Joint Circular No. 09/2007/TTLT-BTP-BTC guides the management and use of state budget funds to ensure the work of drafting normative legal documents for People's Councils and People's Committees.

JOINT CIRCULAR

Guidelines for managing and using state budget funds to ensure the work of drafting normative legal documents by People's Councils and People's Committees

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Pursuant to the Law on Enacting Normative Legal Documents of People's Councils and People's Committees dated December 3, 2004;

Pursuant to Decree No. 91/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 6, 2006 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law on Enacting Normative Legal Documents of People's Councils and People's Committees;

The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance jointly issue guidelines for managing and using state budget funds to ensure the work of drafting normative legal documents by People's Councils and People's Committees as follows:

I - GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. These Circular guides the management and use of funds provided by the state budget to ensure the work of drafting normative legal documents by People's Councils and People's Committees as stipulated in Article 25 of Decree No. 91/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 6, 2006 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law on Enacting Normative Legal Documents of People's Councils and People's Committees, including the following stages:

a) Drafting the proposed program for enacting resolutions of provincial People's Councils (hereinafter referred to collectively as provincial People's Councils); decisions and directives of provincial People's Committees (hereinafter referred to collectively as provincial People's Committees).

b) Surveying, drafting, reviewing, soliciting opinions, scrutinizing, reviewing, and systematizing normative legal documents of People's Councils and People's Committees at all levels, including the following types of documents:

- Draft resolutions with legal norms of People's Councils at all levels.

- Draft decisions and directives with legal norms of People's Committees at all levels.

2. The drafting of normative legal documents is a regular task according to the functions and responsibilities assigned by competent authorities. Funds for drafting normative legal documents are guaranteed by the state budget and allocated in the annual regular budget estimates of the agencies and units. Based on the budget estimate granted by the competent authority; the annual program and plan for drafting normative legal documents, the heads of agencies and units are responsible for allocating funds to implement the program of drafting normative legal documents in accordance with the progress of tasks within the scope of the budget estimate already granted.

3. In cases where urgent normative legal documents must be issued, which are added to the annual program and plan for drafting normative legal documents of People's Councils and People's Committees at all levels; documents included in the program but transferred to the next year or temporarily suspended, the drafting agency must promptly notify the financial agency, the People's Council Office, the People's Committee Office, and the judicial agency at the same level to aggregate, supplement, and adjust the funds accordingly.

4. In cases where agencies and units are funded or sponsored by foreign organizations or individuals to draft normative legal documents, they must comply with the expenditure items and limits specified in this Circular; if there are other commitments between the funding or sponsoring organizations or individuals and the receiving agencies or units, they shall be implemented according to the agreed commitments.

5. Agencies assigned to primarily draft normative legal documents are responsible for using the allocated funds for their intended purposes, in accordance with the current financial expenditure regulations and the provisions of this Circular.

II - SPECIFIC PROVISIONS

1. Content of expenditure:

a) Work on drafting the proposed program for enacting resolutions of People's Councils and decisions and directives of provincial People's Committees:

Expenditure for organizing meetings to review the annual program for enacting resolutions of People's Councils; decisions and directives of provincial People's Committees.

b) Work on drafting and building normative legal documents:

- Expenditure for investigating, surveying, and assessing the current social relations; reviewing and systematizing normative legal documents to evaluate and summarize the implementation of laws; researching relevant information and materials related to the draft normative legal document.

- Expenditure for preparing outlines.

- Purchase of materials to support the drafting of documents.

- Expenditure for research contracts and drafting contracts.

- Expenditure for organizing meetings and seminars to solicit opinions, revise, and perfect the draft during the drafting process.

- Expenditure for widely soliciting opinions on the draft.

- Other necessary expenditures directly serving the research and drafting activities (if any).

c) Expenditure for the scrutiny work of the Committees of People's Councils regarding draft resolutions of provincial People's Councils and district-level People's Councils.

d) Expenditure for the review work of judicial agencies regarding draft resolutions of provincial People's Councils submitted by the same-level People's Committee; decisions and directives of provincial People's Committees and district-level People's Committees; comments from judicial agencies on draft resolutions of district-level People's Councils; comments from provincial People's Committees on resolutions of same-level People's Councils not submitted by the People's Committee.

e) Expenditure for the work of drafting normative legal documents incorporating the opinions of Civil Servants of the Judiciary and Household Registration into draft resolutions of village-level People's Councils and decisions and directives of village-level People's Committees.

2. Provisions on expenditure limits

The use of funds to ensure the work of drafting normative legal documents by People's Councils and People's Committees at all levels must be carried out in accordance with the current financial expenditure regulations (such as travel expenses, conference fees, overtime pay, printing costs); due to the special nature of drafting normative legal documents, this Circular specifies specific expenditure limits for certain items that provide support for activities during the drafting and issuance of normative legal documents by People's Councils and People's Committees at all levels as follows:

a) Drafting outlines:

Maximum expenditure limit of VND 500,000 per outline.

b) Expenditure for drafting the draft:

The expenditure level from 1,000,000 VND to 2,000,000 VND/per draft document.

The leading agency may use the method of signing a drafting contract. The number of contracts signed is based on the drafting work requirements, but the total expenditure of these contracts shall not exceed the prescribed expenditure level above.

c) Expenditure for drafting revision reports; examination and verification reports; comments on draft resolutions of provincial People's Councils not submitted by the People's Committee; comments from judicial agencies on draft resolutions of district-level People's Councils; opinions of Notary and Civil Status Officers.

Maximum expenditure 200,000 VND/per examination or verification report.

Maximum expenditure 100,000 VND/per comment or revision report.

d) Expenditure for individuals participating in seminars; serving: work to establish the draft program for building resolutions of provincial People's Councils, decisions, directives of provincial People's Committees; drafting, revising draft documents; examining and verifying draft documents:

- Participants: maximum expenditure 50,000 VND/person/session

đ) Expenditure for organizing broad public opinion collection:

- Expenditure for collecting opinions through approved survey forms or opinion collection forms (regarding the number of forms and the scope of surveyed subjects): 20,000 VND/form

- Expenditure for compiling and constructing summary reports and explanations on adopting opinions into draft documents: maximum expenditure 100,000 VND/report

e) For the review and systematization of regulatory legal documents directly serving the drafting of regulatory legal documents, based on the content of the tasks to be implemented, the unit assigned the task of reviewing and systematizing regulatory legal documents applies the expenditure levels prescribed in Circular Joint No. 109/2004/TTLT-BTC-BTP dated November 17, 2004, jointly issued by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice guiding the management and use of funds to ensure inspection of regulatory legal documents, and developing specific plans for approval before implementation as the basis for finalizing the budget.

g) The expenditure levels prescribed at points a, b, c, d, đ of this Section are the maximum levels. Based on the budget capacity and the complexity of each type of regulatory legal document, the Provincial People's Council specifies the specific expenditure levels for each type of document of the People's Council and People's Committees at all levels.

The head of the agency or organization assigned to lead the establishment of the draft program for building resolutions of provincial People's Councils, decisions, directives of provincial People's Committees; drafting; examining; verifying regulatory legal documents of People's Councils and People's Committees at all levels decides the specific expenditure for each document but it must not exceed the expenditure levels prescribed in this Circular or the expenditure levels for each type of document specified by the Provincial People's Council.

h) For the drafting work of documents of People's Councils and People's Committees at all levels, based on the allocated budget estimate and the complexity of each document, the head of the agency or organization assigned to lead the drafting allocates the budget for each document appropriately, but the total allocation of funds to implement the expenditure items and expenditure levels prescribed at points a, b, c, d, đ of Clause 2, Part II of this Circular must not exceed the maximum control level prescribed below:

- For draft resolutions, decisions of People's Councils and People's Committees: maximum not exceeding 5,000,000 VND/document

- For draft directives of People's Committees: maximum not exceeding 2,000,000 VND/document.

i) For regulatory legal documents in certain fields with complex content related to many sectors, based on local budget capacity, the People's Committee at the provincial level submits to the Provincial People's Council for the determination of the budget allocation level for the construction of regulatory legal documents of People's Councils and People's Committees at higher levels, but the maximum does not exceed 7,000,000 VND/document.

3. Budget preparation, management, and settlement for ensuring the work of building regulatory legal documents:

Local budgets ensure funding for the work of building regulatory legal documents of People's Councils and People's Committees at all levels according to the current budget classification and allocation within the annual budget estimates of relevant agencies and organizations as stipulated by the State Budget Law and its implementing regulations.

The preparation of budget estimates, management, disbursement, payment, and settlement of funds for ensuring the work of building regulatory legal documents shall be carried out in accordance with the implementing regulations of the State Budget Law. This Circular provides additional guidance on some aspects to suit the specific characteristics of the work of building regulatory legal documents, specifically as follows:

a) Preparation of budget estimates and allocation of funds:

- Annually, agencies and organizations base their functions and responsibilities in building regulatory legal documents and the provisions of this Circular to prepare draft programs for building resolutions of People's Councils and decisions, directives of People's Committees at the same level; simultaneously prepare budget estimates for drafting and construction; examination and verification; review and systematization of regulatory legal documents, which are included in the annual regular budget estimates of the agencies and organizations and sent to the financial agencies, People's Committee Office, and People's Council Office at the same level for consolidation into the state budget estimate to be reported to the People's Committee for submission to the People's Council for approval in accordance with the State Budget Law.

- Based on the regular budget estimates allocated by the competent authority, agencies and organizations are responsible for allocating and using funds for building regulatory legal documents in accordance with current regulations.

b) Utilization and settlement of funds:

- Funds for building regulatory legal documents are allocated and settled according to current regulations. Unspent funds for building regulatory legal documents at the end of the year can be transferred to the next year for continued use in building regulatory legal documents.

- The use of funds for building regulatory legal documents must ensure legal and valid documentation according to current regulations.

The budget for drafting regulatory legal documents shall be recorded under the corresponding expenditure item in the state budget classification as prescribed by current regulations.

III - IMPLEMENTATION

1. This Circular takes effect fifteen days from the date of publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In case difficulties arise during implementation, units are requested to report to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance for study and appropriate amendments and supplements.