There is a state of bureaucracy.

On the morning of August 15, Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long answered questions about a group of issues within the Ministry of Justice's area of ​​responsibility at the 25th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee.

Speaking at the question and answer session, Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long said that in recent times, with the attention and leadership of the Party and the National Assembly, the close and drastic direction and management of the Government and the Prime Minister, the attention and coordination and support of ministries, branches and localities, the judicial work in general has achieved practical results, contributing to the socio-economic development process.

In addition, there are still limitations and shortcomings, requiring the Ministry to continue to make more efforts to better meet the expectations of the Party, the National Assembly, and voters nationwide. The Minister of Justice said that he will listen to the questions of National Assembly deputies and fully explain.

In questioning, National Assembly Deputy Trinh Minh Binh (Vinh Long delegation) cited a report from the Ministry of Justice, stating that currently, there are still some places where officials are afraid of responsibility and avoid work in advising on law making. The delegate asked the Minister to clarify the main cause of the above problem and solutions to overcome it in the coming time?

In addition, the report of the Ministry of Justice stated that the regulations on authority and responsibility in document inspection are not really clear and reasonable. Could the Minister please explain the cause of this situation and point out solutions to improve the capacity and efficiency in the work of inspecting legal documents, thereby avoiding conflicts and overlaps between legal documents in the Vietnamese legal system?

Responding to the question of delegate Minh Binh, Minister Le Thanh Long admitted that the fear of responsibility exists and is not only in the Ministry of Justice. According to him, quantifying this is very difficult. In reality, if it cannot be done or if it is afraid, it is said to be due to the legal organization.

The General Secretary and leaders of the Party and State have said a lot, assessing our weak link which is the organization of law enforcement. Although it is not possible to cover all the contents, Mr. Long reflects the reality that many times because of not considering the problem in its entirety, they just say it is due to the law, the review report also says it is a problem but in reality many things are not like that.

Besides, some places tend to explain in a way that is "convenient for themselves", or the understanding and application of the law is not yet unified, with a state of administrativeization.

Mr. Long gave a real story: “Those factors combined with the influence of this and that have made the Ministries and branches not proactive, so there are extreme cases such as instead of issuing a Circular as a normal procedure, they keep exchanging back and forth to follow the shortened procedure, taking 4-5 months to decide whether to shorten it or not, it is better to do it officially from the beginning”.

He said the Ministry of Interior was assigned to issue a Decree on protecting people who dare to think and dare to do, but there are still many issues that need to be resolved. Because this is just a Decree and related issues are at the level of law.

There are no plans to amend the 2015 Penal Code.

Delegate Le Tat Hieu (Vinh Phuc delegation) asked : The 2015 Penal Code has revealed many difficulties, problems and shortcomings. Could the Minister please tell us about the roadmap for monitoring, amending and supplementing the law in the coming time? Currently, attracting people to do forensic work is very difficult. What solutions does the Minister have to help localities attract people to do forensic work?

In response, Minister Le Thanh Long said that the 2015 Penal Code, revised in 2017, proposed a series of new ideas such as legal entity criminal liability, removing some drug crimes, and narrowing the frameworks so that they are not too broad. In addition, some contents such as those related to the death penalty were also revised. Mr. Long said that the Ministry of Justice is researching but has no specific plans for amendments or supplements.

Previously, reporting on issues in the field of the judiciary, Minister Le Thanh Long said that the Ministry of Justice is advising the Government to issue a resolution on a number of solutions to improve the quality of work in building and perfecting the legal system and organizing law enforcement to prevent corruption, group interests and local interests.

In addition, the Ministry of Justice is also participating in giving opinions and drafting regulations of the Politburo on controlling power, preventing and combating negative corruption, group interests, and local interests in law-making.

Regarding limitations, the Minister of Justice said that there is still a situation where projects are included in the law-making program that does not follow the overall program or are proposed close to the time of organizing sessions and meetings of the National Assembly and the National Assembly Standing Committee, which is on the rise.

Some projects have not been carefully researched and calculated in terms of scope of regulation and impact of policies in the draft law, so they have not been added to the law-making program.

Notably, Mr. Long pointed out that the quality of some draft laws is not high. In addition, there are conflicts, overlaps, and lack of consistency between some provisions in legal documents, leading to different interpretations and difficulties in organizing implementation...

There are many causes for this situation, but Mr. Long pointed out that there are signs of fear of responsibility and avoidance of work in advising on institutional building in some places.

Regarding solutions, the Minister of Justice emphasized strengthening discipline and order in law-making, especially enhancing the responsibility of heads of government agencies.

In addition, according to Mr. Long, it is necessary to strengthen control over power, prevent and combat corruption, negativity, and group interests in law-making. According to the Minister of Justice, the Government will strengthen supervision, inspection, and strictly handle violations in law-making .

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