Meeting scene. Photo: VGP/DA
Representative of the agency drafting the policy dossier, Director of the Department of Criminal and Administrative Law ( Ministry of Justice ) Nguyen Thi Hanh said that the implementation of the Law on Access to Information in recent times has received close direction from the Government, the Prime Minister and the participation of ministries, branches and localities. Information disclosure is carried out regularly and promptly; information provision upon request is gradually becoming routine; conditions for ensuring information provision are increasingly focused on, contributing to ensuring citizens' right to access information, enhancing publicity, transparency and accountability of state agencies.
However, the implementation of the Law still has some problems such as the lack of guidance on the agency responsible for providing information previously created by the district level; the understanding of the scope of accessible information is still inconsistent; the application of information technology is still limited. Therefore, it is necessary to amend and supplement the Law to suit the reality.
On that basis, the policies of the Law on Access to Information (amended) focus on the contents of agencies and units responsible for providing information; the scope of information under the responsibility of the People's Committee at the commune level; the scope of information that citizens can access, information that citizens cannot access, and information that citizens can access with conditions; forms, methods, order, procedures for providing information, the application of information technology and digital transformation in providing information with 6 policies: Expanding the subjects of information provision; adjusting the scope of information that the People's Committee at the commune level must provide; expanding the scope of information that must be made public; clarifying the scope of information that is not accessible or has conditional access; diversifying the methods of providing information and adjusting regulations on the cost of providing information.
At the meeting, the majority of the members of the Appraisal Council agreed on the need to issue the policy. Some opinions suggested clarifying policy 5 to avoid confusion when providing information; specifying the list of information that can be accessed, cannot be accessed or has conditional access according to policy 4 to ensure transparency.
Regarding the provisions on enforcement, delegates requested the drafting agency to clearly explain in the Submission and specify the effective date, instead of stating "effective from the date of signing and promulgation", to ensure compliance with the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents.
In his concluding remarks, Deputy Minister Phan Chi Hieu said that the Appraisal Council agreed with 6 policies to amend the Law on Access to Information, focusing on 3 major goals: Institutionalizing the Party's policy on accountability and ensuring the right to access information; consistent with the process of restructuring the apparatus according to the 3-level government model and removing obstacles in 10 years of implementing the Law.
The Deputy Minister requested the drafting agency to clarify the necessity of amendments to synchronize with related laws such as the Law on Grassroots Democracy Implementation, the Law on Data, the Law on Archives, the Law on Personal Data Protection, etc. At the same time, the policy dossier needs to continue to review the Party's policies, especially Regulation 178 of the Politburo on controlling power and preventing corruption in law-making; Resolution 126 of the Government on perfecting the legal system to prevent group interests, etc.
The policies ensure constitutionality and legality, but it is necessary to carefully review regulations on information disclosure and the right to request information to avoid overlapping with current laws.
Regarding policy 1, Deputy Minister Phan Chi Hieu assessed that the plan to expand the subjects of information provision is appropriate, and proposed clarifying the criteria for determining public service units providing essential basic public services and the scope of responsibility for providing information of these units.
For policy 2, the solution option is that the People's Committee at the commune level does not have to provide information received by itself in accordance with international practices and the capacity of the grassroots level, but needs to be reviewed to avoid conflicts with regulations on decentralization, delegation and acceptance of opinions of the Appraisal Council.
Regarding policy 3, the expansion of the scope of information that must be made public needs to be reviewed to avoid conflicts with regulations on state secrets, business secrets, investment secrets, personal data protection and cybersecurity.
Regarding the promotion of science and technology , innovation and digital transformation, the presiding agency has developed a policy on the application of information technology in information disclosure. However, the content on "providing information on request" is still vague.
The Deputy Minister suggested the need to research deeper digital solutions such as virtual assistants, artificial intelligence or automatic information provision systems... and at the same time proposed to promote stronger digital transformation in information provision activities.
Dieu Anh
Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/chuyen-doi-so-manh-me-hon-trong-hoat-dong-cung-cap-thong-tin-102251127231044214.htm
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