On the morning of May 27, at the National Assembly, authorized by the Prime Minister, General To Lam, Minister of Public Security presented a report on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on People's Public Security.
Regarding the need to amend the law, Minister of Public Security To Lam said that after 4 years of taking effect, the People's Public Security Law had revealed a number of problems, so it was necessary to amend and supplement a number of regulations. Currently, the maximum service age limit for officers, non-commissioned officers and public security workers specified in the 2018 People's Public Security Law is consistent with the provisions on the retirement age of employees in the Labor Code 2012.
The Labor Code of 2012 has been replaced by the Labor Code of 2019. Meanwhile, the Labor Code is considered as the “Original Law” regarding the retirement age of employees in general. Therefore, the Minister of Public Security affirmed that it is necessary to amend the People's Police Law accordingly.
6 more general positions
Regarding regulations on the highest rank for public security officers' positions and titles, the current Law stipulates that 199 positions with the highest rank are generals (including 1 General, 6 Lieutenant Generals, 35 Lieutenant Generals, 157 Major Generals).
In this bill, the Government additionally stipulates that 6 positions with the highest rank are generals: 1 position with the highest rank is Lieutenant General and 5 positions with the highest rank are Major General.
Presenting the examination, Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee Le Tan Toi said that the majority of opinions agreed with this proposal and said that the addition of the position should not exceed the number of general-level positions in the People's Police as prescribed by the Politburo, in line with practical needs and the new organizational structure of the Ministry of Public Security.
Some comments suggest researching and adding a position with the highest rank of General as General to the seconded police officers when assigned by the Party and elected by the National Assembly to hold the position of Vice President of the National Assembly. The National Defense and Security Committee proposed the drafting agency to study and propose to absorb accordingly.
According to the plan submitted by the Minister of Public Security, an additional position with the highest rank of Lieutenant General is prescribed for seconded police officers to hold the position of Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Defense and Security.
Currently, the Ministry of Public Security has a Deputy Minister (whose highest rank is Lieutenant General) seconded to be approved for this position. The Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee is equivalent to the position of a Minister and is organized into the Central Executive Committee. Therefore, the addition of this provision, according to the Minister of Public Security, is appropriate.
The 5 positions with the highest rank, Major General, are also added to the bill submitted to the National Assembly. Accordingly, instead of stipulating that there are 157 positions with the highest rank of major general, the draft law stipulates that there are 162 positions with the highest rank of major general.
These 5 positions include: Rector of the People's Police University; Rector of the University of People's Security; 1 Assistant Politburo member, Minister of Public Security; 2 positions of Deputy Director at the unit under the Ministry of Public Security.
Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee Le Tan Toi said that the majority of opinions agreed with the addition of these five positions. However, there are suggestions for a full and comprehensive assessment, ensuring the correlation of the highest rank and command hierarchy in the People's Police, especially the two positions of Deputy Director General at the unit under the Ministry of Public Security.
The law also stipulates that the Chief of the City Police of the Central City, the Regiment Commander with the highest rank is Colonel.
Currently, the regiment commander in the People's Police has the highest rank of Colonel. However, facing the requirements of state management of security and order, and crime prevention and control in the current situation, the Ministry of Public Security reported to the competent authorities and established a number of regiments under the Guard Command, Mobile Police Command, and local police to organize and perform a number of state management functions on security and order.
Therefore, Minister To Lam suggested that it be appropriate to amend the regulation that the Regiment Commander has the highest rank of Colonel.
Regarding the City Police under the Central Government, this is the equivalent of the District Police of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, so the Minister of Public Security considers this regulation to be appropriate.
Proposal to raise the retirement age for officers
The draft law also stipulates that the People's Public Security officers who are considered for promotion to the rank from Colonel to Major General must have at least 3 full years of service remaining, in case of less than 3 years of service, decided by the State President.
The National Defense and Security Committee agreed with this regulation and assessed that this would take advantage of the wisdom and experience of the officers promoted to the rank, ensuring the next leadership and commanding period of the promoted rank.
The Standing Committee of Social Affairs, Standing Committee of Culture and Education proposed to supplement regulations on the minimum working time to be conferred or promoted to the rank of Colonel to Major General in case of less than 3 years of service as decided by the State President to ensure rigor and feasibility.
Regarding the service age limit of public security officers and non-commissioned officers, Minister To Lam said that this regulation was amended in the direction of increasing the maximum service age limit of police workers (male increased by 2 years, female increased by 5 years); 2 years increase of officers and non-commissioned officers.
Particularly female officers with the rank of Colonel increased by 5 years, female officers with the rank of Colonel increased by 3 years; General-level female officers remain at the current 60 years old.
The time to increase age according to the roadmap increases each year by 3 months for men and 4 months for women. Particularly for officers and non-commissioned officers, the maximum service age limit is under 60 years old for men, and under 55 years old for women, the age limit is immediately increased by 2 years, not according to the above roadmap.
The verifying agency agreed with this provision, but there were opinions that raising the maximum service age for female colonels to 3 years and female colonels to 5 years was a significant increase, while most other ranks increased by 2 years to suit the specific working environment of the People's Police force and the needs of the majority of female police officers.
