Advisory Activities to Assist Heads of Administrative Agencies at the Same Level in Resolving Complaints

Provide directions and solutions to improve efficiency and put public reception work into order.

However, objectively, the work of synthesizing, reporting on the situation and results of handling complaints; summarizing and drawing lessons from the work of handling complaints by Administrative Inspectorates at all levels in the past still has certain shortcomings: the implementation is not regular and continuous in many places, sometimes it is formal, not specific, not meeting the requirements for leadership and direction; mainly summarizing only when preparing to amend, supplement and perfect the law on complaints, especially there are no specialized summaries in each specific field. Therefore, in the coming time, Administrative Inspectorates at all levels need to innovate and further improve the quality of this work.

In short, state management of complaint settlement is one of the important tasks of administrative inspection agencies at all levels. State management of complaint settlement is a process consisting of many different contents and activities that have a dialectical relationship and impact on each other. Through the implementation of this work, it contributes to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of complaint settlement, affirming the positive role of administrative inspection, and is a measure to ensure the rule of law, discipline and the rights and legitimate interests of individuals, agencies and organizations.

2.2.2. Advisory activities to assist the Head of the administrative agency at the same level in resolving complaints

Maybe you are interested!

To carry out their advisory duties, administrative inspection agencies at all levels have annually carried out various activities. The Prime Minister issued Official Dispatch No. 1435/CP-V.II dated October 23, 2003, assigning the State Inspector General, Heads of ministries, branches and Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities to review, classify and inspect complicated and pending cases in order to take measures to handle and resolve them completely. Inspection

The Government has conducted inspections, verifications, and conclusions to submit to the Prime Minister for direction to ministries, branches, and localities for specific solutions. Most of these cases are complicated, pending, fierce, and prolonged, involving many localities and many areas of state management. The Government Inspectorate has worked with the Party Committees and authorities of provinces and cities with many complicated, crowded, and prolonged complaints to agree on specific policies and measures to resolve them, in order to contribute to stabilizing the situation in the locality.

Faced with the urgent situation of complaints, the Government Inspectorate has annually advised the Prime Minister to establish inter-sectoral working groups, with the Government Inspectorate as a key component, to inspect and urge the settlement of complaints in key localities. Next, the Government Inspectorate has advised the Government to instruct the remaining provinces and centrally-run cities to establish local inter-sectoral working groups to operate as a mechanism of the central working group to inspect and urge the settlement of urgent complaints in localities.

The deployment of the Central Working Groups has, first of all, had the effect of promoting and raising awareness and responsibility of local leaders for the work of resolving complaints. Previously, many leaders of Party committees and authorities had not really taken part in resolving complaints, often assigning them to competent agencies to resolve, resulting in low effectiveness, causing the situation of complaints to not end, but to prolong and intensify. Now, Party committees and authorities at all levels have really taken part, many comrades have directly directed or specifically assigned each leader to directly consider and resolve major and urgent cases. At the same time, Party committees and authorities at all levels have mobilized a large number of cadres at all levels and sectors to participate in the work of resolving complaints and establishing

The local working delegations are responsible for urging and inspecting subordinates and coordinating with the Central Working Group to resolve complicated cases. It can be said that the entire Party, Government and Mass Organization apparatus at the local level has made positive moves to effectively resolve people's complaints. The people in the localities have welcomed and paid great attention to the results of the working delegations' activities. Through the inspections, the Working Groups have promptly commended places that have done well, pointed out weaknesses, handled individuals and organizations that have violated, and restored the legitimate rights and interests of citizens who have been violated. Thereby, creating people's trust in the local Party committees and authorities, improving the effectiveness of complaint resolution. Regarding local issues related to policies, they are studied, discussed, and recommended to the Prime Minister for handling or recommending policy supplements and amendments. Through the actual activities of the Central Inter-sectoral Working Groups, it can be seen that the policy and decision of the Prime Minister to establish working groups to work with localities to resolve the current urgent complaints and petitions is a correct policy, in line with the people's wishes. This is an opportunity for citizens to contact and have open and frank dialogue with the Central Working Group and the heads of local authorities, demonstrating the close relationship between the authorities at all levels and the people. This is also a measure in the direction and administration of the Government and the Prime Minister on the work of resolving complaints. This has created valuable experiences for localities to apply to resolve similar cases. However, there are also different opinions on the activities of the Central Inter-sectoral Working Groups. Some opinions say that: because of the Working Groups, people gather in large numbers and send many petitions, causing the number of petitions to increase, without seeing the complicated problems that are hidden within the people, which if not resolved well can easily become complicated "hot spots"; some also say that local petitions should be left to

Local authorities resolve, the Central Government resolves is to replace the local authorities, neutralize the local government, etc. The above opinions, according to the author, are one-sided, do not view the problem comprehensively, do not see all the potential complications and importance of complaint settlement work. In State management, the superiors conducting inspections of subordinates, handling on-site cases under the authority of the subordinates is in line with their responsibilities, is a necessary work, must be organized regularly, not only in the work of resolving complaints but also must regularly inspect all aspects of the work of the lower authorities. Through this inspection work, the superiors will have a firmer grasp of the situation and work of the lower authorities, from which they can have appropriate and flexible direction and management measures, improving the effectiveness of State management. From the results of the activities of the Working Groups, it has been affirmed that the role and responsibility of localities in the work of resolving complaints is very important, the Government Working Group cannot do the work of the localities. Cases under the Central Government's jurisdiction, if based solely on reports from subordinates, can easily lead to bureaucracy, administrativeism, and lack of reality. With its responsibility, the Government Working Group has the task of determining whether the localities are doing right or wrong. The Central Working Group goes to the localities to work with the localities to resolve on-site the complexities arising in state administrative management, which will further enhance the prestige and effectiveness of the Government and local authorities towards the people. This way of doing things partially overcomes the bureaucratic situation, and the resolution is quick, practical, and needs to be promoted. And in fact, with this way of doing things, many cases in the localities have been resolved relatively well. However, the main responsibility for resolving people's complaints still belongs to the localities.

At the local level, administrative inspection agencies at all levels have also done a good job of advising leaders at the same level to review, conclude, and effectively resolve many complaints and hot spots in the localities.

At that time, we proactively discussed with organizations (Fatherland Front, Farmers' Association, Veterans' Association, Women's Union, Youth Union) to strengthen coordination with local authorities to organize reconciliation and successfully reconciled many disputes among the people or new complaints arising at the grassroots level.

Through practical monitoring, it is shown that in the majority of complaints that administrative agencies have resolved, administrative inspection agencies at all levels are in charge of consulting, accounting for a large proportion of about 80%. In some large provinces and cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Nghe An, etc., inspection consulting accounts for about 85% of cases, while in the Northern Delta provinces it accounts for about 80% of cases, and in the Southern provinces it accounts for about 80% because there, complaints are mainly related to land issues, and in addition to inspection agencies, there are also land management agencies and other relevant agencies and organizations that coordinate to advise administrative agencies at the same level to consider and resolve [45] .

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the advisory work of administrative inspection agencies at all levels in handling complaints, it is necessary to look at the results of handling complaints by administrative agencies in the past. At the same time, when studying the results of handling complaints, there is an emerging feature which is the confusion and close connection between complaints and denunciations in cases where the handling of them is difficult to distinguish and implement separately as per current law. Therefore, when considering the results of handling complaints by administrative agencies at all levels, this issue needs to be considered from the general perspective of the situation.

From 1999 to 2004, state administrative agencies at all levels received 614,177 cases under their jurisdiction and resolved 513,409 cases. Through the work of resolving complaints and denunciations in general, the State recovered 145 billion 828 million 500 thousand VND, 6,646.8 hectares of land, 10,372.4 tons of food; returned

returned to the collective and citizens 155 billion 806.3 million VND, 4,619.3 hectares of land, 26,764.3 tons of food; administratively disciplined 7,519 people, transferred 155 cases with 274 people to the investigation agency [17] .

In 2005, administrative agencies at all levels received 70,758 schools.

Complaints under the authority of settlement were 60,519 cases, reaching a rate of 85.5%. Through the work of settling complaints and denunciations in general, 32 billion 285 million VND, 195.72 hectares of land, 26,764.3 tons of food were recovered for citizens; 1,096 people were administratively disciplined, 29 cases with 100 people were transferred to the investigation agency [28] .

In 2006, 65,372 complaints were received under its jurisdiction.

54,504 cases were resolved, reaching a rate of 83.3%. Through the work of resolving complaints and denunciations in general, 52 billion 329 million VND and 461.3 hectares of land were recovered for the State, collectives and citizens. Analysis of the results of resolving 27,667 complaints showed that 10,798 complaints were correct (accounting for 39%); 6,326 complaints were correct and incorrect (accounting for 22.9%) and 10,552 complaints were incorrect (accounting for 38.1%). The results of resolving complaints showed that most of the people's complaints were well-founded. This shows that state management, especially in the field of land management, still has many shortcomings, and the process of implementing state management tasks has not yet ensured the rights and legitimate interests of citizens [30].

In addition to performing its state management functions, the Government Inspectorate has directly examined and resolved, within its authority, cases assigned by the Prime Minister. In 2006, the Government Inspectorate examined and verified 83 complicated complaints and denunciations assigned by the Prime Minister.

In the first quarter of 2007, administrative agencies at all levels resolved 12,685/18,596 complaints and denunciations under their authority, reaching 68.2% (the resolution rate was low because this was the beginning of the year, many cases were still in the process of petitioning and reflecting). The results of the resolution were returned to the state.

Collectively and return to citizens 5,718 billion VND, 139,884m2 of various types of land; recommend and administratively discipline 27 people. [31]

2.2.3 Citizen reception work

In the recent past, in order to carry out their assigned tasks, administrative inspection agencies at all levels have carried out many activities to organize citizen reception and complaints. The Government Inspectorate has issued a number of documents to direct and guide local inspectorates, ministries, branches, and People's Committees at all levels to organize specific activities to receive citizens. Local inspectorates advise authorities at all levels to issue regulations and rules for citizen reception in accordance with local conditions.

The Government Inspectorate coordinates with relevant agencies and organizations to improve the organization, arrange competent staff, and equip working machines and means for the citizen reception offices of the Central Party and State in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. According to regulations, the citizen reception offices of the Central Party and State regularly have representatives of the following agencies: the Central Party Office, the National Assembly Office, the Government Office, the Central Inspection Committee, and the Government Inspectorate regularly receive citizens who come to make complaints, recommendations, and reflections. According to statistics from 2001 to 2004, the citizen reception offices of the Central Party and State in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City received 70,315 people and 1,758 large groups of people making complaints to the Central [ 34]. In 2004, the Central Party and State Citizen Reception Office in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City received 11,232 (an increase of 3.25%) compared to 2003 [18]. In 2005, the Citizen Reception Office received 14,178 people and 309 large groups. [29]

In 2006, at the Citizen Reception Office of the Central Party and State in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the Government Inspectorate's citizen reception and petition processing staff coordinated with the staff of the Office agencies.

The Central Committee, the Central Inspection Committee, the National Assembly Office, and the Government Office received 24,199 people (an increase of 31.1% compared to 2005) coming to file complaints with 10,553 cases and 554 large groups (an increase of 31.9% compared to 2005). Implementing the Inspector General's direction on mass complaints, the Department of Citizen Reception and Petition Handling invited leaders of the Government Inspectorate to receive them (such as complaints from citizens of Lai Vu commune, Hai Duong province; citizens of Phung Cong, Xuan Quan, Cuu Cao communes, Van Giang district, Hung Yen province; Te Lo commune, Vinh Phuc province, and dozens of individual cases of complaints that lasted for many days when the complainants were present in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City). After receiving, the Department has a document submitted to the leaders to respond to citizens or request the locality to consider and resolve according to its authority. The number of staff is small, the work of receiving citizens and handling petitions during the year is under great pressure, but the Department of Reception and Handling of Petitions still takes time, gathers capable and experienced people to coordinate with Central agencies (Central Office, Central Inspection Committee, National Assembly Office, Government Office) to establish Working Groups of the Citizen Reception Office to inspect and urge localities with many cases of mass complaints to the Central Government such as: Hung Yen, Vinh Phuc, Tay Ninh, Dong Thap, Long An, Hai Duong, Ha Tay, Ninh Binh, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Vinh Phuc, Binh Phuoc, Vinh Long. As a result, many cases have been directed by local leaders to be resolved urgently and in accordance with policies and laws, ending complaints. In addition to coordinating with central agencies, the Department also proactively proposed to the Government Inspectorate leaders to establish working groups to review complaints about final settlement decisions in a number of provinces; at the same time, chaired 3 review working groups in localities such as Hanoi, Hai Phong, Bac Lieu and Kien Giang. Through the review, it advised localities to consider re-settlement or cancel illegal settlement decisions, protecting legitimate rights and interests.

Comment