JOINT CIRCULAR No. 109/2004/TTLT-BTC-BTP ON THE MANAGEMENT AND USE OF FUNDS TO ENSURE THE WORK OF CHECKING LEGAL DOCUMENTS

JOINT CIRCULAR

Regarding the management and use of funds to ensure the work of

inspecting normative legal documents

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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. Legal departments with functions and tasks assisting agencies or persons with authority to inspect normative legal documents issued by other agencies or organizations as stipulated in Articles 12 and 13 of Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP dated November 14, 2003 of the Government on inspecting and handling normative legal documents (hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP), in addition to the regular activity funding provided according to regulations, shall also be guaranteed funding from the state budget for the work of inspecting normative 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 departments of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, 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. Expenses for organizing meetings, seminars, and roundtable discussions to exchange inspection techniques and handle normative legal documents according to requirements and inspection plans;

1. 2. Expenses for printing, preparing materials, collecting normative legal documents within the scope of inspection; organizing specialized, regional, or sectoral inspection teams;

1. 3. Expenses for investigating and surveying actual conditions to serve inspection and handling of normative legal documents;

1. 4. Expenses for soliciting expert opinions: In cases where the normative legal document being inspected involves complex specialized fields or has signs of violating laws, the head of the legal department shall decide on soliciting expert opinions.

1. 5. Expenses for drafting and writing reports evaluating conclusions about the inspection of normative legal documents (in cases where external experts must be hired).

2. Organizing a team of inspectors:

2. 1. Legal departments may organize a team of inspectors according to their functional scope and inspection requirements as stipulated in Articles 32 and 33 of Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP. The head of the legal department shall determine the scale of organization of the inspector team based on the task requirements.

2. 2. Contents of expenses for the inspector team include:

- 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. Expenses for organizing the collection, classification, and processing of information, materials, data, and normative legal documents; equipping necessary books, newspapers, magazines according to the annual list established by the legal department based on the scope and requirements of the inspection work to establish a database serving the inspection of normative legal documents. Among the supplementary materials mentioned above, there must be at least one issue of the Official Gazette and normative legal documents within the scope and field of inspection of the legal department;

3. 2. Expenses for reviewing and identifying normative legal documents with higher legal validity currently in effect at the time of inspection to establish a database, serving as a legal basis for inspecting normative legal documents as stipulated in Clause 2 of Article 7 of Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP;

3. 3. Expenses for equipping or upgrading equipment; organizing an information network to serve the establishment and management of databases; maintaining, repairing, and improving the efficiency and performance of information technology systems (including expenses for purchasing hardware, software, upgrading, and improving infrastructure, and other services); applying and developing information technology in professional work (including digitizing databases).

4. Expenses for other related activities concerning the inspection of normative legal documents: announcing the results of handling illegal normative legal documents through mass media; organizing scientific research on inspecting normative legal documents; training, guiding, and enhancing the inspection skills of staff and inspectors; expenses for preliminary summaries, final summaries, organizing competitions at the sectoral, regional, local, and national levels on the inspection of normative legal documents and other activities of the inspection work as prescribed by 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 inspectors participating in inspection teams), they shall be implemented according to the current regulations on travel allowances for state officials, civil servants, and public employees traveling on official business.

1. 2. For expenses to organize meetings, conferences, roundtable discussions, preliminary summaries, and final summaries, they shall be implemented according to the current regulations on expenditure limits for conferences at all levels nationwide.

1. 3. For expenditures on organizing training and enhancing professional skills and information technology for the staff involved in document inspection work and the team of cooperating members, such expenditures shall be implemented in accordance with Circular No. 105/2001/TT-BTC dated December 27, 2001, issued by the Ministry of Finance, guiding the management and use of training and enhancement funds for state officials and civil servants.

1. 4. For expenditures on establishing electronic database systems to serve document inspection work, such expenditures shall be implemented in accordance with Circular No. 111/1998/TT-BTC dated August 3, 1998, issued by the Ministry of Finance, guiding the expenditure levels for establishing electronic information under information technology and current regulations on information technology, as well as the construction and management of database systems.

2. Legal institutions using funds to ensure document inspection work must comply strictly with the provisions mentioned above and the current financial expenditure system. In addition, certain specific expenditures in the process of inspecting and handling documents are detailed as follows:

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

2. 2. For expenditures on collecting, classifying, processing information, materials, documents, data, and texts; equipping necessary books, newspapers, magazines for establishing database systems to serve document inspection work (including expenditures for accessing the Internet to obtain information and data when the agency does not have its own Internet system), these expenditures shall be made based on valid and lawful vouchers; for collecting, classifying, and processing information, materials, documents without predetermined prices, the expenditure shall be from VND 10,000 to VND 30,000 per material or document.

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. Expenditure for reviewing and identifying higher-ranking effective documents at the time of document inspection to establish database systems, serving as a legal basis for document inspection work: from VND 10,000 to VND 50,000 per document.

2. 4. Expenditure for consulting experts in cases where the inspected document belongs to specialized fields with complex professional content or has signs of violating laws: from VND 100,000 to VND 200,000 per report.

2. 5. Expenditure for hiring drafters to write evaluation reports on document inspection rounds: from VND 100,000 to VND 200,000 per report.

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

Based on the expenditure levels stipulated in this Circular, Ministries, agencies equivalent to Ministries, People's Councils of provinces and centrally-administered cities shall specify specific expenditure levels appropriate to the budget allocated for the task of inspecting legal normative documents.

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

Annually, based on the requirements of document inspection work, agencies and units shall incorporate the budget for ensuring document inspection work into their regular activity budgets. The establishment, management, allocation, settlement, and finalization of expenses to ensure document inspection work shall be carried out in accordance with 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, issued by the Government, detailing and guiding the implementation of the State Budget Law; and Circular No. 79/2003/TT-BTC dated August 13, 2003, issued by the Ministry of Finance, guiding the management, allocation, and settlement of state budget expenditures through the State Treasury.

For legal institutions requiring equipment procurement or upgrades; application and development of information technology in professional work; digitization of database systems and other activities serving the organization of information networks, they must prepare investment budgets, 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 on the funding for document inspection work stipulated in this Circular and the approved inspection plan, prepare the budget for ensuring document inspection work and submit it to the finance department of their agency for consolidation into the agency's budget according to regulations. Management, expenditure, settlement, and finalization of funds shall be carried out strictly in accordance with the current financial system.

V. IMPLEMENTATION

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

The Minister, Heads of agencies equivalent to Ministries, and Heads of government agencies, Chairmen of Provincial People's Committees of centrally-administered cities are responsible for implementing this Circular. Any difficulties or issues encountered during implementation should be reported to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice for research and resolution.

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.