Continuing the program of the 20th session, on the followingnoon of February 14, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on a number of major issues with different opinions of the Civil Defense Law project.
Two options for the Civil Defense Fund
Reporting on a number of major issues with differing opinions of the bill, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for National Defense and Security Le Tan Toi said regarding the concept of “civil defense” (clause 1). opinions proposed to supplement in this Clause the content “minimizing loss of life and property, stabilizing people’s life, bringing socio-economic activities, ensuring national defense and security back to normal. return to normal” in order to fully institutionalize the Politburo’s Resolution No. 22/NQ-TW on civil defense by 2030 and the following years.
Standing Committee of National Defense and Security found that the concept of “civil defense” in the draft Law submitted by the Government inherited the provisions of Clause 1, Article 13 of the 2018 National Defense Law, and added the phrase ” overcome the consequences” before the word “war” to institutionalize Resolution No. 22/NQ-TW.
The above content has been codified in the provisions of the draft Law, which focuses on the principles of civil defense activities (Article 3), the State’s policies in civil defense (Article 4) and regulations on civil defense activities. regulations on activities to overcome consequences of incidents and disasters (Section 4, Chapter II).
Therefore, in order to ensure the generality and consistency in the legal system, the Standing Committee of National Defense and Security proposed to keep the concept of civil defense as the draft Government submitted.
About Civil Defense Fund (Article 44), there are two types of opinions. The first type of opinion, it is suggested to keep as the draft Government Law submitted, because it is said that civil defense activities have a very wide scope, related to many areas of social life, dealing with important issues. of national importance in relation to war prevention, combat and remediation; prevent, combat and overcome consequences of disasters, incidents, natural disasters and epidemics; protect the people, agencies, organizations and the national economy.
[Thảo luận Luật Phòng thủ dân sự: Đánh giá mức độ thảm họa, sự cố]
Funds are implemented on a voluntary basis, not mandatory; used in the condition that the State budget does not meet the needs in a timely manner, while the financial and resource requirements when incidents or disasters occur are very large and urgent to contribute to limiting the impact of the disaster. disaster, disaster. Currently, there are many types of incidents that do not currently have funds to use when they occur.
The second type of opinion proposes that this regulation be abolished for the following reasons: Annually, the regular budget has been arranged, including budget estimates and reserve sources to carry out spending tasks for natural disaster prevention and control, pandemic…
The expenditure tasks of the Civil Defense Fund may in some cases coincide with the expenditure tasks of the State budget. The efficiency of this Fund is not high because when a disaster occurs, it will require a large amount of funds, so if the balance is small, it will not meet the requirements, if the balance is large, it will be wasted because it is not used regularly. Remedial work is still mainly the state budget.
Besides, the Fund’s revenue is only regulated by other funds, which is not appropriate. The formation of the Civil Defense Fund will lead to the termination of the existence of the Disaster Prevention and Control Fund and the Epidemic Prevention and Control Fund, while the nature of these two funds is different. Therefore, the establishment of the Fund is unnecessary and inconsistent with the Law on State Budget and regulations on operation of non-budget financial funds.
Head of the Delegate Work Department under the Standing Committee of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh presented the report. (Photo: Doan Tan/VNA)The drafting agency agreed with the first opinion and proposed to keep the regulations as the draft Government submitted, with some adjustments to be made. Meanwhile, the majority of opinions in Standing Defense and Security Committee it is proposed not to stipulate the Civil Defense Fund, but to design a plan to form the fund in case it is really necessary.
Standing Committee develops two options for opinions National Assembly Standing Committee. Specifically, option 1: Keep the provisions on the Civil Defense Fund as the draft Government submits (at point b, clause 2, Article 43 and Article 44).
Option 2: Remove Article 44 of the draft Law submitted by the Government (Civil Defense Fund) and amend Point b, Clause 2, Article 43 (Finance, forces, means and reserves for civil defense) to “In case of In urgent cases, the Prime Minister shall decide to establish a fund in accordance with law to manage and use funding, support and voluntary contributions in money and assets of domestic organizations and individuals. and abroad and other lawful sources for activities of preventing, combating and overcoming consequences of disasters and incidents.”
This modification comes from the experience of establishing the Vaccine Fund over the past time, demonstrating the flexibility in timely mobilizing resources for especially urgent situations.
Ensure openness and transparency
Speaking at the meeting, Head of the Delegate Work Committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee Nguyen Thi Thanh assessed that compared to the first version, this draft Law has made a great progress in terms of content; stricter regulations, higher quality.
The drafting committee and the verifying agency actively absorbed the comments, especially on the civil defense level.
Regarding the content related to the Civil Defense Fund, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh said that the management and use of the Fund in practice appeared obstacles, inadequacies and overlaps. However, the actual need shows that it is necessary to have this Fund. Therefore, it is necessary to design a plan to combine the contents of option 1 and option 2, provide appropriate regulations, and ensure that this Fund is effectively managed and used, meeting the actual requirements. economic set.
Chairman of the Law Committee of the National Assembly Hoang Thanh Tung said that according to the plan proposed by the Government, it would not be suitable with the Law on State Budget, because the annual regular budget has been arranged including both budget estimates and sources. reserve sources to carry out spending tasks for prevention and control of natural disasters, epidemics, etc. The expenditure tasks of the Civil Defense Fund in some cases may coincide with the expenditure tasks of the state budget.
Standing Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man delivered a speech. (Photo: Doan Tan/VNA)The Chairman of the Law Committee expressed support for the option: in urgent cases, the Government establishes a fund according to its competence.
Standing Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man stated that, under any plan, funds are needed to carry out civil defense. However, the issue of concern to delegates is how to be transparent and public in the use of funds.
Explaining at the meeting, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Tan Cuong, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army, Deputy Minister of National Defense emphasized that the establishment of a Civil Defense Fund is necessary, in accordance with Resolution No. 22 /NQ-TW of The political.
“Civil defense activities have a very wide scope, involving many areas of social life. Once an incident or disaster has occurred, it has a huge impact. Therefore, if resources are available, In our hands, when an incident or disaster occurs, we can use it immediately to solve the immediate urgent problem,” said Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Tan Cuong.
Phan Phuong (VNA/Vietnam+)
