Proposal for pilot program for districts to be issued criminal records

The Ministry of Justice proposed a pilot program for the Justice Department under the People's Committees at the district level in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Nghe An to issue criminal records for two years.

The proposal stated in the dossier requesting the development of a National Assembly Resolution on piloting decentralization of the issuance of criminal records has just been announced by the Ministry of Justice.

The agency said that the 2009 Law on Judicial Records stipulates that the competent authority to issue judicial records includes the National Center for Judicial Records under the Ministry of Justice and the provincial Department of Justice.

However, the Department of Justice's human resources and facilities are still limited, and receiving a large number of applications has caused an overload. "There were times when people had to line up very early to submit their applications for certificates, causing public outrage," the Ministry of Justice stated.

People lined up from 4 a.m. at the Hanoi Department of Justice to wait for their criminal records to be verified, April 2023. Photo: Ngoc Thanh — People lined up from 4 a.m. at the Hanoi Department of Justice to wait for their criminal records to be verified, April 2023. Photo: *Ngoc Thanh*

Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Nghe An are the three localities with the largest number of requests for criminal record certificates in the country. From 2021 to 2023, Hanoi will issue more than 51,000, Ho Chi Minh City will issue about 96,000 and Nghe An will issue 57,000 certificates each year. Currently, the total number of district-level administrative units in the three localities is 73. If the proposal is approved, people here will have 73 more locations to register for criminal record certificates.

Therefore, the Ministry of Justice believes that the pilot decentralization of administrative units at the district level in the three localities above is necessary, contributing to reducing pressure, as well as creating more convenience for the people. "This is new content, so the Ministry of Justice proposes to pilot it in some district-level units of some provinces and centrally-run cities," the draft submission stated.

After the pilot ends, the Ministry of Justice will summarize and evaluate the implementation and report to the Government and the National Assembly. The pilot results will be the basis for studying and amending the Law on Judicial Records.

A criminal record is a document proving whether or not an individual has a criminal record. People can go to the Department of Justice to request a certificate or do it online. However, after registering on the National or local Public Service Portal, people still have to send paper documents by post or directly to the competent authority to submit.

Many businesses and organizations have recently abused the requirement of criminal records when recruiting, managing and employing workers. Some provinces and cities have not promptly resolved the need for confirmation, causing public outrage.

The reason is that ministries and branches have not yet reduced regulations requiring the submission of criminal records and have not applied information technology to issue them online to people.

Son Ha

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