Directive 10/CT-TTg on the situation of causing harassment and troublesomeness in settlement of affairs

DIRECTIVE

On further remedying and effectively preventing the situation of causing harassment and troublesomeness in settlement of affairs for citizens and enterprises^[1]

Over the past time, thanks to the concentrated and resolute leadership and direction of the Party Central Committee, the Political Bureau, the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat, the Central Steering Committee on Corruption Prevention and Combat, the National Assembly, the Government and judicial bodies, together with efforts of administrations and authorities at all levels, sectors, socio-political organizations, the business community, the press, and the people, anti-corruption work has witnessed a stride forward with breakthrough policies and solutions, achieving positive and comprehensive results in all aspects, contributing to maintaining the country’s political stability and socio-economic development, consolidating people’s confidence, and creating strong spillover effect in the society.

However, there exists the situation that cadres, civil servants and public employees, for self-seeking purposes, abuse their working positions, statutory loopholes, and the trust and lack of knowledge about policies and laws of numerous people to cause harassment, prolong the time for settlement of affairs or settle affairs related to citizens and enterprises in an unlawful, unfair or inobjective manner, thus annoying and eroding the confidence of citizens and enterprises and hindering socio-economic development.

The above situation is attributed to the following main reasons:

Heads of a number of agencies, organizations and units fail to make a good example in discharging their responsibilities for performance of tasks and to properly implement the regulations on receipt of citizens; the management and education of cadres, civil servants and public employees are not carried out regularly and stringently; the inspection and examination of performance of public duties are not paid with due attention while violations are not promptly detected and strictly handled, some units even cover up and abet wrongful acts of their employees; and the organization of dialogues with citizens remain formalistic.

The spirit and ethics in public duty performance of some cadres, civil servants and public employees are poor, causing them fail to fulfill their responsibilities; there is a lack of effective measures to rectify and remedy limitations in administrative discipline and order in such sectors as taxation, customs, land, grant of licenses and practice certificates, investment, environment, construction, traffic police, specialized inspection, and in a number of public administrative service providers in communes and wards, health establishments, and education institutions.

Policies and laws in some fields concerning the social life remain asynchronous and overlapping with various obstacles and loopholes; the order and procedures for work performance are cumbersome and lack transparency and publicity, failing to meet practical requirements; the mechanisms for protection of lawful rights and interests of citizens and businesses remain unclear.

Over the past years, the Government and authorities at all levels have attached special importance to the administrative reform, managing to reduce and simplify administrative procedures, facilitating the settlement of citizens’ and enterprises’ requests. However, in a number of fields, ministries, sectors and localities, administrative procedures are still cumbersome and lack transparency and publicity with many “sub-licenses”. The removal of unnecessary business conditions in some ministries and sectors is asynchronous and formalistic and seems to focus only on the quantitative aspect. Many public administration centers have been put into operation but in some localities, they are operating ineffectively and formalistically and there remain overlaps in settlement of affairs for citizens and enterprises. No synchronism can be seen in the building of e-government and application of information technology in work, leading to lack of linkage and transferability among sectors and agencies and between central and local levels in building national databases, information sharing, data management, non-stop toll collection, and provision of level-3 online public services.

There remain limitations in the receipt of petitions, opinions, criticisms and denunciations of citizens, cadres, and Party members. The level of satisfaction of citizens and enterprises with state administrations has not been set by agencies and units as a target to strive for.

The sense of law observance of a number of enterprises and citizens remains poor and, as a result, they can easily join hands with cadres, civil servants and public employees to act against regulations just to get things done.

In order to redress the above situation, the Prime Minister requests ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and government-attached agencies, and chairpersons of provincial-level People Committees to expeditiously take the following measures:

1. Increasing the responsibility of heads for leading and directing anti-corruption work

a/ Heads of agencies and units shall seriously grasp, and closely direct and organize the synchronous implementation of, solutions to stop and effectively prevent the harassment and troublesomeness in the settlement of citizens’ affairs; strictly comply with the regulations on citizen receipt and receipt of petitions, complaints and denunciations from citizens. First of all, heads of agencies and units must be exemplary and heighten their responsibility in directing, administering, examining and inspecting the performance of tasks and public duties and maintenance of administrative discipline and order in the fields under their state management. To build a pool of cadres and public employees who are steadfast in political and ideological awareness, possess fine moral qualifications and lifestyle, and are professionally capable of settlement of affairs concerning citizens and enterprises. To strictly handle irresponsible heads of agencies and units who let cadres, public employees and civil servants under their management commit harassment and cause troubles to citizens and enterprises. To immediately handle those who show signs of covering up and abetting wrongful acts of their subordinates.

b/ To rectify the management; to tighten administrative order and discipline, and intensify the inspection and supervision of cadres, civil servants and public employees in the performance of public duties and settlement of affairs concerning citizens and enterprises; to ensure that petitions and denunciations of citizens and enterprises are completely and promptly settled rather than just being unclearly explained.

2. Implementing administrative reform, increasing transparency and publicity in the operation of agencies, organizations, and units, and renewing management technologies.

a/ To expeditiously review, amend and supplement mechanisms, policies and laws in the fields under their management; to identify corruption risks based on working positions so as to take examination and supervision measures; to immediately tackle loopholes which may result in harassment and troublesomeness to citizens and enterprises; to streamline and remove unnecessary, cumbersome and difficult-to-perform administrative procedures while shortening the period and work out schedules for settlement of procedures. Upon receiving dossiers for performing administrative procedures under regulations, to refrain from requesting enterprises and citizens to supplement dossiers more than once.

b/ To raise the quality of dialogues with enterprises and citizens in a practical and wholehearted manner; to grasp thoughts, aspirations and difficulties of citizens and enterprises so as to practically and completely settle their recommendations and propose to competent agencies measures for handling legal shortcomings (if any); to publicly notify time and places for citizen receipt by heads of agencies and units on websites, if any, and at working offices of agencies and units.

c/ To make public hotlines and email addresses for promptly receiving and settling petitions and denunciations of citizens and enterprises, particularly those about harassment and troublesomeness; to publicly notify handling results; to make public apologies to citizens and enterprises in case of mistakes or errors and remedy consequences; to handle violators and make regular reports under regulations on anti-corruption work.

d/ To step up the application of information technology in management activities of state administrative agencies, to build the e-government from the central to local levels; to devise a specific schedule for provision of online public services of level 3 and higher; to redress limitations and formality in a number of public administration centers; to apply modern monitoring technologies (such as sound recording, video recording, CCTV) at places of receiving, or conducting transactions with, citizens and enterprises.

3. Increasing public information, dissemination, and education about the anti-corruption law, bringing into full play the role and responsibilities of the society in anti-corruption work

a/ To accelerate the evaluation of satisfaction of citizens and enterprises with the operation of state administrative agencies and public service providers, considering it a measurement of results of the performance of tasks and public duties; to attach importance to supervising the observance of the code of conduct, code of professional ethics and regulations on prohibitions applicable to persons holding positions and powers; to adhere to the principles of discipline, integrity, action and service.

b/ The Prime Minister requests the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, central agencies of organizations, socio-political organizations, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, the Vietnam Association of Small- and Medium- sized Enterprises, the Vietnam Journalists Association, and media and press agencies to intensify measures for wide dissemination of policies and laws; to guide and encourage citizens and enterprises to live and work in accordance with the Constitution and laws; to practice integrity, refraining from abetting negative phenomena and corrupt acts and from bribe giving and brokerage; to comply with civilized behavior and cultural rules; to actively and proactively detect signs and acts of corruption and wastefulness for reporting to functional agencies in a timely, accurate and honest manner; to honor good examples; and to ensure the accuracy of information, refraining from inferring, exerting  subjective opinion and providing one-sided or false information.

4. Intensifying inspection and examination of public duties; building a mechanism for supervision and detection of violations

a/ To continue rectifying inspection and examination, particularly specialized inspection and examination under the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 20/CT-TTg of May 17, 2017; to tackle overlaps, troubles and harassment in inspection and examination activities. Ministries, sectors and provincial-level People’s Committees shall sum up and review inspection and examination plans of their attached units to avoid repetitive inspection and examination of enterprises.

b/ To create favorable conditions for the receipt, processing and settlement of denunciators’ requests for protection and imposition of penalties on violators; to adopt appropriate forms of commendation, reward and encouragement for units, organizations and individuals that properly comply with regulations; to promptly detect and handle violations and make public names of cadres who commit violations on their agencies’ and organizations’ portals; to resolutely and strictly handle cadres, civil servants and public employees committing corruption acts, expelling them from the Party and State apparatuses; to impose criminal charges, instead of administrative sanctions, on acts of causing troublesomeness or harassment to citizens and enterprises which have sufficient constituents of crime in accordance with law.

c/ The Prime Minister requests the National Assembly, People’s Councils at all levels, the Vietnam Fatherland Front, central agencies of organizations, and socio-political organizations to intensify the oversight of public duties performed by state agencies and organizations, civil servants and public employees so as to contribute to effectively preventing and handling troublesomeness and harassment caused to citizens and enterprises.

5. Organization of implementation

a/ Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and government-attached agencies, and chairpersons of provincial-level People’s Committees shall expeditiously formulate plans on dissemination and implementation of action programs to strictly implement this Directive; to be held responsible to the Prime Minister if letting harassment, troublesomeness and corruption occur in their attached agencies and units.

b/ To assign the Ministry of Home Affairs to assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam and related ministries, sectors and agencies in, urging and conducting regular and unscheduled examinations of the performance of public duties in order to promptly detect and handle acts of causing troublesomeness and harassment in the settlement of affairs concerning citizens and enterprises; to expeditiously propose amendments to the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants and the Law on Public Employees, especially in the immediate future, provisions on disciplining of cadres, civil servants and public employees, in accordance with current regulations while ensuring that violators are strictly and timely handled in accordance with the Party’s regulations on disciplining.

c/ To assign the Ministry of Justice to assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with related ministries, sectors and agencies in, studying and proposing the addition of contents on assessment of the risks of corruption and group interests in the process of promulgation of legal documents; to review, assess and propose for improvement of laws on handling of acts of causing harassment for reporting to the Prime Minister in the third quarter of 2019.

d/ To assign the Government Inspectorate of Vietnam to assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with related ministries, sectors and agencies in, setting up hotlines and emails for receiving and settling petitions, complaints and denunciations of acts of causing harassment and troublesomeness to citizens and enterprises for prompt and strict handling and reporting to the Prime Minister in the third quarter of 2019. To make preliminary review of the implementation of the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 20/CT-TTg of May 17, 2017, rectifying the inspection and examination of enterprises.

The Government Inspectorate of Vietnam shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Home Affairs in, monitoring, examining, urging, and regularly assessing and reviewing the implementation of this Directive for reporting to the Prime Minister.-

Prime Minister
NGUYEN XUAN PHUC