Improving the quality of legal documents

City People's Council delegates voted to pass the resolution.

Increase in quantity, expand the scope of adjustment

According to statistics from the Department of Justice, the number of legal documents in Hue City has increased steadily over the years. After a slight decrease of 19.5% in 2022, it increased by 3% in 2023, increased by 38% in 2024, and has continued to increase since the beginning of the year compared to the same period.

Agencies with a large number of documents include: Department of Home Affairs, Department of Agriculture and Environment, Department of Finance and Department of Construction. These are units with a wide scope of management, often generating specialized regulations.

Director of the Department of Justice Nguyen Van Hung said: From 2021 to now, the People's Council of Hue City (formerly Thua Thien Hue Province) has issued many resolutions (NQ) with specific normative nature, demonstrating proactiveness and flexibility in building policies suitable to local conditions.

“The specific resolutions focus on six main areas: Investment, industry, agriculture, culture; education, health; international cooperation; container shipping and social security,” Mr. Hung informed.

However, Mr. Nguyen Van Hung frankly admitted that the work of evaluating and summarizing policies in some departments and branches is still limited; many units have not proactively reviewed the effectiveness of issued specific resolutions. The number of tasks assigned to localities is increasing, while decentralization and authorization are still confusing.

After switching to a two-level local government model, the authority to handle administrative violations has changed a lot in the direction of shortening the process and reducing the transfer of levels. However, Mr. Hung noted: "The law only allows delegation of authority, not authorization in handling administrative violations. Therefore, localities must properly implement the decision form according to Decree 118/2021/ND-CP guiding the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations and related documents."

Along with that, the arrangement of commune-level administrative units has caused a sharp increase in the workload at the grassroots level. “Work pressure forces many officials to work overtime regularly, affecting service quality and long-term health. There needs to be a policy to arrange and supplement human resources commensurate with reality,” Mr. Hung proposed.

From a coordination perspective, Chief of Office of Hue City People's Committee Tran Huu Thuy Giang said: Every year, the Office receives and processes more than 50,000 incoming documents, advises on the issuance of about 23,000 documents of the People's Committee and 2,200 documents of the Office, ensuring compliance with legal regulations.

The Hue City People's Committee Office is also a pioneer in digital transformation, digital signature deployment, electronic interconnection, contributing to the construction of e-government and transparency of public activities. Currently, the city has provided more than 2,100 online public services, with the rate of on-time file processing reaching over 95%.

Many major projects such as "Adjusting the master plan of Hue City", "Building a city directly under the Central Government", "New urban and rural area improvement program" are all coordinated by the City People's Committee Office, ensuring the progress and legality of the documents.

Enhancing legal capacity

According to the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Hue City Nguyen Thanh Binh, Resolution No. 66-NQ/TW dated April 30, 2025 of the Politburo "on innovation in law-making and enforcement to meet the requirements of national development in the new era" has given local authorities the initiative in promulgating legal documents. Therefore, departments and branches need to promote a more creative and proactive role in building mechanisms, organizing implementation and evaluating policy effectiveness.

“More importantly, it is necessary to arrange a team of competent legal officials with professional knowledge and good application of technology to meet new management requirements,” Mr. Binh emphasized.

Sharing this view, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Hue City Nguyen Thi Suu said that the Central Government's decision to empower localities to issue normative documents in a number of decentralized areas is a bold step forward, but needs to be strictly controlled.

“However, to ensure effectiveness, three key factors must be ensured: Clear legal boundaries that do not contradict national law; independent review and supervision mechanisms with the participation of the Fatherland Front and supervisory agencies; and strong institutionalization and implementation capacity, with a well-trained legal team that understands the local context,” said Ms. Suu.

The city will continue to improve the process of drafting and promulgating legal documents, along with assessing policy impacts before submitting them for promulgation; expanding the application of information technology in document appraisal and inspection. Besides institutional factors, human resources are still the key point. The training and fostering of legal, judicial and civil status officials at the grassroots level will be focused on professionalism, technology application and better serving the people.

"We will recommend that the Government and ministries and branches soon issue specific instructions on decentralization and authorization in performing administrative tasks, ensuring timeliness and efficiency," said Director of the Department of Justice Nguyen Van Hung.

Article and photos: Le Tho

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/nang-tam-chat-luong-van-ban-quy-pham-phap-luat-159822.html