Joint Circular No. 04/2008/TTLT-BTC-TTCP guiding the preparation, management, use, and settlement of funds to ensure the operation of state inspection agencies

 JOINT CIRCULAR

Guidelines for the establishment, management, use, and settlement of funds to ensure the operation of state inspection agencies

Decision on the establishment, management, use, and settlement of funds to ensure the operation of state inspection agencies

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Pursuant to Decree No. 60/2003/NĐ-CP dated June 6, 2003 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of the Law on State Budget;

Pursuant to Decree No. 41/2005/NĐ-CP dated March 25, 2005 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Inspection Law.

Pursuant to Decree No. 161/2007/NĐ-CP dated October 31, 2007 of the Government amending and supplementing Article 48 of Decree No. 41/2005/NĐ-CP dated March 25, 2005 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Inspection Law.

Pursuant to Decree No. 77/2003/NĐ-CP dated July 1, 2003 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Finance;

Pursuant to Decree No. 55/2005/NĐ-CP dated April 25, 2005 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Government Inspectorate;

The Ministry of Finance and the Government Inspectorate jointly issue guidelines for the establishment, management, use, and settlement of funds to ensure the operation of state inspection agencies as follows:

This technical regulation sets out technical requirements, testing methods, sampling procedures; management requirements; responsibilities of organizations and individuals producing, trading, and importing cigarettes.

1. Scope of application:

These Circulars guide the establishment, management, use, and settlement of funds to ensure the operation of state inspection agencies, including:

a) State inspection agencies established according to administrative levels:

- The Government Inspectorate;

- Provincial and centrally-administered city inspectors;

- District and town inspectors under provinces and centrally-administered cities;

b) State inspection agencies established within sectoral management agencies:

- Inspectors of ministries and ministerial-level agencies;

- Inspectors of government agencies with national management functions by sectors and fields;

- Department inspectors.

2. These Circulars do not apply to Tax Inspectors and Customs Inspectors. The funds to ensure the operation of Tax Inspectors and Customs Inspectors are allocated from the budget of the General Department of Taxation and the General Department of Customs according to Decision No. 107/2005/QĐ-TTg dated May 16, 2005 of the Prime Minister on piloting the allocation of personnel quotas and operating budgets for the General Department of Taxation during the period 2005-2007 and Decision No. 109/2005/QĐ-TTg dated May 16, 2005 of the Prime Minister on piloting the allocation of personnel quotas and operating budgets for the General Department of Customs during the period 2005-2007.

3. Annual funds to ensure the operation of state inspection agencies are provided by the state budget in accordance with the law. In addition, state inspection agencies may allocate a portion of the recovered funds identified through inspections that have been actually remitted to the state budget to support the enhancement of inspection capacity, strengthen material infrastructure, and reward and motivate organizations and individuals who have achieved success in inspection work.

4. State inspection agencies are responsible for using funds for their intended purposes and target groups in accordance with current financial expenditure standards and regulations, and must report and settle accounts for the funds used to the same-level finance agency as required by law.

II. SPECIFIC PROVISIONS

1. Contents of expenditures for the operation of state inspection agencies:

a) Expenditures for individual payments: salaries, wages, allowances, contributions based on salary (social insurance, health insurance, trade union fees), bonuses, collective welfare, and other individual payments as prescribed.

b) Payments for public services, office supplies, information, propaganda, communication, rental expenses, purchase of books and materials for inspection work.

c) Conference and domestic travel expenses, expenses for foreign trips and reception of foreign delegations visiting Vietnam, expenses for organizing training and specialized professional courses.

d) Specialized professional expenditure items, including:

- Fuel costs and travel expenses for inspection teams;

- Costs for requesting expert appraisals related to inspection content;

- Costs for collecting information, documents, and evidence related to inspection content;

- Costs for handling complaints, denunciations, and preventing and combating corruption within the scope of management;

- Costs for propaganda, dissemination, and education on inspection laws, complaint resolution, and prevention and combating corruption;

- Costs for uniforms, insignia, badges, and signs for inspectors;

- Other direct costs serving specialized inspection work.

e) Expenses for purchasing, repairing, and major repairs of fixed assets.

2. Expenditure levels:

The above contents of expenditures for the operation of state inspection agencies shall be implemented in accordance with the standards, norms, and financial expenditure systems issued by authorized authorities, specifically as follows:

a) Conference and travel expenses shall be carried out in accordance with the regulations of the Minister, Head of a ministry-level agency, or head of a government agency, and the Chairman of the People's Committee of a province, which detail the travel expense system for civil servants, public officials, and employees traveling on official business as stipulated by the Ministry of Finance;

b) Expenses for telephone bills at home and mobile phones shall be carried out in accordance with the current regulations on the standards and norms for the use of official telephones at home and mobile phones in administrative agencies, public institutions, and political-social organizations;

c) Reward expenses shall be carried out in accordance with the current regulations on the reward expenditure system;

d) Appraisal request expenses shall be carried out in accordance with the expenditure level prescribed by the competent authority;

e) Other expenses shall be carried out in accordance with the internal expenditure regulations of the unit. If the unit has not yet established internal expenditure regulations, it shall comply with the current regulations.

3. Sources of funds to ensure the operation of state inspection agencies:

a) State budget funds;

b) Supplementary sources from recovered funds identified through inspections that have been actually remitted to the state budget;

c) Revenue from administrative penalties as prescribed (if applicable);

d) Other sources of funds as prescribed by law (if applicable).

4. Allocation and use of funds derived from the results of inspections that have been actually remitted to the state budget to support the enhancement of inspection capacity, strengthen material infrastructure, and reward and motivate organizations and individuals who have achieved success in inspection work.

a) Items eligible for allocation:

State inspection agencies may draw from funds recovered and actually submitted to the state budget according to the decision of the competent authority handling the cases discovered by inspection teams and after the appeal period has expired, to support improving the capacity of inspection activities, enhancing material infrastructure, and rewarding and motivating organizations and individuals with outstanding achievements in inspection work, including:

- Funds from hidden and illegal revenues that have been paid into the state budget by the relevant entities;

- Funds from improperly allocated expenses that have been returned to the state budget;

- Funds from reduced settlement amounts (investment construction, budget settlement) that need to be recovered and have been actually submitted to the state budget;

- Excess funds and other reduced expenses that must be recovered due to violations of regulations by the units using them, which have been actually submitted to the state budget.

When there is a decision by the competent authority as stipulated in Article 20, Article 21, and Article 36 of Decree No. 41/2005/NĐ-CP dated March 25, 2005 of the Government on the handling of recovered funds through inspection work and their submission to the state budget, the state inspection agency shall transfer the funds from the temporary account to the state budget according to the amount specified in the recovery decision.

b) The percentage drawn:

State inspection agencies may draw 30% from the funds recovered and actually submitted to the state budget according to the decision of the competent authority handling the cases discovered by inspection teams and after the appeal period has expired, as provided for in Point a Clause 4 Section II of this Circular, to support improving the capacity of inspection activities, enhancing material infrastructure, and rewarding and motivating organizations and individuals with outstanding achievements in inspection work, supplementing operational funding but not exceeding 10,000 billion VND/year for the Government Inspectorate; not exceeding 2,000 billion VND/year for central ministry inspectorates; not exceeding 1,000 billion VND/year for provincial city inspectorates (except for the Inspectorate of Hanoi City and Ho Chi Minh City Inspectorate, not exceeding 2,000 billion VND/year); not exceeding 200 billion VND/year for department inspectorates, district, county, city, and town inspectorates under provinces (except for department inspectorates, districts, and counties under Hanoi City and Ho Chi Minh City, not exceeding 400 billion VND/year).

c) Using the drawn funds:

State inspection agencies may use the drawn funds for the following purposes:

- Supplementing expenditures for purchasing, repairing assets, machinery, equipment, working tools, and transportation means serving inspection work, complaint resolution, and anti-corruption efforts;

- Supplementing expenditures for training, upgrading, and enhancing the professional skills of inspectors and staff of state inspection agencies;

- Supplementing expenditures for professional activities of inspection agencies and inspection teams;

- Rewarding (excluding annual rewards as prescribed in Decree No. 121/2005/NĐ-CP dated September 30, 2005 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law on Encouragement and Rewards and the Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Provisions of the Law on Encouragement and Rewards), and motivating collectives and individuals inside and outside the inspection sector who have made contributions to inspection activities.

The level of supplementary expenditure for the operation of inspection agencies, inspection teams, training, upgrading professional skills, and rewarding collectives and individuals mentioned above from the funds drawn from the results of inspections and recoveries actually submitted to the state budget shall be reviewed and decided by the head of the state inspection agency but must be stipulated in the Internal Financial Regulation of the inspection agency according to current regulations on establishing internal financial regulations for state agencies implementing self-management as prescribed in Decree No. 130/2005/NĐ-CP dated October 17, 2005 of the Government, current guiding documents, and this Circular. For inspection agencies that are not budgetary units, the inspection agency must establish a Management and Usage Regulation for the drawn funds to be approved by the head of the main managing agency.

Specifically, the level of encouragement and reward for civil servants in inspection agencies from the funds drawn from the results of inspections and recoveries actually submitted to the state budget and the additional income from savings of the agency implementing self-management shall not exceed 1.0 times the state-prescribed salary grade and position allowance.

5. Budget preparation, execution, and settlement of funds:

The preparation, management, use, and settlement of funds ensuring the operation of state inspection agencies from the state budget are carried out in accordance with the State Budget Law and guiding documents for the State Budget Law. This Circular specifically guides some points regarding the source of supplementary funds drawn from recovered funds discovered through inspection work and actually submitted to the state budget to supplement the operational costs of state inspection agencies as follows:

a) Preparation of the budget and allocation of the budget:

- Annually, based on the results of recovered funds actually submitted to the state budget from the current year's inspection work at the time of preparing the planned budget and forecasting the last months of the year; Based on the amounts and percentages allowed to be drawn as stipulated in Clause 4 Section II of this Circular, the inspection agency or the main managing agency of the inspection agency (in cases where the inspection agency is not a budgetary unit - hereinafter referred to as the main managing agency) prepares the supplementary budget expenditure for inspection activities corresponding to the permissible drawing percentage on the actual revenue submitted to the state budget, combined with the annual budget expenditure plan of the agency to submit to the competent authority for approval according to the State Budget Law and guiding documents;

- The budget expenditure drawn from recovered funds discovered through inspections and actually submitted to the state budget is allocated as a separate line in the annual budget revenue and expenditure plan of the state inspection agency (or the main managing agency).

b) Implementation of the budget and settlement:

The inspection agency shall proactively utilize the funds allocated according to the expenditure items prescribed in this Circular based on the results of the recovered amounts actually paid into the state budget from the discovered sums through inspections. In cases where the actual amount extracted from the recovered sources through inspection work to supplement the operational expenses of the inspection agency exceeds the budget estimate assigned by the competent authority, the state inspection agency or the supervising agency shall submit a document to the financial agency at the same level for consideration and supplementary resolution in accordance with regulations. The total amount extracted (including both the amount extracted according to the annual budget and the additional amount extracted) shall not exceed the maximum limit stipulated in point b, Clause 4, Section II of this Circular. If the amount extracted is lower than the budget estimate assigned by the competent authority, the inspection agency may only use the corresponding funds in accordance with the provisions.

Funds extracted from the recovered amounts discovered through inspections and actually paid into the state budget at the end of the year that are not fully utilized shall be carried over to the next year for continued use.

The settlement of utilized funds shall be conducted in accordance with current regulations.

III. IMPLEMENTATION

This Circular takes effect fifteen days after its publication in the Official Gazette and replaces Circular Joint Circular No. 42/2006/TTLT-BTC-TTCP dated May 15, 2006, issued by the Ministry of Finance and the Government Inspectorate guiding the establishment, management, utilization, and settlement of funds ensuring the operations of state inspection agencies.

Any difficulties encountered during implementation should be reported by units to the Ministry of Finance and the Government Inspectorate for study, amendment, and supplementation to ensure appropriateness./.