On May 22, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law on Inspection (amended). Commenting on the draft law, delegate Pham Khanh Phong Lan (HCMC delegation) raised the issue: are we focusing a bit on how to build a law to prevent abuse of power and negativity by inspectors? Meanwhile, the authority and weight that make inspection more effective have not yet had a solution.
Citing that in foreign countries, inspectors have great power, delegate Pham Khanh Phong Lan said that right from the time of law making, inspectors have been " bound up in many ways".
This leads to an worrying reality: When the inspection force arrived, the counterfeit goods were... hidden. Many pharmacies immediately declared that they were not selling functional foods when they learned that there was an inspection team, even the day before, the shelves were still packed with "pharmics" of unknown origin.
Or the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Food Safety cannot take samples of cigarette butts for testing when cigarette butts in the city have all reported out of stock, so they have to review and check other related products.
It is undeniable the importance of controlling power in inspection activities, but if the thinking of law making revolves around fear of negativity, leading to an inspection mechanism being " bound up" by a series of rigid processes, inspection effectiveness will gradually become a form.
The need to publicize the inspection plan from the beginning of the year, must notify the inspected unit in advance, even have to apply for approval before the field inspection ... is causing the inspection according to the plan of losing the unexpected factor that is the most important weapon to detect violations.
More worryingly, in the context of increasingly sophisticated counterfeit goods, fake drugs, and fake milk, an unexpected inspection system will create a dangerous legal space for open-minded violations to exist.
Those who sell prohibited goods, forge labels, and circumvent the law by "change names and owners" can completely survive inspections if they know when they will be inspected.
And in fact, they know, because the current law is "imposing" to tell them!
According to the law, if there is a gap in the practice of combating violations, it will be difficult to achieve the goal of controlling risks for society.
Inspection is not a tool to "break" businesses, but a tool to maintain market discipline, protect consumers and prevent violations from the root.
Once the tool is weakened by restrictive regulations, protecting people from fake pills and lawstick boxes will have an additional monitoring loophole.
Combating inspection abuse of power and negativity is obvious, but at the same time, there must be a mechanism for inspectors to have enough tools to detect, handle, and deter violations in a real way.
Only when there is a proactive, transparent, and strong enough inspection system will violations be truly pushed back, instead of just "hiding" at times when the inspection team is known to be coming.
