Examining of the project on Ordinance on Sanctions of Administrative Violations in State Auditing
On December 22, 2022, the Law Committee of the National Assembly held the 10th plenary session to examine the project of the Ordinance on Sanctions of Administrative Violations in the field of state auditing. Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee Hoang Thanh Tung chaired the session.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Chairmen of the Legislative Committee of the National Assembly; Standing members and specialist members; members of the National Assembly's Legistlative Committee, representatives of the National Assembly's Economic Committee, the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee, representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice and the State Audit Office of Viet Nam (SAV). Deputy Auditor General Dang The Vinh presented the report. .
Delegated by the Auditor Genenral, in presenting the report on the project of Ordinance on Sanctions of Administrative Violations in State Auditing (the Ordinance), Deputy Auditor General Dang The Vinh stated that the Ordinance was based on legal ground, including amendments to the Law on Handling Administrative Violations and amendments to the Law on State Audit.
In practice, after three years of operation, the scale and activities of SAV have been continuously improving and harmonizing. However, in reality, the incidence of violations in the State Auditing has been increasing and has a specific nature, but so far, there has not been a suitable legal framework to handle these violations. Moreover, as there is no specific sanctions for violations in state auditing at the administrative level since the Law on State Audit took effect, there has been no competent authority to handle such violation.
The Ordinance was constructed to strictly enforce the law, promptly detect and strictly handle any law violations, including in the field of state auditing. All administrative violations must be promptly detected and immediately suspended; the sanctioning of administrative violations must be carried out quickly, fairly and thoroughly; all consequences of administrative violations must be remedied in accordance with regulations.
Regarding the structure of the project, the Ordinance consists of 5 Chapters and 17 Articles, regulating: Administrative violations, sanctioning forms, sanctioning levels and remedial measures; the authority to issue minutes, the authority to sanction and the application of remedial measures in the field of state audit; Procedures for sanctioning and enforcement of decisions on sanctioning of administrative violations and coercive enforcement of sanctioning decisions and Implementation provisions.
Regarding the basic contents of the Ordinance, the Deputy Auditor General said that the subjects sanctioned for administrative violations were not all organizations and individuals, but only focused on audited units; organizations and individuals belonging to the audited unit; agencies, organizations and individuals related to SAV activities in accordance with SAV’s Law and other organizations and individuals.
Regarding sanctioning forms and remedial measures, the draft Ordinance stipulates that for each act of administrative violation in the field of state audit, violating individuals and organizations must bear one of the following administrative sanctions, including a warning, or a fine. Corrective measures include compulsory correction of information, documents and data with false, inaccurate or dishonest content; forced restitution of the illegal profits obtained from committing administrative violations in the state audit activities.
Delegated by the Auditor Genenral, in presenting the report on the project of Ordinance on Sanctions of Administrative Violations in State Auditing (the Ordinance), Deputy Auditor General Dang The Vinh stated that the Ordinance was based on legal ground, including amendments to the Law on Handling Administrative Violations and amendments to the Law on State Audit.
In practice, after three years of operation, the scale and activities of SAV have been continuously improving and harmonizing. However, in reality, the incidence of violations in the State Auditing has been increasing and has a specific nature, but so far, there has not been a suitable legal framework to handle these violations. Moreover, as there is no specific sanctions for violations in state auditing at the administrative level since the Law on State Audit took effect, there has been no competent authority to handle such violation.
The Ordinance was constructed to strictly enforce the law, promptly detect and strictly handle any law violations, including in the field of state auditing. All administrative violations must be promptly detected and immediately suspended; the sanctioning of administrative violations must be carried out quickly, fairly and thoroughly; all consequences of administrative violations must be remedied in accordance with regulations.
Regarding the structure of the project, the Ordinance consists of 5 Chapters and 17 Articles, regulating: Administrative violations, sanctioning forms, sanctioning levels and remedial measures; the authority to issue minutes, the authority to sanction and the application of remedial measures in the field of state audit; Procedures for sanctioning and enforcement of decisions on sanctioning of administrative violations and coercive enforcement of sanctioning decisions and Implementation provisions.
Regarding the basic contents of the Ordinance, the Deputy Auditor General said that the subjects sanctioned for administrative violations were not all organizations and individuals, but only focused on audited units; organizations and individuals belonging to the audited unit; agencies, organizations and individuals related to SAV activities in accordance with SAV’s Law and other organizations and individuals.
Regarding sanctioning forms and remedial measures, the draft Ordinance stipulates that for each act of administrative violation in the field of state audit, violating individuals and organizations must bear one of the following administrative sanctions, including a warning, or a fine. Corrective measures include compulsory correction of information, documents and data with false, inaccurate or dishonest content; forced restitution of the illegal profits obtained from committing administrative violations in the state audit activities.
Overview of the session
Pursuant to the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations, the maximum fine level in the field of state audit is VND 50 million (for individuals) and VND 100 million (for organizations). This is the basis for stipulating the fine frame for administrative violations, the competence to sanction administrative violations of each position with sanctioning competence. “SAV has built a penalty frame in increasing order from low (mild) to high (severe) based on the principle of ensuring a high level of deterrence and the strictness of the law, affirming the feasibility, the level of legal education and the reasonableness of the application of the form and the fine level" – Deputy Auditor General Dang The Vinh said.
Regarding the competence and procedures for administrative violation record, the draft Ordinance regulates the authority to establish the administrative violation record in the field of state auditing, including: State auditors, Head of Audit Team, Head of Audit Division, Audit Manager.
On behalf of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Law, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee Nguyen Truong Giang presented a research report on the examining of the draft Ordinance on Sanctions of Administrative Violations in the field of state auditing.
Accordingly, the Standing Committee of the Law Committee agreed on the necessity of promulgating the Ordinance as stated in the Report. As this is the first time the regulations on administrative violations in the field of state audit have been established, the Standing Committee of the Law Committee has unified the views on punishment for clearly defined, frequently occurring, and widespread violations to ensure feasibility.
Regarding the subjects to be sanctioned, the Standing Committee of the Law Committee of the National Assembly is in agreement with the draft Ordinance; at the same time, it excludes the sanctioning of cases involving cadres, civil servants in general and in the people's army, police personnel, and those performing essential duties. The Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Law Committee also proposed the State Audit to study and clarify whether there are penalties for administrative viloations of government agencies, socio-political organizations, socio-political professional organizations since these agencies and organizations perform tasks assigned by the Party and State but they do not perform State management tasks. Standing committee of the National Assembly's Law Committee believed that these agencies and organizations should also be excluded from sanction.
Examining the sanctioning forms and remedial measures, the Standing Committee of the Law Committee of the National Assembly agreed on two forms of sanction (warning and fine) and two remedial measures (forcible correction of the information and forcible return of illegal profits). However, it is proposed to clarify the remedial measures of compulsory correction information, in which SAV needs to publish information on the mass media and electronic information sites in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations.
Examining the content of sanctioning administrative violations, the Standing Committee of the Law Committee of the National Assembly requested SAV to clarify its competence to set the time limit for sending financial statements to ensure the feasibility of the regulation.
Regarding the reporting and providing information, the Standing Law Committee believed that the act of "incomplete, not timely or impartial reporting" with the act of "false and dishonest reporting" have different nature and severity, therefore, grouping them into one group with the same fine is not really reasonable. The Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Law Committee proposed further study of these regulations, ensuring the appropriateness between the nature and severity of violations and the fine levels.
After listening to the proposal and the examining report, the delegates discussed the necessity and specific contents of the draft Ordinance. The delegates agreed with the opinion of the Standing Law Committee and requested SAV to report more clearly on the status of administrative violations and handle administrative violations in the field of state auditing, which acts and violations bring commonality and their frequent occurrence, who mainly implements and the degree of influence on the operation of SAV.
Concluding the session, Chairman of the Legal Committee Hoang Thanh Tung stated that the delegates highly appreciated the positive and urgent spirit of SAV in coordinating with relevant agencies to develop the draft Ordinance. This is a step to enhance discipline and rigor in SAV's activities. The basic opinions agree with the report, and at the same time suggest: Clarifying the principles of determining the subject to be sanctioned, the boundary between administrative handling and criminal handling; Specifying violations; Reviewing remedial solutions; Clarifying the sanctioning competence of titles in SAV; Order and procedures for complaints.
Chairman of the Legal Committee Hoang Thanh Tung suggested that, on the basis of receiving opinions expressed at the session, SAV should urgently complete the documents and the Standing Committee of the Law Committee complete the examining report to submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee in January 2023./.
