (amended) consists of 07 chapters and 59 articles. It includes clear provisions on the division of authority, decentralisation, delegation of authority between local governments at all levels; on the tasks and powers of local governments at all levels; on the model of local government organisation; on the organisational structure and operation of People's Councils, People's Committees at all levels; the organisation of administrative units; the establishment, dissolution, merger, division, and adjustment of administrative unit boundaries…
The Draft Law stipulates that when decentralising and assigning tasks and powers to local authorities, it is necessary to clearly define the content and powers to local authorities, it is necessary to clearly define the content and scope of tasks and powers that local authorities are allowed to decide, organise, and be responsible for the results; it is suitable to the conditions and characteristics of rural, urban, island, special administrative-economic units and the capacity as well as conditions for performing tasks of local authorities at all levels; it controls the power and stipulates the responsibility for supervision and inspection of superior state agencies.
The Draft Law also clearly stipulates the decentralising subject and the decentralising recipient; the responsibility of the decentralising agency in ensuring the conditions for implementing decentralisation; the decentralising agency is fully responsible for the results of performing the decentralised tasks if the decentralising agency has ensured the prescribed conditions. This provision aims to create a legal basis for agencies within their authority to review and promote the implementation of decentralisation of authority with conditions to ensure implementation.
Regarding authorisation, the Draft Law on Organisation of Local Government (amended) stipulates the direction of specifying the authorised subjects and the subjects receiving authorisation; clearly defining the requirements of authorisation; and specifying the responsibilities of the authorising agency and the authorised agency in performing the authorised tasks. This provision aims to ensure that authorisation is carried out strictly, with a control mechanism, and to avoid widespread authorisation.
The National Assembly Standing Committee basically agreed with many contents of the Draft Law on Organisation of Local Government (amended). Photo: QH
Presenting the report on the examination of the Draft Law on Organisation of Local Government (amended), Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Law Hoang Thanh Tung stated that the Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Committee on Law agreed with the necessity of comprehensively amending the Law on Organisation of Local Government for the reasons stated in the Government's Submission and agreed with the scope of amendment, name and structure of the Draft Law as proposed by the Government.
Regarding the model of local government organisation, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Law Committee basically agrees with the Government's proposal on adjusting the organisation of the local government model and local government levels in each type of administrative unit in accordance with urban, rural, mountainous, and island areas. Regarding the expansion of the scope of not organising People's Councils in communes of towns, provincial cities, and centrally-run cities, the majority of opinions in the Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Law Committee believe that the provisions in the Draft Law are appropriate.
Regarding the organisation and operation of the People's Committee, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Law Committee proposed a unified regulation in the direction that both places where local government is organised and places where local government is not organised, the People's Committee is organised according to the model of a local state administrative agency working under the chief regime. The Chairman of the People's Committee is the head of the People's Committee, responsible to the People's Council of the same level (for places where a People's Council is organised), to the higher-level state agency, and before the law for the implementation of the tasks and powers of the People's Committee. The Chairman, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee, specialised agencies, organisations, affiliated units (for provincial and district levels), or civil servants at the commune level will be components of the structure of the People's Committee at each level.
Regarding the division of authority, decentralisation, delegation of authority, and authorisation between local authorities at all levels, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Law Committee agrees with continuing to perfect regulations on the division of authority, decentralisation, delegation of authority, and authorisation to local authorities to concretise the policy of promoting decentralisation and delegation of authority.
Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh chaired and delivered a concluding speech at the discussion session. Photo: QH
Concluding the discussion session, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh said that through the discussion, the National Assembly Standing Committee highly appreciated the efforts of the government and the Ministry of Home Affairs - the drafting agency and the Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Law Committee - the reviewing agency, who actively and promptly coordinated to study, draft, and review the Draft Law on Organisation of Local Government (amended) in order to submit it to the National Assembly Standing Committee for comments at this session.
The National Assembly Standing Committee agreed on the scope of comprehensive amendments, the necessity, basic contents, and ideas of the Law amendments to ensure timely institutionalisation of the Party's policies and guidelines on reforming the apparatus of decentralisation, delegation of power, and authorisation, and improving the effectiveness of leadership, direction, and administration of the country's activities.
Regarding the content on the division of authority, decentralisation, delegation, and authorisation, the National Assembly Standing Committee agrees with the Draft Law; at the same time, it proposes to assign agencies to continue reviewing the consistency between the Draft Law on Organisation of Local Government (amended) with the Draft Law on Organisation of the Government (amended) and related specialised laws to adjust the contents accordingly.
Regarding the tasks and powers of local authorities, the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed to clearly stipulate the tasks and working mechanisms of People's Councils, People's Committees, and Chairmen of People's Committees at all levels in the Draft Law. They emphasized clearly defining the responsibilities of collectives, individuals, and the working mechanisms of government at all levels and of each agency in the government system, ensuring generality, stability, and feasibility.
The National Assembly Standing Committee also agreed on the effectiveness of the government's proposal, but this content needs to be reported to the competent authority.
Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh stated that for two other major issues (the issue of not organising People's Councils in urban communes and organising a model of state administrative agencies at localities working under the head regime instead of the two current models), the National Assembly Standing Committee assigned relevant agencies to study and present at the meeting of the National Assembly Party Committee Standing Committee with the Government Party Committee Standing Committee for discussion, before reporting to competent authorities./.
Translated: Tran Phuong Anh, Nguyen Thu Hien
Sourse: TCNN Thống nhất sửa đổi toàn diện Luật Tổ chức chính quyền địa phương, Published date: 02/05/2025 14:51