National Assembly Chairman Vương Đình Huệ delivers his speech on  Monday morning at the opening meeting of the 20th session of the NA Standing Committee. — VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

HÀ NỘI — During the opening meeting of the 20th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee, National Assembly Chairman Vương Đình Huệ emphasised the importance of approving the draft Ordinance on Sanctions of Administrative Violations for the State Audit Office to enhance its performance.

According to Chairman Huệ, the draft has been in the works for a while and now is the right time to submit it to the Standing Committee for approval.

He also said that although there is a Law on Handling Administrative Violations, the approval of the latest draft is vital as it will close loopholes that are not yet fully regulated by law.

Chairman Huệ said that based on the standing committee's comments, the draft must be studied and perfected for promulgation.

"The sooner the ordinance is issued, the more meaningful it will be to state audit activities," he said.

He ordered the scope of the sanctions to be clarified.

NA Standing Committee’s Board for Deputy Affairs Nguyễn Thị Thanh praised the quality of the draft, as well as the efforts of the drafting and the verifying agency.

Under Article 13 of the draft, a fine between VNĐ20 million (US$847) and VNĐ30 million ($1,270) shall be imposed for concealing violations of the law on public finance and public property.

However, the regulation is not clear enough because the scope of concealing acts in public finance and public property are broad, she said.

Furthermore, as the fine amounts are still low, there must be clarification for the acts of concealment in each field, she said.

Lê Thị Nga, chairwoman of the NA’s Committee for Judicial Affairs, voiced concerns about regulations related to administrative violations in the field of State audit.

Clause 3, Article 9 stipulates fines of between VNĐ20 million ($847) and VNĐ30 ($1,270) million for the act of failing to provide information and documents to the State audit agency.

Clause 4, Article 9 stipulates a fine of VNĐ30 million ($1,270) to VNĐ50 ($2,120) million for refusing to provide information and documents to the State audit agency, Nga said.

It is necessary to specify more clearly what is defined as "not providing information and documents" and what is defined as  "refusing to provide information and documents", she said.

On behalf of the drafting agency, State Auditor General Ngô Văn Tuấn said that he would fully absorb the comments at the meeting.

Tuấn said the draft ordinance consists of five chapters and 21 articles. The State Audit Office of Việt Nam has coordinated with the NA’s Committee for Law, Finance and Budget, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Justice to carefully review the contents before submitting them to the NA Standing Committee.

All the NA Standing Committee members at the meeting agreed to assign the State Audit Office of Việt Nam and the NA’s Committee for Law to supplement and complete the draft and submit it to the NA Standing Committee for promulgation this month.

Allocating capital for socio-economic projects

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyễn Chí Dũng at the opening meeting of the 20th session of the NA Standing Committee on Monday morning.— VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

The Minister of Planning and Investment submitted a proposal to the National Assembly Standing Committee to approve the allocation of funds for the projects under the Socio-economic Recovery and Development Program. The proposal covers 129 eligible projects worth approximately VNĐ14.7 trillion ($623 million). The proposal also includes increased funds for constructing four major transportation projects in 10 areas.

Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Finance and Budget Nguyễn Phú Cường said the committee agreed with the proposal in principle. However, they ordered agencies to review the deadlines for completing the projects and direct ministries, central agencies and localities to perform tasks and projects on time according to Resolution No 43/2022/QH15, he said.

For projects using local budget capital, localities have been told to comply with their commitments strictly, he said.

It must impose sanctions to deal with localities that fail to comply with commitments and fail to allocate enough capital for implementing projects this year, as required by Resolution No 43, he said.

He added that the committee approved increasing capital for ten localities to implement four major transport projects.

Vũ Hồng Thanh, Chairman of the NA's Committee for Economic Affairs, expressed his concern about the list of projects.

The list includes projects disbursed in 2024-25, while Resolution No 43 only stipulates the capital for disbursement projects for 2022-23.

In addition, the proposal to increase capital for four major transport projects also confused Thanh.

Thanh said the remaining amount of unallocated capital for the projects is large, so the capital disbursement this year following the spirit of Resolution 43 will not be feasible.

He said that it is necessary to clarify this issue and handle the capital appropriately, preparing a plan to harmonise the capital of the programme with public investment capital.

NA Chairman Vương Đình Huệ ordered a review of the comments at the meeting. Projects that do not meet the criteria, as decided by the NA, will be excluded. If there are changes, they must be submitted to the NA for approval.

The session, held at the National Assembly House in Hà Nội, began on Monday and is scheduled to conclude on Wednesday. — VNS