One of the issues concerning the majority of committee members is ‘denunciators' and ‘anonymous denunciations'.

Regarding ‘denunciators', the proponents agreed that denunciators should be individual citizens as regulated by the current Law on Complaints and Denunciations, whereas the opponents suggested denunciators should include organisations.

"The act of denunciation will give rise to legal consequences and personal responsibility, thus, denunciators should not be organisations," said Law Committee chairman Nguyen Van Thuan.

Meanwhile, the opponents argued that although the current Law on Complaints and Denunciations excluded organisations, they still acted as denunciators in many cases. The act would bring into full play the collective strength and would be an important source of information in the fight against corruption, the opponents said.

The Council of Nationalities President Ksor Phuoc said organisations exercising an act of denunciation should be encouraged, but the person who signs off on the denunciation should take the responsibility first.

In regard to anonymous denunciators, Deputy Chief Inspector Tran Duc Luong said the existence of a large amount of anonymous denunciations is due to the lack of effective plans to protect denunciators.

"To address this setback, the draft law has added a chapter about the protection of denunciators," he said.

The chapter states that denunciators have the right to have their privacy protected, and the right to require protection for their life, health, dignity, honour and job, whereas competent State agencies, particularly public security agencies should bear the responsibility and apply measures to protect denunciators and to deal with the violators of the denunciator protection regulations.

The draft Law on Denunciations contains nine chapters and 72 articles. Adjustments include the settlement of denunciations regarding violations by cadres and officials and law violations in State management by agencies, organisations and individuals.

Social Affairs Committee chairwoman Truong Thi Mai said new regulations should be added in case of emergencies, so those who receive denunciations could deal with the case promptly instead of in 15 days as stated by the draft law.

Collecting opinions

The National Assembly Standing Committee discussed the draft Capital Law during a session in the Ha Noi yesterday.

Justice Minister Ha Hung Cuong said the draft's creation was based on a review concerning the implementation of the Ordinance on Ha Noi Capital after nine years, studying foreign countries laws about the issue and collecting opinions from scientists, people and organisations.

Cuong said the draft had 12 new points compared with the ordinance.

The minister emphasised specific mechanisms and policies for the future development of the capital city in a number of areas, including not building new industrial zones, restricting schools and hospitals to specific areas, permitting the People's Council to regulate tolls for traffic vehicles and allowing the People's Committee (with the approval of the city People's Council) to issue legal documents to address arising issues that existing laws have not yet regulated.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee Nguyen Van Thuan said most mechanisms mentioned in the draft did not reflect Ha Noi's specific needs.

He cited such issues including urbanisation, environmental pollution and traffic congestion as problems that Ha Noi and other localities face. Some urban areas including HCM City were coping with more pressing problems, said Thuan.

He said the issuance of specific mechanisms and policies for the capital city must not be contrary to the constitution. Thuan also said an independent institution should not be created and the duties and responsibilities of the capital city and other cities and provinces should not be separated.

NA Economics Committee chairman Ha Van Hien agreed with Thuan.

He said specific mechanisms and policies for the future development of Ha Noi were not new compared with those of other localities.

Hien cited the capital's traffic problems as an example.

"I do not think that the capital city will be able to mitigate traffic jams if it imposes higher fines on violators," he said. "The problem needs many synthetic and comprehensive solutions."

But Hien agreed with a regulation that would restrict the expansion of schools, hospitals and residential areas in the inner city. He asked the compiling committee to specify if the capital city would be allowed to overspend its annual State budget to develop the capital city.

He said the Government should not consider increasing Ha Noi's budget indefinitely. Instead it should be defined as a temporary measure for a certain development period, he added.

National Assembly Vice Chairman Huynh Ngoc Son, NA Finance and Budget Committee Director Phung Quoc Hien and NA Social Affairs Committee Chairwoman Truong Thi Mai reached a consensus on the appraisal of the report from the NA Law Committee.

Mai, head of NA Ombudsman Committee Tran The Vuong and head of NA Deputies Affairs Pham Minh Tuyen recommended the draft focus on education, health and urban traffic development while ignoring policies that are not specific to the capital city.

Chairman of NA Culture, Education, Youth and Children Committee Dao Trong Thi said it was essential to work out a specific mechanism for the development of education in the capital city in an attempt to bring it on a par with that of other big cities in the region.

Yet Thi said this was a big issue and it would be difficult for Ha Noi to solve the problem by itself.

Addressing the session, NA chairman Nguyen Phu Trong said Capital Law was a difficult issue and the biggest difficulty was to find out what were the specific characteristics of Ha Noi and would regulate them into law.

Trong recommended that the draft should cover issues including expanding the capital and take into account unsolved issues such as population, environment and other social issues.-VNS