Joint Circular No. 158/2007/TTLT-BTC-BTP guiding the management and use of funds to support the work of inspecting normative legal documents.

JOINT CIRCULAR

Guidelines on the management and use of funding for 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 Article 34 of Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP dated November 14, 2003 of the Government on inspecting and handling normative legal documents;

Pursuant to Decree No. 77/2003/NĐ-CP dated July 1, 2003 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Finance;

Pursuant to Decree No. 62/2003/NĐ-CP dated June 6, 2003 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Justice;

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice jointly issue guidelines on the management and use of funding for the work of inspecting normative legal documents as follows:

I. OBJECTS ELIGIBLE FOR STATE BUDGET SUPPORT FOR THE WORK OF INSPECTING NORMATIVE LEGAL DOCUMENTS

1. Legal departments with the function and duty to assist competent authorities in inspecting normative legal documents issued by other agencies and 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 budget allocation for their operations, shall also be supported by the state budget for inspecting normative legal documents.

2. Legal departments eligible for state budget support for the work of inspecting normative legal documents 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, towns, cities under provinces.

3. Funding for the inspection of normative legal documents by legal departments at any level shall be guaranteed by the corresponding level's budget and included in 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 dated November 14, 2003 of the Government shall be sourced from the regular operational budget of the agency issuing the document being inspected.

II. CONTENTS OF SUPPORT FOR THE WORK OF INSPECTING NORMATIVE LEGAL DOCUMENTS

1. Support for the work of inspecting normative legal documents includes the following contents:

a) Expenses for organizing meetings, seminars, and roundtable discussions to exchange inspection techniques and handle documents according to requirements and plans (including handling documents at the inspection agency);

b) Expenses for printing, preparing materials, collecting documents within the scope of inspection, and organizing specialized inspection teams by region or sector;

c) Expenses for investigating and surveying actual conditions to serve the inspection and handling of documents;

d) Expenses for consulting experts: In cases where the inspected document pertains to complex specialized fields or shows signs of violating laws, the head of the legal department may decide to seek expert opinions.

e) Expenses for drafting and writing reports evaluating the results of document inspections.

2. Organizing a team of document inspectors:

a) Legal departments may organize a team of inspectors based on 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 may determine the scale of the inspector team based on the task requirements.

b) Expenses for the inspector team include:

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

- Fees for inspectors: Inspector fees are calculated based on the number of documents for which opinions are sought;

- Travel expenses for inspectors participating in specialized inspection teams by region or sector.

3. Expenses for collecting information and establishing a database to serve the work of inspecting normative legal documents:

a) Expenses for collecting, classifying, processing information, materials, data, and documents; equipping necessary books, newspapers, and journals according to an 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; b) Expenses for reviewing and identifying higher-ranking effective legal documents at the time of inspection to establish a database as a legal basis for inspecting normative legal documents as stipulated in Clause 2 of Article 7 of Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP;

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

4. Expenses for other activities related to the work of inspecting 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 skills of staff and inspectors involved in inspecting normative legal documents; expenses for summarizing, concluding, promoting, and rewarding; expenses for organizing competitions at the sectoral, regional, and national levels on the work of inspecting normative legal documents and other activities related to this work as prescribed by law.

III. LEVELS OF EXPENSES FOR SUPPORTING THE WORK OF INSPECTING NORMATIVE LEGAL DOCUMENTS

1. Expenses for the work of inspecting normative legal documents shall be implemented in accordance with current standards and expenditure limits. Specifically, as follows:

a) For travel expenses for those traveling domestically (including inspectors participating in inspection teams), they shall be implemented in accordance with the current regulations on travel expenses for state officials, civil servants, and public employees traveling on official business.

a) For travel expenses for individuals on domestic business trips (including experts participating in inspection teams), the current regulations on travel allowances for state officials, civil servants, and public employees on business trips shall be applied.

b) For expenditures to organize meetings, conferences, seminars, mid-term reviews, and final summaries, they shall be carried out in accordance with the current regulations on conference expenditure regimes at all levels nationwide.

c) For expenditures related to organizing training and enhancing professional skills and information technology for staff and civil servants involved in document inspection work and for the team of cooperating inspectors, such expenditures shall be implemented according to the guidelines of the Ministry of Finance regarding the management and utilization of training and enhancement funds for state officials.

d) For expenditures to establish electronic database systems serving document inspection work, these expenditures shall be carried out according to the guidelines of the Ministry of Finance concerning the expenditure standards for establishing electronic information under information technology and the current regulations on information technology, database construction, and management.

đ) Expenditures for rewarding outstanding collectives and individuals for their achievements in document inspection work: Such expenditures shall be carried out in accordance with the current regulations on reward expenditure regimes.

e) Expenditures for organizing sectoral, regional, and national competitions on document inspection work: Such expenditures shall be implemented similarly according to the guidelines of the Ministry of Finance on managing and utilizing funds to ensure legal education and dissemination activities.

2. Legal institutions using funds to support document inspection work must comply strictly with the provisions mentioned above and the current financial expenditure regimes. In addition, this Circular guides certain specific expenditures in document inspection and handling, with detailed expenditure levels as follows:

a) Expenditures for participants in meetings to handle unlawful documents:

- Chairing the meeting: VND 150,000/person/session.

- Participants attending: 50,000 VND/person/session.

b) Remuneration for cooperating inspectors: From 40,000 VND to 80,000 VND/per document; for documents in specialized fields with complex professional areas, the maximum expenditure shall not exceed 200,000 VND/per document.c) For expenditures related to collecting, classifying, processing information, materials, data, and documents; equipping necessary books, newspapers, magazines for establishing database systems serving 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 carried out according to lawful and valid payment vouchers; for collecting, classifying, and processing information, materials, and documents without predetermined prices, expenditures shall be made from 15,000 VND to 45,000 VND/per material or document.

This expenditure does not apply to the collection of laws and regulations that have been updated in the agency's electronic databases or published in the Official Gazette.

d) Expenditures for reviewing and identifying higher-ranking effective documents currently in force at the time of document inspection to establish database systems and serve as legal bases for document inspection work: From 15,000 VND to 75,000 VND/per document.

đ) Expenditures for obtaining expert opinions in cases where the inspected document belongs to specialized fields with complex professional areas or shows signs of being unlawful: From 150,000 VND to 400,000 VND/per report.

e) Expenditures for drafting and writing reports evaluating conclusions about document inspection rounds, the maximum expenditure shall not exceed 100,000 VND/per report. In cases where external experts need to be hired, the expenditureshall be from 150,000 VND to 300,000 VND/per report..

3. For other expenditures: Night shifts, overtime pay, printing costs, preparation of materials, and office supplies... shall be based on lawful and valid payment vouchers according to current regulations and approved by the competent authority before implementation, serving as the basis for final settlement of funds. IV. ESTABLISHING BUDGET PROJECTIONS, MANAGING AND SETTLING FUNDS FOR DOCUMENT INSPECTION WORK..

1. Establishing budget projections: When establishing annual budget projections, in addition to projecting budgets to ensure regular operations of agencies according to current regulations, based on the requirements of document inspection work, agencies and units shall establish budget projections for supporting document inspection work and incorporate them into the annual budget projection sent to the competent authority according to the State Budget Law and guiding documents.

For legal institutions that are not budgetary units, annually, legal institutions must base on the funding support contents for document inspection work stipulated in this Circular and the approved inspection plan, establish budget projections for supporting document inspection work and send them to the finance department of their agency for consolidation into the agency's budget according to regulations.

2. Management and settlement: The management, utilization, and settlement of funds supporting document inspection work shall be carried out in accordance with the State Budget Law, Accounting Law, and guiding documents.

V. IMPLEMENTATION.

1. Based on the expenditure levels specified in this Circular, budget capacity, and the complexity of each document, the head of the agency or unit assigned the task of inspecting documents decides on specific support expenditure levels appropriately but shall not exceed the prescribed expenditure levels or the maximum expenditure framework stipulated in this Circular and must be implemented within internal expenditure regulations and publicly disclosed within the agency or unit.

Any expenditures

for document inspection work

2. not in compliance with this Circular, upon discovery during inspections, the superior management agency and financial agencies at all levels have the right to settle accounts and require the responsible agency or unit to recover and remit the funds to the treasury. The person who orders incorrect expenditures shall be required to fully reimburse the incorrect expenditure amount to the agency or unit, and depending on the severity of the violation, they may be subject to disciplinary action or administrative penalties according to Circular No. 98/2006/TT-BTC dated October 20, 2006, of the Ministry of Finance guiding compensation for damages and disciplinary actions against officials, civil servants, and employees violating laws on thrift and waste prevention, and Circular No. 101/2006/TT-BTC dated October 31, 2006, of the Ministry of Finance guiding administrative penalties and compensation for damages in thrift and waste prevention. for inspecting regulatory legal documents If the expenditure for inspecting regulatory legal documents does not comply with the provisions of this Circular when discovered during inspection, the superior administrative agency and financial authorities at all levels have the right to audit and require the responsible agency or unit to recover and remit the funds to the treasury. The person who issued the incorrect payment must reimburse the full amount of the incorrect payment to the agency or unit. Depending on the severity of the violation, they will be subject to disciplinary action or administrative penalties according to Circular No. 98/2006/TT-BTC dated October 20, 2006, issued by the Ministry of Finance, guiding compensation for damages and disciplinary measures against officials, civil servants, and public employees who violate laws on thrift and waste prevention, and Circular No. 101/2006/TT-BTC dated October 31, 2006, issued by the Ministry of Finance, guiding administrative penalties and compensation for damages in the implementation of thrift and waste prevention.

This Circular takes effect fifteen days after its publication in the Official Gazette, superseding Joint Circular No. 109/2004/TTLT-BTC-BTP dated November 17, 2004, issued jointly by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice on guiding the management and use of funds for the work of inspecting regulatory legal documents.

In the course of implementation, if there are difficulties or obstacles, it is recommended that agencies and units report to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice for study and resolution./.