Directive No. 636/CT-TTg on the implementation of the Law on Issuing Legal Normative Documents and Measures to Implement the Law

DIRECTIVE

ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LAW ON ENACTING LEGAL DOCUMENTS AND MEASURES TO ENFORCE THE LAW

In recent years, the legislative work of the Government has made positive contributions to the country's reform process, building a socialist rule-of-law state in Vietnam, and promoting international economic integration. However, the legislative work of some ministries and sectors still has many shortcomings: the development and implementation of legislative programs have not been truly effective; the drafting of laws and ordinances lacks policy guidance, leading to confusion and wastage of resources; the responsibility of ministries and sectors in charge of and participating in drafting has not been high enough; the quality of some legislative projects, ordinances, draft decrees of the Government, and decisions of the Prime Minister (hereinafter referred to as projects and drafts) has not been guaranteed, lacking feasibility, and failing to be implemented promptly; the legislative process for legal normative documents has not sufficiently attracted public participation.

To address these issues, the Law on Enacting Legal Documents was passed by the National Assembly on June 3, 2008, and Decree No. 24/2009/NĐ-CP dated March 5, 2009, detailing and providing measures to enforce the Law on Enacting Legal Documents (hereinafter referred to as the Decree on Measures to Enforce the Law), has taken a step forward in improving the legislative process and regulations to enhance the quality of legal normative documents.

To implement the goals of reform and requirements of the Law on Enacting Legal Documents and the Decree on Measures to Enforce the Law, the Prime Minister instructs:

1. Ministers, Heads of Ministries equivalent to Ministries, and Heads of Government Agencies shall be responsible for:

a) Organizing effectively the dissemination of the spirit and content of the Law on Enacting Legal Documents and the Decree on Measures to Enforce the Law through appropriate forms and methods suitable for cadres and civil servants within their ministries and sectors;

b) Identifying the preparation of draft legislative programs and lawmaking as key tasks and top political priorities in their agencies' work programs, thereby focusing adequate resources to improve the quality of project proposals and draft submissions; the quality of drafting and promulgating legal normative documents;

Resolutely removing from the program those projects and drafts that are unnecessary or do not meet quality standards; at the same time, timely supplementing the legislative program with projects and drafts that meet urgent social needs;

c) Directly overseeing the drafting of documents and being responsible for the quality and timeliness of submitting projects and drafts. Projects and drafts must clearly and consistently reflect the guiding ideology of the Government and the Prime Minister. If there are differing opinions or difficulties during the drafting process, they must promptly seek guidance from the Prime Minister; drafting and submitting detailed implementing regulations for laws and ordinances to the Government or the Prime Minister in a timely manner, or promulgating them within their authority; being responsible for signing and promulgating legal normative documents within their authority, delegation of signature authority only being exercised in the absence of the signatory;

d) Directing units under their ministries and sectors to evaluate the impact of laws, ordinances, and decrees after the documents come into effect and comparing this with the impact assessment results at each stage of drafting to determine the rationality and feasibility of the provisions, and promptly proposing solutions to improve the effectiveness of the documents or completing the documents if necessary;

When proposing to develop, draft, and promulgate projects and drafts, it is necessary to effectively apply the technique of using "one document to amend, supplement, replace, or abolish the contents of multiple documents" to save resources and ensure the consistency of the legal system;

e) Organizing a special column on their agency's website to collect suggestions on legal initiatives and projects and drafts from relevant agencies, organizations, individuals, experts, scientists, and direct subjects affected by the projects and drafts, especially those directly related to citizens' rights and obligations and businesses; opinions from related ministries, particularly the Ministry of Finance regarding the expected financial sources and the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the expected human resources;

f) Ensuring necessary conditions for the legislative work of legal normative documents within their ministries and sectors; equipping technical and information technology means to promptly and effectively meet the requirements of accessing, researching, and processing information to serve the work of drafting, reviewing, examining, systematizing, codifying, and inspecting legal normative documents of their ministries and sectors;

g) Strengthening the organization of legal affairs and the cadre force engaged in legislative work towards professionalism, sufficient staffing, and high quality. Based on the actual conditions of their agencies, organizing training and enhancing the necessary knowledge and skills for the cadre force involved in legislative activities at least once a year. Prioritizing training and enhancing the ability to analyze policies, assess the impact of projects and drafts, and drafting skills for legal cadres and civil servants of their ministries and sectors;

h) Directing units under their ministries and sectors to organize the review and systematization of legal normative documents to promptly amend, supplement, or abolish legal normative documents issued by themselves; suspending the enforcement, amending, supplementing, replacing, or abolishing according to their authority, or proposing relevant state agencies to suspend the enforcement, amend, supplement, replace, abolish, or revoke documents and provisions contrary to the law or no longer in effect;

Preparing and publishing in the Official Gazette a list of legal normative documents and provisions that have expired;

2. The Minister of Justice shall be responsible for:

a) Draft or promulgate according to their authority the following documents:

- Submit to the Government for issuance of a Decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 135/2003/NĐ-CP dated November 14, 2003 on inspection and handling of regulatory legal documents (third quarter of 2009);

- Regulation on the appraisal of projects and draft regulatory legal documents (third quarter of 2009);

- Guidelines on the procedures and methods for assessing the impact of regulatory legal documents (third quarter of 2009);

- Take the lead and coordinate with relevant agencies to guide the format and technical presentation of regulatory legal documents of the Government, Prime Minister, Ministers, Heads of Ministries equivalent to Ministries, and joint regulatory legal documents (third quarter of 2009);

- Guide the business of drafting proposals for regulatory legal documents, technical drafting, appraisal, review, systematization, inspection of regulatory legal documents, and evaluation of the implementation of regulatory legal documents.

b) Urge and inspect the principal drafting agencies to ensure the progress and quality of law and ordinance projects;

c) Appraise projects and draft documents within the deadline and ensure quality;

d) Propose the organization of specialized sessions of the Government to focus on discussing certain projects and drafts when submitting the annual program for legislative work to the Government;

đ) Take the lead and coordinate with the Minister of Finance and the Head of the Government Office to guide the budget allocation for activities related to the preparation of the annual program, drafting, perfecting the legal system, and general supervision of law enforcement as stipulated in the Decree detailing the implementation of the Law (third quarter of 2009);

e) Take the lead and coordinate with the Government Office to develop the Government's plan for implementing the legislative program; ordinances; propose the principal drafting agencies, coordinating agencies, and deadlines for submitting law and ordinance projects, and monitor the implementation of the program;

g) Establish a Working Group to support and enhance the capacity of ministries and sectors in evaluating the impact of regulatory legal documents; guide ministries and sectors to comply with the procedures and methods for assessing the impact of regulatory legal documents, ensuring the quality of impact assessment reports. The Working Group will be headed by a leader from the Ministry of Justice and its members will include representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the Government Office, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and other relevant agencies and organizations.

3. The Minister, Head of the Government Office shall be responsible for:

a) Take the lead and coordinate with relevant ministries and sectors in preparing the program for issuing decrees; coordinate with the Ministry of Justice to regularly follow up, urge, and inspect the implementation, report to the Prime Minister on the progress, difficulties, and issues in the process of preparing and implementing the decree-making program of the Government;

b) Strengthen the work of reviewing compliance with drafting procedures and project and draft files before submitting them to the Government and Prime Minister; do not schedule projects and drafts that do not comply with the procedures and formalities for making regulatory legal documents or do not meet quality standards into the Government and Prime Minister's work programs;

c) Take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Justice and relevant agencies to resolve issues with differing opinions among ministries and sectors regarding the content of projects and drafts before submitting them to the Government and Prime Minister;

d) Take the lead and coordinate with ministries and sectors to prepare for submission to the Government for issuance of a Decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 104/2004/NĐ-CP dated March 23, 2004 of the Government on the Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (August 2009) and a Decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 179/2007/NĐ-CP dated December 3, 2007 of the Government on the Operation Regulations of the Government, ensuring consistency with the provisions of the Law on Issuing Regulatory Legal Documents;

đ) Recommend forms of responsibility for Ministers and Heads of Ministries equivalent to Ministries in cases where they fail to ensure procedures, progress, and quality in the preparation of regulatory legal documents.

4. The Minister of Home Affairs shall be responsible for:

a) Direct units under the Ministry to provide comments on human resources for proposals to issue regulatory legal documents; for projects and draft regulatory legal documents as prescribed by law;

b) Take the lead and coordinate with ministries and sectors to allocate sufficient qualified human resources to ensure the implementation of work related to drafting, appraising, reviewing, inspecting, evaluating, and monitoring the implementation of regulatory legal documents.

5. The Minister of Finance shall be responsible for:

a) Take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Justice and the Government Office to prepare the budget for increased funding for regulatory legal document drafting for 2009 and subsequent years, ensuring appropriate funding for lawmaking consistent with the importance of each type of regulatory legal document;

b) Coordinate with the Ministry of Justice and the Government Office to guide funding for regulatory legal document drafting and perfecting the legal system of ministries, agencies equivalent to ministries, and government agencies;

c) Timely allocate full funding for regulatory legal document drafting and perfecting the legal system;

d) Direct units under the Ministry to provide comments on financial sources to ensure the implementation of work related to drafting, appraising, reviewing, inspecting, evaluating, and monitoring the implementation of regulatory legal documents.

6. The Minister of Foreign Affairs shall be responsible for:

Direct units under the Ministry to provide comments on the compatibility of draft regulatory legal documents with international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a party as prescribed by law.

7. Ministers, Heads of Ministries equivalent to Ministries, Heads of government agencies, and Heads of related agencies shall be responsible for implementing this Directive. The Ministry of Justice shall take the lead and coordinate with the Government Office and the Ministry of Finance to monitor, urge, and inspect the implementation of this Directive, promptly reporting to the Prime Minister.