HÀ NỘI — Minister of Justice Lê Thành Long cleared up questions on solutions to improve the quality of the legal system during the question & answer session of the National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee’s meeting on Tuesday.

Minister Long also responded to NA deputies’ questions on solutions to deal with limitations and wrongdoings in the issuance of documents detailing laws and resolutions adopted by the NA, and ordinances and resolutions by the NA Standing Committee, and to raise the efficiency of asset auction and judicial assessment.

The one-day question & answer session took place under the chair of NA Chairman Vương Đình Huệ, and was connected with sites in 62 provinces and centrally-run cities.

NA Chairman Huệ said these issues are of public concern, noting that the hearing session, the fourth of its kind held by the 15th NA Standing Committee, is expected to help better the lawmaking and supervision work.

NA deputies pointed out that during this tenure, the justice ministry has made more careful preparations for the law and ordinance building programme. However, slow issuance of legal documents was still reported. Many issues have been raised but have not been concretised into laws.

Deputy Điểu Huỳnh Sang from Bình Phước Province said some legal documents have not ensured the legitimacy and consistency of the legal system.

The review and publication of expired legal documents is slow. This shortcoming has been mentioned in the Government's annual report on thrift and anti-wastefulness practice, but there has not been any solution so far, he said, asking for the solutions and responsibilities of the justice minister.

Justice minister Long confessed that the slow issuance of legal documents has existed for a long time but has not been fully addressed.

In spite of efforts, many decrees cannot be issued on time such as decrees on representative organisation of employees and collective bargaining, decree on administrative sanctions in fisheries, and cyber security.

He said agencies under the justice ministry will submit review reports on more than 22 sectors to the NA. One of the important tasks is to review proposals to avoid overlapping and focus all resources on review work to prepare for the coming sixth meeting of the 15th NA.

Responding to questions about human resources in legal document building, Minister Long said about 10,000 officials are doing legal work, of which nearly 7,000 people work part-time. There are 89 central-level legal organisations and 65 local legal departments.

Compared to the current workload of ministries and sectors, it can be seen that the number of officials working in the justice field is facing a shortage, making it difficult to meet working requirements, he said.

The ministries of justice and home affairs are making amendments to legal documents which look to build specific treatment policies for legal officers, he said.

Minister of Home Affairs Phạm Thị Thanh Trà said wages and allowances for legal officers will be considered in the nation’s wage reform in relevance with specific characteristics of this profession. — VNS