Draft Law on Archives (amended): What is the authority to manage archival documents for the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security?

Continuing the program of the 7th Session, on the morning of May 24, the National Assembly discussed in the hall a number of contents with different opinions of the draft Law on Archives (amended).

Reporting on the explanation, reception and revision of the draft Law on Archives (amended), Secretary General of the National Assembly, Head of the National Assembly Office Bui Van Cuong said that the draft law, after being received and revised, consists of 8 chapters with 65 articles; closely following the objectives and viewpoints set out when drafting the law, promptly institutionalizing the Party's policies, overcoming shortcomings and limitations in the implementation of the 2011 Law on Archives, contributing to better ensuring citizens' right to access information as prescribed by the Constitution, while at the same time, implementing the orientation of promoting the socialization of archival activities, building an archival society.

Scene of the National Assembly's discussion session on the draft Law on Archives (amended). Photo: TRONG HAI

Authority to manage archival documents for the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security

Notably, regarding the authority to manage archival documents and archival document databases, Article 10 of the draft law stipulates:

Home Office Document and database management includes: Documents stored at the State historical archives at the Central level; database of archival documents of the Vietnam State Archives; backup archival documents of the Vietnam State Archives.

Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Manage and store documents formed during operations, backup archives, archives of special value and archives database of the Defense, Public Security and Ministry of Foreign Affairs sectors.

The management and storage of documents of Party organizations in the sectors of National Defense, Public Security, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are carried out according to regulations of competent Party agencies.

In addition, Article 11 of the draft law also stipulates: For the archival document database of the Defense, Public Security and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of National Defense, the Minister of Public Security and the Minister of Foreign Affairs shall direct the construction, management and operation.

Article 19 of the draft law stipulates: After the expiration of the current storage period, the permanent storage of archival documents of the National Defense, Public Security and Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall be regulated by the Minister of National Defense, Minister of Public Security and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Delegates attending the meeting. Photo: TRONG HAI

Store paper documents in parallel with digital document storage

One notable content in this draft law is about electronic document storage.

Previously, during the discussion, some delegates suggested that a roadmap for implementing electronic archiving be established in accordance with resource capacity and that electronic archiving content be integrated into relevant regulations; some suggested that digital documents that are permanently archived should be printed out and stored in the archive.

Regarding this issue, Secretary General of the National Assembly and Head of the National Assembly Office Bui Van Cuong stated: Managing, exploiting and using digital archives is an objective and necessary requirement to build a digital government and digital society.

However, to suit the reality of archiving (currently mainly archiving paper documents), especially the ability of resources to ensure feasibility, the draft law is designed in the direction of regulating the archiving of paper documents in parallel with the archiving of digital documents and the conversion from archiving paper documents to archiving digital documents is carried out according to the roadmap for building e-Government, e-government and the orientation of digital Government, digital government.

At the same time, absorbing the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the structure of the draft law was revised to not stipulate a separate chapter on electronic archiving but to integrate it into Chapter 3 on archival operations; to ensure consistency in archival operations, ensure clearer and more complete regulations for each type of archival document and help make implementation easier and more convenient.

In addition, Article 22 of the draft law stipulates the establishment of backup archives for archives of special value and permanent archives at risk of serious damage, so it is proposed not to add provisions on converting digital documents to paper documents for storage.

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