Minister has no time for waste
All sectors of society must be involved in the fight against waste, director of the Judicial Department of the Ministry of Finance, Nguyen Trong Nghia, has told the Hai Quan (Customs) online newspaper.
What are the changes to the 2005 Law on Practising Thrift and Combating Waste which is being drafted by the Ministry of Finance?
I can say the real aim running through the revised law is to increase the number of preventive measures against waste. We hope the revisions will also promote businesses to be more frugal and thrifty.
We have tried to make regulations on inspection and supervision visits more specific, and encouraged more audits in order to make the law better enforced.
The 2005 law focused on offices, organisations and individuals using the state budget only. In the revised law, everyone will be affected as regulations will cover the production and business activities of all economic sectors - including capital, assets, raw materials, materials and fuel. In other words we want to raise the awareness about practising thrift and combating wastage among the entire business community.
Will the law implement new means to combat waste?
With lessons learned after seven years implementing the 2005 law, the compiling board came to the conclusion that there had been many successes in the pillar of practising thrift, yet there remained a lot of work still to be done fighting waste. The late President Ho Chi Minh considered waste a crime, and we hope that policy, guidelines and law implementation mechanisms in the revised draft will support the fight against it.
In the law we also have introduced "waste combating standards," including specific criteria for each type of office or organisation operating nation-wide to adhere to.
What other issues have received particular attention in the new draft of the law?
As I have mentioned above, we want to make the revised law more comprehensive allowing the mechanism, measures and solutions outlined to make it easier for effective law enforcement. For example, the law will require all government agencies, enterprises and organisations to conduct internal audits on items that are regulated.
The draft law is scheduled to be discussed in the monthly meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee in December 2012 and submitted to the full house meeting of the National Assembly in May next year. Do you think that time frame is workable?
Members of the law compiling board started to work in August 2012. I can confirm that the document has basically been completed and it is now on the table of the Ministry of Justice waiting for appraisal.
During the revising process we conducted consultations with relevant agencies and localities and received hundreds of their comments. I have to say their feedback was of great value to us, particularly the thoughts given by the Viet Nam Fatherland Front and the Viet Nam Lawyers' Association. I am confident that every thing will go according to schedule. — VNS