Hanoi (VNA) – The numberof petitions and denunciations in 2018 increased by 11.8 percent compared tolast year and the number of cases rose by 4.7 percent, said the Government’s reporton the settlement of complaints and petitions delivered by Inspector General LeMinh Khai to the National Assembly in the morning of November 14.

The chief inspector said mostpetition cases involving large number of petitioners were related to land,noting that some hostile forces took advantage of petition cases to incitepeople to join in mass gatherings or extremist acts, thus disturbing socialorder and causing negative psychological impacts on the public.

Explaining the causes of thesituation, Khai pointed to outstanding shortcomings and mistakes in Statemanagement and law enforcement work, particularly in the planning of land use,the reclamation, allocation and lease of land.

The inspector general also notedthat the heads of administrative agencies in some localities had failed to obeythe regulations on receiving citizens and handling petitions and denunciations.

At the same time, a number ofpetitioners have low respect for law or lack knowledge about law, thus making unreasonabledemands or continuing to make petition despite appropriate settlement.

According to the government’sreport, administrative agencies have settled 27,580 cases of denunciation andpetition within their jurisdiction, or 83.7 percent of the total cases, thusensuring the rights and interests of 1,800 collectives and individuals. Theagencies transferred nine cases to the investigation police, and requested actionsto deal with violations by 462 individuals.  

The Government Inspectorate andinspection agencies of ministries, sectors and localities conducted more than1,300 inspections this year, and detected violations of regulations in 533units.

The inspections revealed severalproblems in citizen reception and petition settlement work, the report said,citing as examples the poor implementation of the law on reception of citizensand the slow and ineffective settlement of petitions in some localities. Itnoted that there remains the evasion of responsibility in dealing withpetitions and complaints, particularly complicated cases.

An evaluation of the Government’sreport made by the NA Committee for Legal Affairs confirmed the statistics andassessments, but added that the report did not break down the numbers ofpetition cases in each sector such as social insurance, tax, customs and civilverdict enforcement. The report also failed to analyse the settlement ofprolonged and complicated petition cases as well as the development trend ofcases involving large numbers of people, including those with signs of involvementof hostile forces.

The NA committee also noted theemergence of complicated petitions in economic and civil fields such as thecollection of tolls at roads built in the form of BOT, disputes betweenresidents and investors in high-rise housing projects, and between banks andcustomers.

The NA committee said theGovernment report needs to make deeper analysis of the increase of petitions,and the quality and effectiveness of citizen reception work. It pointed to thefact that some top officials still delegate the responsibility of receivingcitizens to their deputies, and fail to combine citizen reception with thesettlement of petitions, which made citizens not trust the settlement made by authorizedagencies and continue to appeal to agencies at higher levels.

The committee asked theGovernment to early promulgate a decree stipulating in details theimplementation of the 2018 Law on Denunciations so as to meet the date the lawtakes effect on January 1, 2019.-VNA