Hanoi (VNA) – Minister of JusticeLe Thanh Long fielded questions on measures to improve the progress and qualityof draft laws and legal documents at the ongoing 22nd session of the NationalAssembly (NA) Standing Committee in Hanoi on March 19.

He said since 2016, the Ministry of Justice(MoJ) has verified 718 documents, including 93 proposals and draft laws,ordinances and resolutions. Despite the big number of documents with many ofthem having new and complex content, the ministry has made efforts to ensurethe verification progress such as the proposals on the draft laws relating toplanning and the NA’s draft resolution on piloting special mechanisms and policiesfor the development of Ho Chi Minh City.

He admitted that the scope of some dratdocuments was not thoroughly considered, leading to the scrutiny of some billslike the draft revised law on denunciation and the draft revised law onanti-corruption expanded from two to three NA sessions. 

Meanwhile, some drafts were submitted todeputies, committees and the Council of Ethnic Affairs of the NA behindschedule. Although the verification quality has been gradually improved, thefeasibility of some policies and regulations in draft documents hasn’t receiveddue attention.

Long said ministries and sectors need to invest appropriate resources inlawmaking work while clarifying the responsibility of their leaders in ensuringthe progress and quality of draft documents.

Since the beginning of the 14th parliament inmid-2016, the Government, the Prime Minister, ministries and sectors haveissued 368 documents among the 481 needed-to-be-built documents stipulatingdetails of the promulgated laws.

The minister attributed the slow issuance ofthose documents to the big number of law contents that the Government, thePrime Minister, ministries and ministry-level agencies have to make detailregulations on. Meanwhile, many issues are new and complicated, leading to theprolonged drafting and promulgation of documents.

To address the problem, he said relevant partieshave to seriously adhere to the 2015 law on promulgation of legal documents.The drafting agencies should closely coordinate with the MoJ and NA agenciesfrom the law proposal to the drafting and amendment of draft laws, ordinancesand resolutions so as to concretise issues right in the drafts and not needmany more documents to detail them.

They should also report their document makingprogress to the Government and the Prime Minister so as to solve anydifficulties arising in a timely manner while publicising the progress on theGovernment portal, he added.-VNA