Brian Jeffrey
Nguyen Van Thuan, the ex-Chairman of the National Assembly’s Legal Committee, raised concerns about current administrative practices, questioning why the Minister needs to report matters like Tet holidays, summer vacations, and school exam schedules to the Prime Minister. He pointedly asked about the true role of the Minister in this context.
This topic was brought up during a scientific workshop focused on decentralization and optimizing administrative frameworks, co-hosted by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Vietnam Administrative Sciences Association.
Former Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly Phung Quoc Hien opined that decentralization should operate vertically rather than horizontally, stressing that it must come with the devolution of authority. Effective decentralization can simplify administrative systems and improve governance.
Hien pointed out that key areas needing delegation include policy-making, human resource organization, financial management, and executive functions.
While he acknowledged the critical connection between decentralization and accountability, with increased power comes increased responsibility, he warned against weak internal controls, which he described as the ‘most vulnerable point’ in Vietnam’s governance framework.
Nguyen Van Thuan reiterated that too many decisions are being directed to the Prime Minister that should rightly belong to the relevant Ministers, who are responsible for their respective sectors.
He referenced the 1992 Constitution and the Law on Government Organization that established nine matters requiring collective decision-making, clarifying that all other areas fell under Ministers’ jurisdiction. Ministers were intended to regulate and manage their portfolios effectively.
However, he expressed concern that enforcing decisions often relies on inter-ministerial circulars.
“For example, during Vu Van Ninh’s term as Finance Minister, I opposed the need for these circulars. Ninh acknowledged that the directives from the Ministry of Finance would not be adhered to without them,” Thuan commented, criticizing the lack of cooperation across ministries.
He concluded, “Currently, we see situations where Ministers must report trivialities like Tet holidays and school schedules to the Prime Minister. What then is the point of having Ministers?”
Thuan outlined three categories of decentralization:
Centralized Control: This includes defense, foreign affairs, and national security, which remain under central oversight.
Shared Authority: This category involves land, resources, and environmental management requiring both central and local participation.
Local Autonomy: Remaining matters are handled at the local level.
Thuan referenced the management of agricultural land, cautioning that too much local power resulted in significant corruption and the imprisonment of officials. He also addressed the rise of universities under local governance, which has led to inefficiencies compared to when higher education was centrally managed.
“Specificity in decentralization is crucial, rather than leaving broad decisions to Ministers for contemplation and proposals to the Prime Minister,” Thuan emphasized.
Cao Duc Phat, the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, shared his experiences with centralized financial processes that hindered effective crisis response during his leadership.
“In times of outbreaks requiring vaccines, I faced scrutiny, although the vaccines were under the Ministry of Finance’s national reserve. The paperwork took weeks, by which time the outbreak had already escalated,” he recounted.
He also noted that existing regulations restrict a Minister’s spending power to VND 1 billion, necessitating approval from the Finance Ministry for even minor expenditures.
Phat criticized the overlapping roles among ministries, using dairy production as an example:
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD): Manages livestock.
Ministry of Industry and Trade: Oversees processing and pricing.
Ministry of Health: Regulates the safety of milk products.
“Despite multiple layers of oversight, issues persist,” Phat concluded.
Thu Hang
