Amending the law to unblock and effectively use public property

View of the conference

At a conference on amending the Law on Management and Use of Public Property, organized by the Ministry of Finance on August 29th, Mr. Nguyen Tan Thinh, Director of the Public Asset Management Department (Ministry of Finance), stated that after more than 6 years of implementing the Law, while it has created a legal framework for the management and use of public assets and contributed to the goal of efficient and economical public asset management, some provisions of the Law have revealed inconsistencies and require amendments to meet current management requirements and address emerging practical issues.

According to the Prime Minister's directive, the amendments will focus on the most urgent issues that have an immediate impact on stimulating growth, controlling inflation, and stabilizing the macroeconomy.

"The approach to this amendment is to enhance decentralization and delegation of authority, simplify administrative procedures, and increase the proactivity and accountability of grassroots units in carrying out assigned tasks. The Ministry of Finance will primarily handle inter-ministerial issues. Simultaneously, we will link decentralization and delegation with increased inspection and supervision by competent authorities," said the head of the Public Asset Management Department.

Moreover, the amendments must ensure that difficulties and obstacles encountered during the implementation of the Law on Management and Use of Public Property are promptly resolved, especially addressing inconsistencies and overlaps in the legal system related to public asset management, ensuring consistency and synchronization; and ensuring the smooth and efficient use of resources from public assets for socioeconomic development.

At the conference, the issue of decentralization and delegation received many comments from delegates. According to a representative from the Government Inspectorate, amending the law to enhance decentralization and delegation for grassroots units is consistent with other laws and helps to address difficulties and obstacles in the management and use of public assets by ministries and sectors over the past time.

Emphasizing that some localities have already significantly decentralized, making public procurement almost hassle-free, the representative of the Government Inspectorate also noted that some localities, due to concerns about accountability, have only decentralized public procurement to the provincial People's Committee. Therefore, it is necessary to codify the issue of decentralization and delegation, otherwise, localities will not be able to decentralize thoroughly.

Meanwhile, a representative from the Ministry of Health stated that if drugs and consumables are considered public assets, all procurement, management, and use processes must comply fully with the provisions of the Law on Management and Use of Public Property. However, this creates many difficulties for hospitals and medical facilities due to the "minor" nature of these public assets. Therefore, the representative of the Ministry of Health suggested removing drugs and consumables from the list of public assets. If they are still included in the list of public assets, specific adjustments are needed.

Besides the issue of decentralization and delegation, the conference also recorded opinions related to the issue of establishing ownership by the entire people. Noting that the healthcare and education sectors often receive both domestic and foreign funding, a representative from the Government Inspectorate raised the question: when receiving funding, does equipment such as computers and printers need to be established as public assets owned by the entire people, and at the same time requested that the draft clarify this content.

A representative from the Ministry of Health also stated that for public assets serving disease prevention and control, there are currently many pieces of equipment serving disease prevention and control but do not have sufficient documentation to establish them as public assets owned by the entire people. The Ministry of Health has also requested that medical facilities compile a list to classify and report to the National Assembly on public assets lacking documentation establishing ownership by the entire people. The representative of the Ministry of Health suggested that there should be specific regulations on this content so that medical facilities have a basis for implementation and classification of public assets established as owned by the entire people.

Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Finance stated that the draft amendment to the Law on Management and Use of Public Property has amended and supplemented Article 110 to simplify the procedures for handling assets established as owned by the entire people, delegating the responsibility for developing plans to the unit in charge of handling the assets, thereby facilitating management and handling of confiscated property, means of administrative violations; creating proactivity in handling confiscated property, means of administrative violations, and limiting potential risks.