Nguyễn Việt Dũng, Chief Inspector from the Hà Nội Department of Construction. Photo giaoduc.net.vn

 Nguyễn Việt Dũng, Chief Inspector from the Hà Nội Department of Construction, speaks to Hà Nội Mới (New Hà Nội) newspaper on some of the achievements his department has gained in the last two years in sanctioning construction projects that violate the Construction Law

How do you evaluate the implementation of the Prime Minister's Decision No.26/2018 on allowing Hà Nội to establish a team on building management in each district in the last two years?

Following the decision, since August 8, 2018, all Hà Nội construction inspection teams have been transferred to the management of Hà Nội District People’s Committees. This model has been implemented for almost two years and positive changes in construction activities have been reported in all districts. The number of construction violations has dropped considerably. This big success should be attributed to the responsibility of all people who have worked in the field of construction management in both inner and outlying districts.

Will you please tell us more about the changes?

Following the decision, the number of construction projects violating the construction law reduced to 4.3 per cent against the figure of 5.76 per cent.

Since the issuance of Decision No.04/2019 issued by the Hà Nội People’s Committee, on March 18, 2019, the committee issued its own construction rules on co-operation among all concerned agencies, ranging from the communal/ward People’s Committees to district/precinct People’s Committees.

Have any problems arisen in the course of maintaining law and order?

Under the current law, an urban construction management team has the authority to write a minute of construction violation and then report it to their immediate authority. However, in real life, construction violation cases have kept rising and they have left negative impacts on putting the Construction Law into life, particularly the mission of construction management.

Recently, the Hà Nội Municipal People’s Committee submitted a proposal to the Prime Minister to allow Hà Nội to continue to implement Government Decision No.26 for another three years. Why does Hà Nội want to do this?

The main reason is that the 18 month piloting period is too short. More time is needed to come up with a comprehensive assessment of the model, particularly the rights and responsibilities of an urban construction management unit. Further, the 2010 Inspection Law and the 2014 Construction Law have been revised while the piloting period of the decision will end on August 10. So in our opinion, we need more time to come up with a comprehensive assessment of the implementation results.

Hà Nội authorities have asked all concerned agencies to make their assessments on the 18 month piloting period. And they all come up with a decision to ask for more time.

What should Hà Nội do to raise the implementation of the construction law to a higher level?

To reach this goal, we need strong co-operation from the People's Committees in all districts and precincts. More importantly, Hà Nội should treat the task of urban construction management as an important task of the city with strong involvement from local senior leaders in all administrative levels. VNS

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