Nguyễn Thanh Hải, chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Ombudsman Committee speaks to VOV.VN about the role of ministers in handling people’s complaints.

Do you believe all the people’s petitions at the ongoing 3rd meeting of the National Assembly will be settled?

People nationwide have expressed high appreciation of the Government’s report at the opening meeting of the 3rd meeting of the 14th legislature of the National Assembly on Monday.

They were glad that the report reflected their two biggest concerns; the appointment of senior Government officials and illegal sand mining on rivers in many localities.

The National Assembly’s Ombudsman Committee has closely monitored the settlement of voters’ petitions raised in previous NA meetings and before the current 3rd NA full house meeting.

I acknowledge the Government’s efforts to handle voters’ petitions in the context of a shortage of resources and various Government agencies having to co-ordinate.

Some successes have been recorded, but the work still needs a lot of efforts from the Government side.

For example, voters all want the Government to stop illegal sanding mining on rivers immediately. In addition, they also want the Government to sanction Government officials who have caused big losses to public assets.

Other issues that voters want the National Assembly to act on include Government officials who have failed to perform their duty properly in appointing their staff to senior positions in their offices and related issues.

Do you have any comments on Nguyễn Thiện Nhân, President of the Việt Nam Fatherland Front’s report on the first day of the 3rd NA full house meeting on Monday?

I highly appreciated Nhân’s report. In his report, he highlighted two stories that have captured people’s attention; illegal sand mining and poor co-ordination of Government agencies in solving the problem.

In my opinion, poor mineral resources management, particularly illegal sand mining, has been going on for many years in the country. But, with concerted efforts from the National Assembly and strong support from voters nationwide, I’m confident that we will be triumphant in this fight and bring to light the culprits, particularly those who are behind the scenes of illegal sand mining activities.

In handling voters’ petitions, people in power hold a very important role, don’t you agree?

I couldn’t agree more. The role of people in power is always important. Voters are the general public, so their concerns should be heard and taken seriously by their superiors in a proper manner.

For example, when voters send their petitions to a ministry, if the minister reads their petitions and he personally appoints someone to read the petition and find solutions to solve the problem, I’m confident that the minister will be highly appreciated by voters.

In other words, whenever people lodge complaints about something, authority in charge of that matter should meet the people and listen to their complaints, I’m pretty sure this will ensure things go smoothly immediately.

In my opinion, we should include the settlement of voters’ petitions in the criteria to evaluate the annual performance of Government officials in accordance to the Resolution of the 4th Party Central Committee, and here at the National Assembly forum, it should be considered as a criteria to evaluate a minister as the commander of his sector. — VNS