The case of the investigating agency prosecuting 74 subjects related to the act of editing environmental monitoring indicators at more than 160 stations nationwide has received a lot of public attention.
From a legal perspective, lawyer Nguyen Quang Huy (Hanoi Bar Association) said that this case is serious, these are no longer simple technical errors but also reveal loopholes in the current resource and environmental monitoring process. The fact that about more than 160/300 environmental monitoring stations have had data interference (accounting for more than 54.9% of the inspected stations) shows that these are no longer isolated or individual violations, but have transformed into organized criminal acts with high technology elements, carried out through the use of remote control software or direct interference with equipment to distort monitoring results.
To fill this gap, it is not simply strengthening inspection, but a reform of data access. Environmental data must be considered an asset, needs to be secured and transmitted according to a closed process, ensuring accuracy. At the same time, there needs to be close coordination between environmental management agencies and other forces, combining high technology to detect early signs of abnormalities in data flow.
According to lawyer Nguyen Quang Huy, legally, it is necessary to continue to improve the provisions of the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection in the direction of mandatory inspection and comparison of monitoring data through independent third parties; standardize requirements on security, storage and data retrieval to promptly detect illegal interference acts; strengthen personal responsibility, especially the responsibility of heads of agencies and management units.
At the same time, it is necessary to tighten sanctions in the direction of stricter handling of environmental data fraud, not only stopping at administrative penalties but must be linked to criminal responsibility and additional measures such as suspension of operations, revocation of licenses. In parallel, the application of technology, publicizing environmental data and strengthening social supervision are also necessary solutions to ensure transparency and effectiveness of law enforcement in this field.
Regarding the Law on Environmental Protection, there should be additional mandatory regulations on the use of monitoring devices that have been verified for data security. Monitoring service providers must be permanently responsible for the authenticity of the data provided by their devices. If fraudulent features are detected in the system, the provider must have its operating license revoked permanently and be prosecuted for joint criminal liability. In addition, it is necessary to add strict additional penalties," Lawyer Nguyen Quang Huy proposed.
At the regular press conference of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hai - Deputy Director of the Department of Environment affirmed that the act of interfering and falsifying monitoring data is a violation of the law, of a sophisticated nature, which can be carried out through intervention in software, system configuration or data transmission process.
Some limitations in implementation organization, mainly in the stages of supervision, technical control and post-inspection, have not kept up with practical requirements, especially in the context that the number of automatic and continuous monitoring systems is increasing rapidly, and the volume of data to be processed is very large. However, it is also necessary to affirm that this is not a legal loophole, but an issue that needs to be further tightened in the process of organization, implementation and control," Mr. Hai emphasized.
Also speaking about the incident, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Phung Duc Tien emphasized the policy of not trading the environment for growth. The Ministry's point of view is to strictly handle violations, and at the same time review the entire technical process and data management process to further tighten control.
