Socialist Republic of Vietnam

A Vietnamese parliamentary committee has called for strengthening laws governing the functioning of local legislative bodies to make them more effective.

The National Assembly Standing Committee made the suggestion at a two-day conference on people’s councils (local legislatures) and people’s committees (local administrations) held Tuesday in Ho Chi Minh City.

It also called for enacting a new law to enable the people's councils to perform their tasks efficiently.

Voicing unhappiness at the people's councils' ineffective oversight of local governments, the committee blamed this for the rampant violation of laws by local officials.

Council members asked too few questions and what they did ask failed to touch upon pressing issues in their areas.

On average, 10 inquiries were raised per year by provincial-level people's councils, five at the district level, and four at the communal level.

Even these were asked mostly in major provinces and cities.

A member in Ho Chi Minh City might pose over 20 pertinent questions in a single session while legislators in another province might take three years to reach that number.

The committee, however, admitted that candidates in many localities might have been carelessly nominated.

Executive reforms

Interior Minister Do Quang Trung said the government had ordered people's committees to concentrate on implementing the second phase of the comprehensive administrative reform.

They had been asked to continue with restructuring the system and improving their administrative skills to consolidate the grassroots level political system.

There would be a clear distinction between “rural” and “urban” governments.

The government was seeking the house’s approval for introducing direct elections for the post of people’s committee chairpersons of rural wards, Trung said.

Chairpersons and other leaders are now nominated by the local legislative bodies.

Source: Tuoi Tre, Thanh Nien News