Circular No. 07/2014/TT-BTP guiding the impact assessment of administrative procedures and the review and evaluation of administrative procedures.

CIRCULAR

Guidelines for assessing the impact of administrative procedures
and reviewing, evaluating administrative procedures

_____________________

Pursuant to Decree No. 63/2010/NĐ-CP dated June 8, 2010 of the Government on administrative procedure control (amended and supplemented);

Pursuant to Decree No. 22/2013/NĐ-CP dated March 13, 2013, of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Justice;

At the proposal of the Director of the Administrative Procedure Control Department;

The Minister of Justice issues this Circular guiding the assessment of the impact of administrative procedures and the review, evaluation of administrative procedures.

PART I
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of Application

This Circular guides the assessment of the impact of administrative procedures and the review, evaluation of administrative procedures as prescribed in Decree No. 63/2010/NĐ-CP dated June 8, 2010 of the Government on administrative procedure control (amended and supplemented) (hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 63/2010/NĐ-CP amended and supplemented)

Article 2. Applicability

1. The leading agency drafting the project or draft regulatory legal document containing provisions on administrative procedures (hereinafter referred to as the leading agency).

2. The agency examining regulatory legal documents containing provisions on administrative procedures, the agency controlling administrative procedures.

3. Agencies and organizations entrusted with reviewing and evaluating administrative procedures within their management and resolution authority (hereinafter referred to as the reviewing and evaluating agencies).

4. State agencies and organizations related thereto.

Article 3. In this Circular, the following terms shall be understood as follows:

1. Assessment of the impact of administrative procedures means the study and examination of the necessity, rationality, legality of administrative procedures as well as the costs that individuals and organizations must bear when implementing the proposed administrative procedures to consider and choose optimal solutions for issuing new or amending and supplementing administrative procedures.

2. Reviewing and evaluating administrative procedures means the statistical collection and evaluation of administrative procedures in current regulatory legal documents to identify and recommend relevant agencies or persons with authority to examine and decide on amending, supplementing, replacing, or abolishing provisions on administrative procedures that are unnecessary, unreasonable, illegal, or fail to meet the principles of administrative procedure regulations as stipulated in Decree No. 63/2010/NĐ-CP amended and supplemented.

3. Quantifying compliance costs of administrative procedures means quantifying the costs that individuals and organizations must bear when implementing issued or proposed administrative procedures.

Chapter II

ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES

Article 4. Responsibilities of agencies in assessing the impact of administrative procedures

1. The leading agency drafting regulatory legal documents containing provisions on administrative procedures shall be responsible for assessing the impact of administrative procedures.

2. The agency controlling administrative procedures, including: The Administrative Procedure Control Department under the Ministry of Justice, Legal Affairs Organization under Ministries, Agencies at the level of Ministries, Departments of Justice under People's Committees of provinces and centrally-administered cities (hereinafter referred to as provincial-level People's Committees), shall be responsible for guiding and urging the corresponding leading agencies at the same level to use the impact assessment forms.

3. The agency examining regulatory legal documents shall be responsible for examining provisions on administrative procedures according to Article 11 of Decree No. 63/2010/NĐ-CP amended and supplemented.

In necessary cases, the agency examining regulatory legal documents shall conduct independent assessments of provisions on administrative procedures; organize the solicitation of opinions from affected entities and related organizations and individuals to improve the content of the examination of provisions on administrative procedures in the Examination Report.

Article 5. Procedure for assessing the impact of administrative procedures

1. Timing of impact assessment

The assessment of the impact of administrative procedures shall be conducted during the drafting stage of regulatory legal documents and must be completed before submitting to the agency responsible for reviewing regulatory legal documents.

2. The leading agency drafting the regulatory legal document containing provisions on administrative procedures shall implement the assessment of the impact of administrative procedures according to the following steps:

a) Conducting the assessment of the impact of administrative procedures

The leading agency drafting shall use the forms and contents prescribed in Articles 6, 7, 8, and 9 of this Circular to assess the necessity, rationality, legality, and compliance costs of administrative procedures.

b) Completing provisions on administrative procedures

During the impact assessment process, if an administrative procedure is determined to be unnecessary, the leading agency drafting shall cease the assessment and not include the administrative procedure in the project or draft document.

If an administrative procedure is determined to be necessary, the assessment shall continue, and based on the assessment results, the leading agency drafting shall revise and perfect the provisions on administrative procedures to ensure that the administrative procedures in the project or draft document are truly necessary, reasonable, lawful, and effective.

c) Summarizing the results of the impact assessment of administrative procedures

After completing the impact assessment of administrative procedures, the leading agency drafting shall incorporate the assessment results into the content of the Impact Assessment Report of the project or draft regulatory legal document.

For draft Circulars, joint Circulars, and draft Decisions of provincial People's Committees containing provisions on administrative procedures, the leading agency drafting shall compile the impact assessment results of administrative procedures into a separate report.

Article 6. Assessment of the necessity of administrative procedures

1. The necessity of an administrative procedure is assessed based on the following contents:

a) Meeting the requirements of state management for a specific sector or field.

b) Ensuring the rights, obligations, and legitimate interests of individuals and organizations.

c) Being the optimal measure among possible measures to meet the requirements of state management and ensure the rights, obligations, and legitimate interests of individuals and organizations.

2. The leading agency drafting shall use the Administrative Procedure Impact Assessment Form and Guidance for Responses (marked as Form 01A/ĐG-KSTT) attached as Appendix I of this Circular to assess the necessity of administrative procedures.

Article 7. Assessment of the rationality of administrative procedures

1. The rationality of an administrative procedure is assessed based on the following contents:

a) Name of the administrative procedure

The name of the administrative procedure is clearly, specifically, concisely stated; accurately and consistently defined in all regulatory legal documents containing provisions on such administrative procedure.

The name of the administrative procedure includes: A term or phrase indicating the action of a state agency or individual/organization combined with the result of the administrative procedure and combined with a specific object or field (if applicable) or combined with a phrase indicating the object or matter that the state agency wants to manage or that individuals/organizations wish to achieve.

 b) Implementation procedure of the administrative procedure

The implementation procedure of the administrative procedure is clearly and specifically defined, including the steps to be taken; clearly delineating responsibilities and tasks of state agencies and individuals/organizations participating in its implementation. At the same time, the steps must be arranged in a suitable sequence regarding time, process, and authority level; applying the maximum interconnection mechanism.

c) The method of implementing the administrative procedure

The method of implementing the administrative procedure is clearly and specifically defined; appropriate to the conditions of the agency handling the administrative procedure and creating the maximum convenience for individuals/organizations at the lowest cost.

d) File

The file for resolving the administrative procedure is clearly and specifically defined regarding the name, format, quantity of each file component, and the number of file sets. Each file component and the quantity of each component must be truly necessary for resolving the administrative procedure, meeting the standards and conditions stipulated by law, ensuring the goal of state management; the file components should not overlap with those of another administrative procedure whose result is a component of the proposed administrative procedure or a component resulting from the management of the same agency; the format of the file components should be diverse and easy to implement to facilitate individuals/organizations.

đ) Time limit for handling administrative procedures

The deadline for resolving the administrative procedure is clearly and specifically defined; ensuring the saving of time for individuals/organizations, consistent with the capacity of the agency implementing the administrative procedure.

In cases where an administrative procedure is resolved by multiple agencies with authority, the resolution deadlines for each agency and the transfer deadlines between agencies must be clearly and fully defined.

e) Objectives implementing the administrative procedure

The objectives implementing the administrative procedure are clearly and specifically defined; ensuring fairness among individuals, among organizations, between individuals and organizations, among sectors and fields, among regions, and between domestic and foreign entities, and maximizing the number of beneficiaries adhering to the procedures.

g) Agency implementing the administrative procedure

The agency implementing the administrative procedure is defined in accordance with the state management authority at the administrative level or territorial boundary as prescribed by law; convenient for individuals/organizations to comply with administrative procedures when contacting the competent authority for resolution; ensuring the maximum application of decentralization or delegation mechanisms to lower-level administrative agencies or localities to resolve administrative procedures.

In cases where an administrative procedure is resolved by multiple agencies or levels, the responsibilities of each agency, each level, the leading agency, and the cooperating agency must be clearly and specifically defined; applying the maximum interconnection mechanism in resolving administrative procedures.

h) Fees and charges

Fees, charges, and other payment items (if any) are clearly and specifically defined; commensurate with the costs incurred by the state agency to implement the administrative procedure, ensuring the lowest cost for individuals/organizations; taking into account the characteristics of different regions, different implementing entities, different fields, and international practices.

i) Application forms and declarations

If an administrative procedure requires forms or declarations, these forms or declarations must be standardized.

The form, declaration is reasonable when each piece of information in the form, declaration is clear, concise, truly necessary for the administrative procedure, enhancing individual and organizational responsibility for the contents of the form, declaration.

If forms and declarations need confirmation from agencies or authorized persons, the agencies or persons responsible for confirming and the content of the confirmation must be clearly specified.

k) Requirements, conditions

Requirements, conditions of administrative procedures are clearly and specifically defined, necessary for management requirements, suitable for the capacity to meet of individuals and organizations; ensuring fairness among individuals, among organizations, between individuals and organizations, among sectors, fields, regions, within and outside the country; clearly defining the responsibility for proving requirements, conditions; not stipulating requirements, conditions that overlap with those of another administrative procedure whose result is a component of the expected administrative procedure.

l) Result of administrative procedure

The form, validity period, and effective conditions (if any) of the result of the administrative procedure are clearly defined, convenient, consistent with management requirements, the rights, obligations, legitimate interests of individuals and organizations, and practical circumstances.

2. The leading agency uses Form 01A/ĐG-KSTT to assess the rationality of the administrative procedure.

Article 8. Assessment of the legality of administrative procedures

1. The legality of an administrative procedure is assessed based on the following contents:

a) The administrative procedure is issued in accordance with the authority prescribed in Clause 1, Article 8 of Decree No. 63/2010/NĐ-CP as amended and supplemented;

b) The contents of regulations on administrative procedures are consistent within the same document; not contrary to higher-ranking legal documents, international treaties to which Vietnam is a party;

2. The leading agency uses Form 01A/ĐG-KSTT to assess the legality of the administrative procedure.

Article 9. Compliance cost of administrative procedures

1. An administrative procedure has appropriate costs when the total cost of that administrative procedure in one year is the lowest. The total compliance cost of an administrative procedure in one year is the lowest when:

a) The compliance cost of that administrative procedure is the lowest;

b) The number of times that administrative procedure is implemented in one year according to regulations is the lowest;

c) The number of compliance subjects benefiting from it is the highest.

2. Principles for calculating compliance costs

a) Select data at the lower average level if there are multiple sources of data with discrepancies;

b) Do not calculate opportunity costs.

3. Method for calculating compliance costs

a) Formula for calculating compliance costs of an administrative procedure

The cost-benefit ratio from amending and supplementing the administrative procedure is the difference between the compliance costs of the current administrative procedure and the compliance costs of the proposed amended and supplemented administrative procedure.

4. Determination of specific types of costs for calculating compliance costs.

a) Determine the cost of performing each task

- Travel time is calculated on average as one (01) hour per trip; time spent filling out forms according to the model is calculated on average as one (01) hour per page; time spent preparing other documents is calculated based on the actual time required to complete them.

Depending on the location and scope of travel, submitting forms, declarations will be determined according to corresponding standards:

b) Determine fees and charges when implementing administrative procedures

Apply the prescribed levels of fees, charges, and other costs (if any) according to the regulations of the competent authority on fees and charges for implementing administrative procedures.

c) Determine the number of times an administrative procedure is implemented in one year

The number of times an administrative procedure is implemented in one year is determined according to the regulations of that administrative procedure.

d) Determine the number of compliance subjects of an administrative procedure in one year

The number of compliance subjects of an administrative procedure in one year is determined based on forecasts or statistics of the total number of individuals and organizations implementing that administrative procedure.

5. The leading agency uses the Compliance Cost Calculation Form and Compliance Cost Calculation Guidelines (designated as Form 03/SCM-KSTT) attached as Appendix IV to this Circular to calculate compliance costs of administrative procedures.

Article 10. Impact Assessment of Administrative Procedures in Certain Specific Cases

1. In cases where the Law of the National Assembly, Ordinance of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, Decree of the Government, Decision of the Prime Minister have not fully specified the components forming an administrative procedure as stipulated in Article 8 of Decree No. 63/2010/NĐ-CP and delegate subordinate agencies to specify fully and in detail, the drafting agency shall conduct an impact assessment on the components forming the administrative procedures delegated to be specified fully and in detail.

2. For administrative procedures that are amended or supplemented, the drafting agency shall conduct an impact assessment on the components forming the amended or supplemented administrative procedures.

In addition to conducting an impact assessment, the drafting agency must clearly explain the simplicity as well as the advantages of the amended or supplemented administrative procedures and the benefits regarding costs.

3. The drafting agency shall use the Impact Assessment Form for Amended or Supplemented Administrative Procedures (designated as Form 01B/ĐG-KSTT) detailed in Appendix II issued together with this Circular and the contents of guidance provided in Articles 7, 8, and 9 of this Circular to assess the rationality, legality, and compliance costs of administrative procedures for the components forming the administrative procedures delegated to be specified in detail or amended or supplemented.

Chapter III

AUDITING AND EVALUATING ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES

Article 11. Responsibilities of Agencies in Reviewing and Assessing Administrative Procedures

1. Annually or upon the directive of competent authorities, the administrative procedure oversight agency under the Ministry, Agency at the level of a ministry, or Provincial People's Committee shall take the lead in formulating a Plan for reviewing and assessing administrative procedures within their management authority and scope of resolution, submit it to the Minister, Head of the Agency at the level of a ministry, or Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee for approval; guide, inspect, and urge the implementation of administrative procedure reviews and assessments according to the approved plan.

In cases as prescribed in Clause 4, Article 30 of Decree No. 63/2010/NĐ-CP which has been amended and supplemented, the Ministry of Justice shall develop a Key Review Plan to be submitted to the Prime Minister for approval; guide, inspect, and urge the implementation of administrative procedure reviews according to the approved plan.

During the implementation of administrative procedures, if any issues, difficulties, or obstacles hindering business operations and people's lives are discovered in administrative procedures, groups of administrative procedures, or administrative regulations that are not included in the review and assessment plan, the administrative procedure oversight agency shall promptly propose to the competent authority for consideration and decision on the review and assessment.

2. Based on the review and assessment plan, the agencies assigned to lead the review and assessment of administrative procedures, groups of administrative procedures, or related administrative regulations shall focus on conducting reviews according to the objectives and schedule of the plan; compile the results of the review and draft a Decision approving the simplified solution or reform initiative for administrative procedures to be submitted to the competent authority for approval.

3. The administrative procedure oversight agency under the Ministry, Agency at the level of a ministry, or Provincial People's Committee shall examine and evaluate the quality of the review based on the following aspects: the use of review and assessment forms, compliance cost calculation tables; the quality of the simplified solutions; the reduction rate of the number of administrative procedures and compliance costs according to the targets set out in the plan.

Article 12. Procedure for reviewing and evaluating administrative procedures

The leading agency shall implement the review and evaluation of administrative procedures according to the following steps:

1. Establishing a Review and Evaluation Plan

a) The Review and Evaluation Plan for administrative procedures includes the following contents: name of the administrative procedure or group of administrative procedures to be reviewed, relevant administrative regulations; implementing agency; time frame; basis for selection; clearly defining specific quantitative indicators regarding the reduction ratio of the number of administrative procedures and the reduction of compliance costs for administrative procedures.

b) The Review and Evaluation Plan for administrative procedures is established according to the model set forth in Appendix V attached hereto.

2. Conducting the Review and Evaluation of Administrative Procedures

Based on the content of the Review and Evaluation Plan for administrative procedures, the review and evaluation shall be carried out according to the following methods:

a) Reviewing and Evaluating Individual Administrative Procedures

The method of reviewing and evaluating individual administrative procedures is implemented according to the guidance provided in Article 13 of this Circular.

b) Reviewing and Evaluating Groups of Administrative Procedures

Groups of administrative procedures subject to review and evaluation are those procedures related to the same object or involved in the process of handling a specific matter for individuals or organizations.

The method of reviewing and evaluating groups of administrative procedures is implemented according to the guidance provided in Article 14 of this Circular.

c) The agency conducting the review and evaluation may organize the collection of opinions from affected entities and other related organizations and individuals to gather information. The organization of collecting opinions from related parties can be conducted through seminars, conferences, consultations, or opinion forms.

3. Calculating Costs when Reviewing and Evaluating Administrative Procedures according to the guidance provided in Article 9 of this Circular.

a) Calculating current compliance costs for administrative procedures.

b) Calculating simplified administrative procedure costs.

Simplified costs are determined based on current costs adjusted according to the reduced contents proposed in the simplification plan.

c) Comparing Benefits

The cost benefit of simplifying administrative procedures is the difference between current compliance costs for administrative procedures and compliance costs for administrative procedures after simplification.

4. Summarizing the Results of Review and Evaluation

a) The agency assigned to lead the review and evaluation of administrative procedures shall compile the results of the review and evaluation including: content of the administrative procedure simplification plan and administrative reform initiatives; reasons; cost reductions when simplifying; recommendations for implementation.

b) The agency assigned to lead the review and evaluation of administrative procedures shall submit the results of the review and evaluation and the review and evaluation form; pre- and post-review diagrams of administrative procedure groups (for group reviews) approved by the head of the unit to the administrative procedure control agency under the Ministry, Department equivalent to a Ministry, Provincial People's Committee for consideration and assessment of quality.

c) Based on the assessment of the administrative procedure control agency, the agencies assigned to lead the review and evaluation shall perfect the results of the review and evaluation and draft a Decision approving the simplification plan and administrative reform initiatives for each field or according to the assigned content, according to the model set forth in Appendix VII attached hereto, and submit it to the Minister, Head of the Department equivalent to a Ministry, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee for approval.

d) For administrative procedures within the jurisdiction of the Government, the Prime Minister, the consolidation of the simplification plan shall be implemented according to the provisions of Article 31 of Decree No. 63/2010/NĐ-CP as amended and supplemented.

5. Submitting the Results of Review and Evaluation

a) Results of Review and Evaluation According to the Annual Review Plan

The report on the results of reviewing and evaluating administrative procedures of the Provincial People's Committee, along with the approved administrative procedure simplification plan, shall be submitted to the Ministry, Department equivalent to a Ministry for consideration and handling within their scope and management functions before September 15th each year.

The consolidation of administrative procedure simplification plans and related regulations within the jurisdiction of the Government, the Prime Minister, shall be submitted to the Ministry of Justice for examination and evaluation before October 15th each year.

b) Results of Review and Evaluation of Administrative Procedures of Ministries, Departments Equivalent to Ministries, and Provincial People's Committees According to the Key Review Plan shall be submitted to competent agencies within the deadlines specified in the Plan.

Article 13. Review and Evaluation of Administrative Procedures

1. Review and evaluate the necessity of administrative procedures and related regulations

The leading agency conducting the review and evaluation shall use the Administrative Procedure Review and Evaluation Form (marked as Form 02/RS-KSTT) and the Guidance for Responses attached as Appendix III to this Circular, as well as the contents of the criteria on necessity provided for in Article 6 of this Circular to review and evaluate the necessity of administrative procedures and related regulations.

After reviewing and evaluating the necessity of administrative procedures and related regulations, the reviewing and evaluating agency shall clearly identify the following issues:

a) The extent to which administrative procedures meet the objectives of state management when the rights, obligations, and legitimate interests of individuals and organizations do not change.

b) The extent to which administrative procedures meet the objectives of state management when the rights, obligations, and legitimate interests of individuals and organizations change.

c) The anticipated solutions to be selected when the objectives of state management and the rights, obligations, and legitimate interests of individuals and organizations are not met.

3. Review and evaluate the rationality, legality, and compliance costs of administrative procedures

The reviewing and evaluating agency shall base its review and evaluation on the contents of the criteria on rationality, legality, and compliance costs provided for in Articles 7, 8, and 9 of this Circular and use Form 02/RS-KSTT to review and evaluate the rationality, legality, and compliance costs of administrative procedures.

Article 14. Review and Evaluation of Groups of Administrative Procedures

When reviewing and evaluating groups of administrative procedures, the reviewing and evaluating agency shall use the Guidelines attached as Appendix VI to this Circular to perform the following tasks:

1. Drafting a flowchart of the group of administrative procedures

a) Collect all legal documents that stipulate administrative procedures within the scope of the review.

b) Statistics on administrative procedures

Based on the collected legal documents, determine the specific administrative procedures within the group of administrative procedures under the scope of the review. At the same time, conduct statistics to describe the components of administrative procedures that have not been published. For administrative procedures that have been published, recheck the published contents against the provisions of the legal documents, and adjust them if discrepancies are found with the legal documents.

c) Drafting an overall flowchart

The overall flowchart must reflect the relationship between the administrative procedures within the group of administrative procedures that the subject of the administrative procedure must go through from the initial stage to the final result. At the same time, the overall flowchart must reflect the interaction between different administrative agencies during the process of handling administrative procedures.

d) Drafting a detailed flowchart

The detailed flowchart must reflect the correlation between the components of each administrative procedure within the group of administrative procedures.

đ) Agencies assigned to review and evaluate (including both the leading agency and the cooperating agencies) must establish flowcharts by group to serve the review process. In cases where the group of administrative procedures involves multiple agencies, ensure close cooperation between the leading agency and the cooperating agencies to ensure high-quality review results and achieve the set goals.

2. Review and evaluate administrative procedures

a) Evaluate the necessity of administrative procedures in relation to the group of administrative procedures

Based on the overall flowchart, the reviewing and evaluating agency evaluates the necessity of administrative procedures within the group, focusing on the criteria for assessing management objectives and the impact of administrative procedures on the group; thereby identifying unreasonable points, unnecessary administrative procedures due to overlap or already managed by previous or subsequent administrative procedures, to propose simplification measures.

b) Evaluate overlap and the ability to inherit results between steps in the detailed flowchart

Based on the detailed flowchart, the reviewing and evaluating agency conducts comparisons of the components of administrative procedures at each step of the flowchart to assess overlapping procedural contents or those controlled in previous stages, and from there, proposes solutions to eliminate or inherit, recognize the results of previous stages in the process, or share information among government agencies to reduce compliance costs for individuals and organizations.

c) Evaluate the impact of resolving each administrative procedure on the final result of the group to assess the necessity of each administrative procedure within the group; simultaneously, evaluate the rationality of the implementation time, implementing agency, method, and sequence of administrative procedures within the group to propose simplification measures.

Chapter IV

IMPLEMENTING PROVISIONS

Article 15. Responsibility for Implementation

1. The Head of the Legal Affairs Department, the Director of the Department of Justice shall assist the Minister, the Heads of Ministries equivalent to Ministries, the Chairpersons of Provincial People's Committees directly under the Central Government, and relevant agencies in implementing this Circular.

2. The Agency for Administrative Procedure Control shall lead and coordinate with relevant units under the Ministry of Justice to assist the Minister of Justice in monitoring, urging, and inspecting the implementation of this Circular.

Article 16. Effective date

1. This Circular shall take effect from April 15, 2014.

2. During the implementation process, if there are any difficulties, they should be promptly reported to the Ministry of Justice (through the Administrative Procedure Control Department) for study and amendment./.