Directive No. 07/CT-BTC of the Minister of Finance on further improving and strengthening legal work.

DIRECTIVE OF THE MINISTER OF FINANCE

Regarding the further improvement and strengthening of legal work

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In recent years, the Ministry of Finance has studied, drafted, and issued or submitted to competent authorities for issuance many regulatory legal documents to meet the requirements of state management in the financial sector as well as gradually contribute to improving the economic and financial legal environment; at the same time, it has also paid attention to organizing the implementation and dissemination of regulatory legal documents that have been issued to relevant entities. However, contradictions and overlaps still occur in regulatory legal documents, making them difficult to implement, and in practice, some documents need to be supplemented and amended multiple times. To meet the requirement of perfecting the system of regulatory legal documents in the financial sector, the requirement of managing the state by law, and complying with commitments in integration, further improving and strengthening legal work is extremely necessary and urgent.

Pursuant to Decree No. 122/2004/NĐ-CP dated May 18, 2004 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Legal Departments of Ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government agencies, specialized agencies under provincial People's Committees directly under the central government, and state-owned enterprises (hereinafter referred to as Decree 122), the Minister of Finance hereby issues the following directive:

I. Promptly improve the organization of legal departments in units under the Ministry.

1. The Legal Affairs Department shall be responsible for:

1.1. Ensure the full implementation of the tasks of legal work as prescribed in Decision No. 128/2003/QĐ-BTC dated August 15, 2003 of the Minister of Finance on the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Legal Department.

1.2. Immediately implement the task of providing professional guidance to legal organizations in General Departments, Bureaus, and state-owned enterprises where the Ministry of Finance is the representative owner of state capital in the enterprise (hereinafter referred to as state-owned enterprises).

1.3. Participate in coordinating with units under the Ministry to handle violations of laws in the finance sector, ensuring strictness and compliance with the law.

1.4. Coordinate with General Departments, Bureaus, and state-owned enterprises under the Ministry to implement Decree No. 122 in those units.

1.5. Regularly report to the Ministry on the situation of legal work implementation and propose measures to ensure the effective performance of the legal function of the finance sector.

2. General Departments and Bureaus under the Ministry:

2.1. Increase attention, leadership, and direction of legal work in the unit. Allocate sufficient staff within the annual state budget framework assigned by the competent authority and allocate funds to ensure conditions for the legal organization to complete its tasks.

2.2. For units that already have legal organizations, it is necessary to strengthen the role of the legal organization in advising and assisting unit leaders in their assigned functions and tasks, ensuring the effective performance of legal work tasks, primarily the task of drafting regulatory legal documents.

2.3. For units without legal organizations, they must review the functions and tasks of subordinate units to assign legal tasks to one unit as the focal point and allocate staff or report to the Ministry proposals for establishing a dedicated department for legal work.

2.4. The legal organization (department) of General Departments and Bureaus under the Ministry shall have the following tasks:

- Draft the annual and long-term program for building regulatory legal documents of the unit.

- Lead or participate in drafting regulatory legal documents according to the division of labor by the head of the unit.

- Review and systematize regulatory legal documents related to the unit's management area, report to the head of the unit and submit to the Legal Department for consolidation.

- Implement the inspection of regulatory legal documents related to the unit's management area.

- Lead or coordinate with related units to organize the dissemination and education of laws and inspect the implementation of laws in the unit's management area.

- Perform other tasks assigned by the head of the unit.

3. State-owned enterprises under the Ministry, based on the needs of legal work, may establish legal organizations, allocate dedicated legal staff, or hire legal advisors as stipulated in Article 10 of Decree 122.

II. Enhance training quality.

1. Finance Academy:

1.1. Strengthen the faculty on law to improve the teaching quality of Economic Law courses at the Finance Academy.

1.2. Coordinate and seek opinions from the Legal Department in developing the curriculum and content of Economic Law courses to ensure consistency with regulatory legal documents in general and newly issued financial regulatory legal documents.

1.3. Incorporate legal teaching content into the training, retraining, and cadre development programs for civil servants in the finance sector.

1.4. Consolidate and improve the Information and Library Center, enhancing the quality of book reading and research services, particularly books on financial, budgetary, and economic laws.

2. Units under the Ministry responsible for organizing professional qualification examinations, if the examination includes legal content, shall cooperate with the Legal Department to develop appropriate examination content. The examination board must include representatives of the Legal Department as members.

In the short term, the Price Management Bureau, the Accounting System and Audit Department are tasked with cooperating with the Legal Department to develop review and examination content for law-related subjects in the certification exams for Price Appraisers, Certified Public Accountants, and accounting practice certificates.

III. Vigorously promote information dissemination, popularization, and legal education on finance.

1. The Information and Financial Statistics Department shall cooperate with the Legal Department to complete the database of regulatory legal documents on the Ministry's information network. Ensure comprehensive updates on currently effective regulatory legal documents, expired regulatory legal documents, and establish a section for feedback on mechanisms and policies issued by the Ministry of Finance.

2. Heads of units shall base on Directive No. 03/2004/CT-BTC dated February 23, 2004, of the Minister of Finance on the work of disseminating and educating financial laws and Decision No. 502/QĐ-BTC dated February 18, 2004, of the Minister of Finance on the plan for disseminating and educating laws within the Ministry of Finance in 2004 to implement and complete the tasks of disseminating laws in 2004. On this basis, they shall build plans for 2005 and subsequent years.

Financial press agencies shall allocate reasonable time for information dissemination regarding the explanation of laws through special pages and sections dedicated to introducing and answering questions about financial laws.

The Director of the Financial Publishing House shall coordinate with the Legal Department to develop annual plans for publishing books and special topics on financial laws to implement and serve the work of disseminating, promoting, and educating laws of the Ministry of Finance.

IV. Ensuring conditions for organizing the implementation of tasks related to legal affairs.

1. The Financial Management and Administration Department shall ensure funds to support the drafting of regulatory legal documents, reviewing regulatory legal documents, promoting, disseminating, and educating laws, reviewing and systematizing regulatory legal documents, and inspecting regulatory legal documents of the Ministry of Finance in accordance with current regulations.

2. The Cadre and Civil Servant Organization Department shall ensure staffing and arrange competent personnel suitable for the requirements of legal affairs; take the lead in coordinating with the Legal Department to submit to the Ministry a training and capacity-building plan aimed at enhancing the legal capabilities of civil servants in the financial sector, initially focusing on the cadre of civil servants engaged in legal affairs at the Legal Department, the State Securities Commission, the General Department of Customs, the General Department of Taxation, and some units responsible for drafting major regulatory legal documents.

V. Directors of provincial finance departments under central cities, based on Decree No. 122/2004/NĐ-CP dated May 18, 2004, of the Government and the content of this directive, report to the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-administered cities to decide on the establishment and organization of legal affairs units in their respective units in a suitable manner.

This directive takes effect from the date of signature. Based on this directive, heads of units under the Ministry and Directors of provincial finance departments under centrally-administered cities shall develop implementation plans. The Head of the Legal Department shall be responsible for periodically reporting to the Ministry on the implementation of this directive and proposing measures to ensure strict compliance with it.