Many changes in Vietnam Customs organizational structure

The professional operation at Cai Lan Port Customs Branch (Quang Ninh) Photo: T.T

Streamlining the leading units at the General Department of Vietnam Customs

Deploying Decision No. 65/QD-TTg dated December 17, 2015 of the Prime Minister on regulating the functions, tasks, competences and organizational structure of the General Department of Vietnam Customs under the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance issued 15 Decisions regulating the functions, tasks, competences and organizational structure for 15 Departments under the Ministry of Finance.

Notably, in the Departments under the General Department of Vietnam Customs (The Legal Department, the Personnel and Organization Department, the Inspectorate-Supervise Department, the International Cooperation Department) haven’t set up the units at division level as prescribed in Resolution 39/NQ/TW dated April 17, 2015 of the Poliburo and Decision 2218/QD-TTg dated February 10, 2015 of the Prime Minister. According to the organizational structure, civil servants in these departments will work under the professional mode.

Especially, the Decisions of establishing the Customs Risk Management Department on the basis of the Customs Risk Management Board, establishing the Finance and Logistics Department, establishing the Customs Assessment Department on the basis of the Analysis and Classification Center and renaming the Inspectorate Department into the Inspectorate-Supervise Department.

The major tasks of the units under the General Department of Customs will focus on planning and building policies; guiding and examining the implementation of those policies.

It can be seen that with the target of reasonable restructure of the leading units under Customs, the Decisions above are built toward unifying the Decisions of the Minister of Finance and the Director General of Customs detailing the organizational system from Department level to division level in the General Department of Customs to ensure the centralized and unified management against overlapping among units and the organizational system of Customs.

Reasonable organization of the Customs Departments of provinces and cities

Decision 1919/QD-BTC dated September 6, 2016 of the Ministry of Finance prescribed the functions, tasks, competences and organizational structure of the Customs Department of provinces, inter-provinces and centrally run cities. Compared to the former Decision, the new Decision has a lot of changes on the organizational structure of the Customs Departments such as: reducing the divisions under the consultancy units; restructuring Post-clearance Audit and Customs Enforcement forces at the Customs Departments of provinces and cities.

It is acknowledged that deploying Decision No.65/2015/QD-TTg, the General Department of Customs has reviewed and assessed the process of task implementation of the subordinate units of the General Department as per Decision 02/2010/QD-TTg dated January 15, 2010. On the basis of the reviewing result and regulations of the Customs Law 2014 and the relevant documents on the restructuring of the functions, tasks, competences and organizational structure of the Customs Department of provinces, inter-provinces and cities to overcome the existences and shortcomings of the units in the implementation under the Decision 02/2010/QD-TTg. Concurrently meeting the new requirements of the Customs management method on the basis of application and deployment of Customs reform and modernization such as: VNACCS/VCIS; the National Single Window and ASEAN Single Window and etc.

According to the new Decision of the Ministry of Finance, the organizational structure of the Customs Department of provinces, inter-provinces and cities is built toward reducing the consultancy leading units and increasing the leading units for levels which directly implement the duties (the Customs branch level) to be consistent with the workload and nature of work and specialized management area of each Customs Department and ensure the streamlining, effectiveness and efficiency.

Specifically, for the Inspectorate Division and Personnel and Organization Division, the Inspectorate-Supervise Division which operates independently will be set up in the 3 large Customs Departments, 17 of the remaining Inspectorate Divisions are merged into the Personnel and Organization Division to the Inspectorate-Personnel and Organization Division. The Personnel and Organization Division of the Bac Ninh Customs Department is renamed into the Inspectorate-Personnel and Organization Division, and 3 remaining Personnel and Organization Divisions are dissolved.

Restructuring the Post Clearance Audit and Customs Control forces under the new Decision, Customs Branches, the Post Clearance Audit Branches, the Customs Enforcement Team and the Anti-drug Enforcement Team have many changes compared to the previous time.

For the Post Clearance Audit Branches, to meet the requirement of the implementation of the new provisions of the Customs Law 2014 and consistent with the contents of the Scheme of strengthening the post-clearance audit capacity to 2015 and vision by 2020, so the Decision 1919/QD-BTC stipulated that there are only 21 Customs Departments which have Post-clearance Audit Branches including: Ba Ria- Vung Tau; Bac Ninh; Binh Duong; Binh Đinh; Can Tho; Đa Nang; Đong Nai; Ha Tinh; Ha Noi; Hai Phong; Ho Chi Minh City; Lang Son; Lao Cai; Long An; Nghe An; Quang Nam; Quang Ninh; Quang Ngai; Quang Tri; Tay Ninh; and Thanh Hoa.

The restructuring the Anti-smuggling force in some of the Customs Departments, the Anti-Smuggling Division and the Offenses Handling Division are merged into the Customs Enforcement Unit or in regions which are not hot drug areas, the Anti-drug Unit is merged into the Customs Enforcement Unit. Accordingly, some of the Customs units will only have one control leading agency to centralize and unify to enhance the power for Customs control forces.

Specifically, there are 22 Customs Departments which have the Enforcement Unit such as: Thua Thien Hue; Quang Ngai; Quang Nam; Quang Binh; Lao Cai; Lang Son; Khanh Hoa; Ha Nam Ninh; Hai Phong; Ha Giang; Gia Lai- Kon Tum; Đong Thap; Đong Nai; Đak Lak; Can Tho; Cao Bang; Ca Mau; Binh Phuoc; Binh Đinh; Binh Duong; Bac Ninh; and Ba Ria- Vung Tau. The remaining Customs Departments still keep the Customs Enforcement Unit and the Anti-Drug Unit.

New regulations on the structure of Customs Departments in provinces and cities

According to the analysis of the representative of the Personnel and Organization Department-the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the organizational structure under the new regulations will meet the requirement of increasing workload and management and more complicated nature of work, and enhance the management and direction and instruction of the General Department level for Customs Departments, especially the Customs branch level. Therefore, there should be no function, no mission and a minimum of overlapping of the function and mission between the units; a mission will be done by only one unit and one unit will consult many fields. Streamlining the organization structure of the intermediate level (Customs Department) is to strengthen the organizational system and the staffing for the executive level (General Department level) and the performance level (level of Customs Branch).