"Only delegate authority to localities with sufficient financial and management capacity"
On February 14, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law on Government Organization (amended).
Participating in the discussion, regarding decentralization, delegate Tran Van Khai (Ha Nam Delegation) analyzed that unclear decentralization can lead to overlap between the Central and local governments. For example, some important tasks (planning, public investment, land and environmental management) may be both the responsibility of the Government and under the authority of the locality, easily leading to disputes in policy implementation.
Even if the Central Government still retains the right to make decisions but assigns localities to implement them without clear responsibility, it can lead to lack of consistency and stagnation in implementation.
Regarding the risk of sand relying on power, delegate Tran Van Khai stated that local authorities can abuse power and lack control. Strong decentralization can cause some localities to decide according to local interests, which is inconsistent with general policies.
Some provinces and cities with rich resources or strong economies can take advantage of decentralization to establish their own preferential policies, causing inequality with other localities. On the contrary, weak localities may not have enough capacity to implement, causing stagnation or even abusing power for profit. Therefore, Mr. Khai suggested that it is necessary to study and supplement the principle of "conditional decentralization".
Accordingly, only decentralization when the locality has sufficient financial capacity, human resources, and governance; Building an index to assess the governance capacity of each locality before decentralization. At the same time, strengthen the supervision of the Central Government: Establish a Decentralization Control Council to closely monitor the implementation.
In addition, regarding decentralization, the delegate proposed to add a mechanism for "assessing the effectiveness of decentralization". In particular, clearly stipulate which tasks require annual assessment reports; decentralization decisions must be periodically monitored by the National Assembly. At the same time, it is necessary to apply the principle of "flexible decentralization", for localities that do not have enough capacity, there should be strict sanctions instead of assigning full authority.
Regarding authorization, the delegate suggested limiting the scope of authorization and adding accountability.
" Decentralization, decentralization, and delegation are inevitable trends, but there needs to be a strict control mechanism. Supplementing regulations on supervision, assessment of local capacity and accountability is an important factor to avoid overlap... - delegate Tran Van Khai emphasized.
Review and complete regulations on decentralization, delegation of authority, and delegation of authority
Delegate Tran Quoc Tuan (Tra Vinh Delegation) said that to organize and implement these delegation contents smoothly and smoothly is extremely difficult.
Therefore, the delegate proposed to add content to Article 18 of the Draft Law on the responsibilities of ministers and heads of ministerial-level agencies as members of the Government, submit to competent authorities for consideration and decision on decentralization to localities when they meet the necessary conditions and capacity, and at the same time, supplement regulations on strict supervision of this content.
" Only then will decentralization be truly effective and new bottlenecks will be removed, resources... can be best released, to serve the socio-economic development of the country" - Mr. Tuan stated his opinion.
Explaining at the end of the discussion session, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that she will study, absorb and fully explain the comments of the National Assembly deputies. The Minister of Home Affairs analyzed the necessity, significance, and viewpoint of amending the Law on Government Organization in the current context.
In particular, focusing on clarifying and emphasizing the core and fundamental issue in this amendment is to perfect the principles of decentralization, delegation of power, and delegation of authority according to the Decree and the Party's policies to create proactiveness, creativity, promote the spirit of autonomy, self-responsibility, and creativity of state administrative agencies, especially local governments; create a legal corridor to handle practical issues, remove institutional "bottlenecks" and unlock resources...
