Joint Circular No. 109/2004/TTLT/BTC-BTP guiding the management and use of funds for the inspection of regulatory legal documents.

JOINT CIRCULAR

OF THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE - THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE NO. 109/2004/TTLT-BTC-BTP OF NOVEMBER 17, 2004 GUIDING THE MANAGEMENT AND USE OF FUNDS TO ENSURE THE WORK OF INSPECTING LEGAL DOCUMENTS

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 the provisions of Article 34 of Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP dated November 14, 2003 of the Government on inspecting and handling normative legal documents;
To ensure funding for the work of inspecting budget estimates, managing, using, and settling accounts for inspection funds of normative legal documents as follows:

I. SUBJECTS WHOSE INSPECTION FUNDS FOR NORMATIVE LEGAL DOCUMENTS ARE GUARANTEED BY THE STATE BUDGET

1. The legal institutions with functions and tasks to assist agencies and persons authorized to inspect legal documents issued by other agencies and organizations as stipulated in Article 12 and Article 13 of Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP dated November 14, 2003 of the Government on inspecting and handling legal documents (hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP), in addition to the regular operating funds provided according to regulations, shall also be guaranteed by the state budget for the work of inspecting legal documents.

2. The legal departments whose inspection funds are guaranteed by the state budget include:

- The Department of Normative Legal Document Inspection under the Ministry of Justice;

- Legal institutions under Ministries, agencies at the level of Ministries, and government agencies;

- Provincial Departments of Justice;

- Judicial Departments of districts, cities under provinces, and provincial cities.

3. Funding for the work of inspecting normative legal documents of legal departments at any level shall be guaranteed by the budget of that level and incorporated into the annual budget estimate of the unit.

4. Funding for self-inspection activities of normative legal documents as stipulated in Article 10 of Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP shall be sourced from the regular activity funding of the agency issuing the document being inspected.

II. CONTENTS OF EXPENSES FOR INSPECTING NORMATIVE LEGAL DOCUMENTS

1. Expenses for inspecting normative legal documents include the following contents:

1.1. Expenditure for organizing meetings, seminars, and roundtable discussions to exchange inspection techniques and document processing according to inspection requirements and plans;

1.2. Expenditure for printing, preparing materials, collecting documents within the scope of inspection; organizing specialized inspection teams based on regions or sectors;

1.3. Expenditure for investigating and surveying actual conditions to serve the inspection and handling of documents;

1.4. Expenditure for consulting experts: In cases where the inspected documents belong to complex specialized fields or show signs of violating laws, the head of the legal institution shall decide on seeking expert opinions;

1.5. Expenditure for drafting and writing reports evaluating the conclusions of the document inspection rounds (in cases where external experts must be hired);

2. Organizing a team of inspectors:

2.1. Legal institutions may organize a team of cooperating members according to Articles 32 and 33 of Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP, depending on their functional scope and inspection requirements. The head of the legal institution shall determine the scale of organization of the cooperating member team based on the mission requirements;

2.2. The expenditure content for the team of cooperating members includes:

- Expenses for organizing meetings of inspectors according to requirements and inspection work plans;

- Fees for inspectors: Inspector fees are calculated based on the number of normative legal documents requested for opinions;

- Travel expenses for inspectors participating in specialized, regional, or sectoral inspection teams.

3. Organizing the collection of information and materials, establishing a database to serve the inspection of normative legal documents:

3.1. Expenditure for collecting, classifying, processing information, materials, data, and documents; equipping necessary books, newspapers, magazines according to the annual list established by the legal institution based on the scope and requirements of the inspection work to establish a database serving the inspection of documents. Among the supplementary materials mentioned above, there must be at least one issue of the Official Gazette and legal documents within the scope and field of document inspection of the legal institution; to establish a database system serving the inspection of documents. Among the supplementary materials mentioned above, there must be at least one issue of the Official Gazette and legal documents within the scope and field of document inspection of the legal institution;

3.2. Expenditure for reviewing and identifying higher-ranking effective legal documents at the time of document inspection to establish a database system, serving as a legal basis for the inspection of documents according to Clause 2 of Article 7 of Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP;

3.3. Expenditure for equipping or upgrading equipment; organizing a network of information services for building and managing the database system; maintaining, repairing, and improving the efficiency and performance of the information technology system (including expenditures for purchasing hardware, software, upgrading, and improving infrastructure, other services); applying and developing information technology in professional work (including digitizing the database system);

4. Expenditure for other related activities concerning the inspection of documents: announcing the results of handling illegal documents through mass media; organizing scientific research on document inspection; training, guiding, and enhancing the professional skills of document inspectors and cooperating members; expenditure for preliminary summaries, final summaries, organizing sectoral, regional, and national competitions on document inspection work and other activities related to document inspection work according to the provisions of the law;

III. REGULATIONS ON EXPENSE LIMITS

1. The above-mentioned expenses shall be implemented strictly in accordance with current standards and expenditure limits. Specifically, as follows:

1.1. For travel expenses for those traveling domestically (including cooperating members participating in inspection teams), the current regulations on travel allowances for state officials, civil servants, and public employees traveling on official business shall apply;

1.2. For expenditures to organize meetings, conferences, roundtable discussions, preliminary summaries, and final summaries, the current regulations on expenditure for conferences at all levels nationwide shall apply;

1.3. For expenditures to organize training and enhancement of professional and information technology skills for document inspectors and cooperating members, the provisions of Circular No. 105/2001/TT-BTC dated December 27, 2001 of the Ministry of Finance on managing and using training and enhancement funds for state officials and civil servants shall apply;

1.4. For expenditures to establish an electronic database system serving document inspection work, the provisions of Circular No. 111/1998/TT-BTC dated August 3, 1998 of the Ministry of Finance on expenditure standards for establishing electronic systems in information technology and current regulations on information technology, database construction, and management shall apply;

2. Legal institutions using funds to ensure the work of inspecting documents must comply with the above regulations and the current financial expenditure regime. Additionally, specific expenditure levels for certain special items in the inspection and handling of documents are as follows:

2.1. Payment for cooperating members: from 20,000 to 50,000 VND per document; for documents in complex specialized fields, the payment shall not exceed 100,000 VND per document;

2.2. For expenditures to collect, classify, process information, materials, data, and documents; equip necessary books, newspapers, magazines for establishing a database system serving document inspection work (including expenditures for accessing the Internet to obtain information and data when the agency does not have an Internet system), the expenditures shall be made according to valid vouchers; for the collection, classification, and processing of information, materials, and documents without predetermined prices, the expenditures shall be made at a rate of from 10,000 to 30,000 VND per document or material.

This expenditure does not apply to the collection of legal normative documents that have been updated in the agency's electronic database systems or published in the official gazette.

2.3. Expenses for reviewing and identifying the higher-ranking legal document that is effective at the time of the document review to establish a database, serving as the legal basis for the document review work: VND 10,000 to VND 50,000 per document.

2.4. Expenses for obtaining expert opinions in cases where the reviewed document pertains to specialized fields with complex professional matters or shows signs of being contrary to the law: VND 100,000 to VND 200,000 per report.

2.5. Expenses for hiring the drafting of reports evaluating conclusions on the document review period: VND 100,000 to VND 200,000 per report.

3. For other expenses: overtime, printing costs, preparation of materials and office supplies... shall be based on valid invoices and expenditure receipts according to current regulations and approved by the competent authority before implementation, serving as the basis for finalizing the budget.

Based on the expense levels prescribed in this Circular, Ministries, agencies equivalent to Ministries, People's Councils of provinces and centrally-administered cities shall specify specific expense levels appropriate to their respective budgets allocated for the task of reviewing regulatory documents.

IV. ESTABLISHING BUDGETS, MANAGING AND SETTLING EXPENSES TO ENSURE DOCUMENT INSPECTION WORK

Annually, based on the requirements of the regulatory document review work, agencies and units shall prepare a budget estimate to ensure funding for the regulatory document review work, which will be consolidated into the regular activity budget estimate. The preparation, management, allocation, payment, and settlement of funds to ensure the regulatory document review work shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of Circular No. 59/2003/TT-BTC dated June 23, 2003, issued by the Ministry of Finance guiding the implementation of Decree No. 60/2003/NĐ-CP dated June 6, 2003, of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of the Law on State Budget; and Circular No. 79/2003/TT-BTC dated August 13, 2003, issued by the Ministry of Finance guiding the management, allocation, and payment of state budget expenditures through the State Treasury.

For legal institutions requiring equipment acquisition or upgrade; application and development of information technology in professional work; digitization of database systems and other activities supporting the establishment of an information network, they must prepare investment budget estimates, manage, and use funds in accordance with current laws on investment and construction management.

For legal institutions that are not budgetary units, annually, legal institutions must base their budget estimates ensuring the regulatory document review work stipulated in this Circular and the approved inspection plan, and submit these budget estimates to the financial department of their agency for consolidation into the agency's budget estimate as required. The management, expenditure, settlement, and finalization of funds shall be strictly in accordance with the current financial regulations.

V. IMPLEMENTATION

This Circular takes effect fifteen days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

The Minister, Head of an agency equivalent to a Ministry, or agency under the Government, Chairman of the People's Committee of a province or centrally-administered city shall be responsible for implementing this Circular.

During the implementation process, if there are any difficulties or issues, please report them to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice for research and resolution.