On the afternoon of October 7, at the Government press conference, reporters asked why there was a situation where "many small matters still need to be submitted to the Central level", so what is the current state of decentralization and what are the solutions?
Responding to this issue, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Truong Hai Long said that the policy of promoting decentralization and delegation of power is of great concern to the Party, State, and especially the Government.
In this spirit, the Government issued Resolution No. 04 (2022) on promoting decentralization and delegation of power in state management. In which, the Prime Minister directed the development of specific programs and plans; each ministry and sector reviewed institutions related to the fields under their management to decentralize to localities.
Regarding the implementation results, Deputy Minister Truong Hai Long informed that the Government has submitted to the National Assembly 14 amendments to laws, commented on 2 laws and prepared 4 more laws. In addition, it has submitted to the National Assembly 9 resolutions, amending and supplementing 27 decrees.
In addition, the Prime Minister issued 19 decisions and ministries issued 8 circulars with content related to promoting decentralization and delegation of power.
"However, amending the decentralization of power is not just in one document but many legal documents related to many ministries and branches, so the progress of reviewing and proposing amendments is still slow.
Some ministries and sectors still have a mentality of being respectful and avoiding decentralization and delegation of power because it affects local interests, or are afraid of decentralization to localities but localities have not yet ensured implementation," said Deputy Minister of Home Affairs.
Regarding the solutions, Deputy Minister Truong Hai Long said that recently, the Prime Minister has established a Steering Committee to review and handle problems in the system of legal documents.
During the review process, the Prime Minister directed ministries, branches and localities to urgently propose and implement one law amending many laws; required the presiding agencies when drafting laws to assign authority in the spirit of "whichever level does it, that level is responsible, clear people, clear tasks", simplify administrative procedures, reduce compliance costs when implementing legal documents.
On the side of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mr. Truong Hai Long informed that this agency has advised the Government to amend the Law on Government Organization and the Law on Local Government Organization.
"Previously, the principle of decentralization and delegation of power in the law was not yet determined, and the mechanism of decentralization and delegation of power was not clear," Deputy Minister Truong Hai Long stated the reality.
The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs clearly stated that the division of authority should be moved towards clearly defining "what the Central Government does and what the local authorities do". From there, a framework law should be created for specialized ministries to amend related laws in a similar manner.
Regarding the work of removing bottlenecks in promoting socio-economic development, the Government assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance to focus on urgently developing three laws to amend laws in the socio-economic and financial fields, and submit them to the National Assembly at the 8th Session.
According to Mr. Truong Hai Long, urgent issues that still hinder law enforcement and promote decentralization have been reflected in proposals for one law to amend many laws.
"Some specialized laws currently leave the Government's authority to decide on specific issues, leading to a situation where some small matters are still brought to higher levels for approval," Deputy Minister Truong Hai Long added.
