Decree No. 104/2004/ND-CP on the Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

DECREE OF THE GOVERNMENT

Regarding the Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

THE GOVERNMENT

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to the Law on Legislative Regulatory Acts dated November 12, 1996, and the Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Provisions of the Law on Legislative Regulatory Acts dated December 16, 2002;  Pursuant to Decree No. 18/2003/NĐ-CP, dated February 20, 2003, of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Government Office;

Object and scope of regulation of this Decree

At the proposal of the Minister and Head of the Government Office,

DECREE

PART I
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. This Decree specifies the position and functions of the Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

(hereinafter referred to as the Official Gazette) (hereinafter referred to as the Gazette); its tasks, organization, and activities; procedures for submitting, receiving, and publishing legislative acts in the Official Gazette; responsibilities of state agencies regarding the publication of legislative acts in the Official Gazette.

Article 2. Position and Functions of the Official Gazette

1. The Official Gazette is the official legal information publication of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, uniformly managed by the Government; it has the function of announcing legislative acts and their effective dates according to the provisions of the law, international treaties that have taken effect for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, except for those international treaties agreed not to be published or not permitted to publish pursuant to decisions of competent authorities; providing and disseminating legislative acts issued by competent authorities of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (hereinafter referred to as competent authorities).

2. The Official Gazette is published at the central level and at provincial levels (hereinafter referred to as provincial level); widely distributed to all users.

3. The Official Gazette includes: printed Official Gazette and electronic Official Gazette. The Official Gazette published at the central level has an Official Gazette supplement.

The Prime Minister shall separately regulate the activities of the electronic Official Gazette.

Article 3. Official Gazette Agency

1. The Official Gazette Agency consists of the Official Gazette Agency at the central level and the Official Gazette Agency at the provincial level, which are agencies entrusted with the task of receiving, registering, systematizing, storing, and disseminating legislative acts issued by competent authorities; organizing the publication and distribution of the Official Gazette.

2. The Official Gazette Agency at the central level organizes the receipt, registration, systematization, storage, and dissemination of legislative acts issued by central-level competent authorities; organizes the publication and distribution of the Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

3. The Official Gazette Agency at the provincial level organizes the receipt, registration, systematization, storage, and dissemination of legislative acts issued by provincial and district-level competent authorities; organizes the publication and distribution of the Official Gazette within its jurisdiction.

Article 4. Principles for Publishing Legislative Acts in the Official Gazette

1. The Official Gazette publishes the full text, accurately, completely, and promptly of legislative acts issued by competent authorities.

2. The Official Gazette does not publish classified national documents listed in the national secrets directory as prescribed by law.

Article 5. Legislative acts published in the Official Gazette at the central level

1. Legislative regulatory acts issued by central-level competent authorities.

2. Decisions of competent authorities handling unlawful legislative acts; individual legislative acts; other legally valid documents decided by competent authorities.

3. International treaties that have taken effect for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as specified in Clause 1, Article 2 of this Decree.

4. The Official Gazette supplement, distributed together with the Official Gazette, publishes draft legislative acts when decided by authorized state agencies to be published for comments from agencies, organizations, and individuals.

Article 6. Legislative acts published in the Official Gazette at the provincial level

1. Legislative regulatory acts issued by the People's Councils and People's Committees at the provincial and district levels.

2. Decisions of competent authorities handling unlawful legislative acts; individual legislative acts; other legally valid documents decided by the Chairpersons of provincial and district-level People's Committees.

3. Republishes legislative acts already published in the Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam issued by central-level competent authorities for their respective localities.

Article 7. Legal value and effective date of legislative acts published in the Official Gazette

1. Legislative acts published in the Official Gazette have the same legal value as the original documents; they are the sole official documents along with the original documents used for comparison and application in all cases where there are discrepancies between the published documents in the Official Gazette and documents from other sources or in legal disputes.

2.  Legislative acts published by publishers and mass media organizations do not have the same legal value as when published in the Official Gazette but only serve as references.

3. The effective date of legislative regulatory acts is the date specified in Article 75 of the Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Provisions of the Law on Legislative Regulatory Acts in 2002.

The effective date of legislative regulatory acts issued by the Government, the Prime Minister, Ministers, Heads of Ministries equivalent to Ministries, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuracy, and joint legislative regulatory acts is fifteen days after the date of publication in the Official Gazette or later if specified in the act itself.

For legislative regulatory acts issued by the Government, the Prime Minister, Ministers, and provincial People's Committees to implement emergency measures, the effective date is specified in the act itself, independent of the date of publication in the Official Gazette.

4. The effective date of individual legislative acts and other legally valid documents is determined by the competent authority issuing the document in the document itself, independent of the date of publication in the Official Gazette.

The effective date of international treaties for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is determined according to the agreement of the parties or according to the laws on concluding and implementing international treaties and recorded in the copy of the international treaty.

5. The effective date of legislative regulatory acts published in the provincial-level Official Gazette is independent of the date of publication in the Official Gazette

Chapter II

TIME LIMITS AND PROCEDURES FOR SUBMITTING,  RECEIVING,  REGISTERING DOCUMENTS  FOR PUBLICATION  IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE

Article 8. Time limit for submitting documents for publication in the Official Gazette

1. Documents issued by central state agencies with authority must be submitted to the Central Official Gazette agency no later than two days from the date of issuance for publication in the Official Gazette.

2. Documents  issued by state agencies with authority at provincial and centrally governed city levels must be submitted to the provincial Official Gazette agency no later than two days from the date of issuance for publication in the Official Gazette.

3. The Official Gazette agency must accept fully and in accordance with legal procedures all documents submitted by issuing agencies within the prescribed time limit for publication in the Official Gazette.

Article 9. PROCEDURES FOR SUBMISSION, ACCEPTANCE, AND REGISTRATION OF DOCUMENTS FOR PUBLICATION IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE

1. Documents submitted for publication in the Official Gazette must be original documents.

2. In cases where the document submitted for publication in the Official Gazette is a copy, it must correspond to the original document or be photocopied from the original document, bearing a stamp and signature of confirmation from the authorized person who signed the document or the person delegated.

3. Documents submitted for publication in the Official Gazette, whether printed or sent via electronic network, must contain content identical to the original document, including Place of Receipt the line of text "Official Gazette"or on the submission form, the text "Document submitted for publication in the Official Gazette",  clearly stating the date, month, and year of submission.

4. All documents submitted to the Official Gazette agency must be registered in the "Register and Comparison of Documents Published in the Official Gazette".

5. The Official Gazette agency must store all legal documents received from competent authorities completely and classify them systematically for easy reference and use.

Chapter III

RESPONSIBILITIES  OF COMPETENT AUTHORITIES ISSUING DOCUMENTS REGARDING THE PUBLICATION OF DOCUMENTS IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE

Article 10. Responsibilities of competent authorities issuing documents in submitting documents for publication in the Official Gazette

1. The competent authority issuing the document or the agency delegated by the issuing authority has the responsibility to submit all issued documents fully and within the prescribed time limit to the Official Gazette agency as stipulated in Article 8 of this Decree.

2. The heads of competent authorities issuing documents or the agencies delegated by the issuing authority must bear responsibility for checking and urging the submission of documents to the Official Gazette agency and must be responsible for the accuracy of the documents, for failing to submit, submitting incompletely, or submitting out of time for publication in the Official Gazette.

Article 11. Responsibilities of the Official Gazette agency in publishing documents 

1. Accepting and entering "Register and Comparison of Documents Published in the Official Gazette" all documents submitted by competent authorities issuing documents or the agencies delegated by the issuing authority.

2. The Official Gazette publishes documents in sequence: documents arriving earlier are published first, those arriving later are published subsequently according to the registration number. "Register and Comparison of Documents Published in the Official Gazette"In cases where normative legal documents issued by Ministries or equivalent ministries contain important regulatory contents or measures that need to be applied promptly, upon written request by the head of the issuing authority, such documents shall be published immediately in the Official Gazette to ensure the effective date of the document.

3. Not later than fifteen days from the date of receipt of the document, it must be published in the Official Gazette.

4. Bear responsibility for not publishing, publishing incorrectly, publishing incompletely, or publishing late any received documents.

5. Systematize, store, disseminate, and provide access to documents published in the Official Gazette.

6. Return the document to the competent authority issuing the document when discovering errors in its content and legal procedures in its issuance and submission for publication in the Official Gazette.

Article 12. CORRECTION OF DOCUMENTS PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE

Documents published in the Official Gazette, if found to have errors, must be corrected:

1. If the error is the responsibility of the competent authority  issuing the document, then the head or the delegated person of that authority must  sign the correction document.

2. If the error is the responsibility of the Central Official Gazette agency, then the correction document is signed by the head of the Central Official Gazette agency or the delegated person.

3. If the error is the responsibility of the provincial Official Gazette agency, then the correction document is signed by the person in charge of the provincial Official Gazette agency or the delegated person.

Chapter IV

ORGANIZATION, ACTIVITIES, AND

STATE MANAGEMENT OF THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE

Article 13. Organization of the Official Gazette

1. The Central Official Gazette agency is a public service unit under the Government Office; it has legal personality, separate bank accounts, and seals.

2. The provincial Official Gazette agency belongs to the People's Committee Office of the province or centrally governed city.

The organization of the provincial Official Gazette agency is regulated by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Article 14. Activities of publishing and distributing the Official Gazette

1. The Central Official Gazette agency and the provincial Official Gazette agency organize the wide distribution of the Official Gazette among state agencies, political-social organizations, political-social-professional organizations, economic organizations, armed units, and the general public, including individuals, organizations, and foreign representative offices in Vietnam.

2. The State ensures annual funding for the publication activities of the Official Gazette. Annual funding for the publication activities of the Official Gazette is budgeted and disbursed in accordance with current laws.

3. Copies of the Official Gazette are distributed free of charge to certain groups as decided by the Prime Minister.

The Official Gazette agency is permitted to collect revenue from the publication and distribution of Official Gazette publications to offset part of the expenditure funded from the budget for these activities.

4. The Official Gazette is distributed through the Official Gazette agency, postal enterprises, agents, and individuals.

5. The Official Gazette is distributed abroad and translated into foreign languages. The translation only serves as a reference.

Article 15. State management of the Official Gazette

1. The Government exercises unified state management over the Official Gazette.

2. The content of state management over the Official Gazette includes:

a) Developing planning and plans for the development of the Official Gazette.

b) Issuing legal documents as a basis for the activities of the Official Gazette.

c) Guiding, inspecting, and auditing the implementation of regulations concerning the publication and distribution of the Official Gazette.

d) Awarding commendations, handling violations, and resolving complaints and reports related to the activities of the Official Gazette.

3. The Government Office assists the Government in directly managing the comprehensive activities of the Central Official Gazette agency, managing the publication and distribution of the Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, including the management of Official Gazette publications translated into foreign languages.

The Office of the Government assists the Government in guiding the operation of provincial Gazette offices..

4. The People's Committee at the provincial level manages the activities and decides on the printing and distribution of the Gazette in their locality.

Chapter V

REWARD AND DISCIPLINARY ACTION

SETTLEMENT OF COMPLAINTS AND REPORTS

Article 16. All organizations and individuals must fulfill the provisions of the Gazette Decree. Organizations and individuals who perform excellently according to the provisions of this Decree will be rewarded in accordance with the law.

Article 17. Organizations and individuals violating the legal provisions regarding Gazette activities under this Decree and other related laws shall be subject to disciplinary action, administrative violation handling, or criminal responsibility pursuit according to the law, depending on the nature and severity of the violation.

Article 18. Organizations and individuals have the right to lodge complaints about violations of the provisions of this Decree and other related laws concerning Gazette activities.

Article 19. Individuals have the right to report violations of the provisions of this Decree and other related laws concerning Gazette activities.

Article 20. The authority, procedures, and processes for resolving complaints and reports related to the publication and distribution of the Gazette shall be carried out in accordance with the relevant laws on complaints and reports.

Chapter VI

IMPLEMENTING PROVISIONS

Article 21. Effectiveness

This Decree takes effect fifteen days after its publication in the Gazette. Previous regulations that conflict with this Decree are hereby abolished.

Article 22. Responsibility for Implementation

1. The Minister, Head of the Office of the Government, is responsible for organizing and managing the operation of the central Gazette office; guiding and inspecting the operation of provincial Gazette offices in accordance with this Decree.

The Chairpersons of the People's Councils and People's Committees of centrally governed cities and provinces are responsible for organizing and managing the operation of the Gazette office in their localities.

2. Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies equivalent to ministries, agencies under the Government, Chairpersons of People's Councils, and Chairpersons of People's Committees of centrally governed cities and provinces are responsible for implementing this Decree. /./