The Ministry of Justice recommended changing or removing 143 administrative procedures over the last three months, chief secretariat and spokesman of the ministry Tran Tien Dung said yesterday at a press conference.

He said the unqualified administrative procedures made up more than 76 per cent of those submitted to the ministry for assessment.

The ministry also examined 864 legal documents during the period, including 165 documents from ministries and ministry-line agencies, and 699 from localities. It found that 62 of the 864 legal documents violated content regulations.

The ministry received 530,900 cases on the enforcement of the Civil Code from October 2014 to March 2015 – 3.34 per cent more than the same period last year. Of those, they solved more than 214,000 cases. The amount solved increased 1.78 per cent over last year.

A ministry spokesman said the ministry expected to submit drafts of the revised Civil Code, revised Penal Code, Law on Auction and Law on Administrative Decisions.

Dung said the ministry proposed limiting the scope of capital punishment, reducing charges subject to prison sentences and expanding the application of non-custodial reforms.

The public has shown concern over the proposal, as some charges requiring a death sentence would be changed to life in prison – corruption, for example.

Nguyen Van Dung, deputy director of the ministry's Department of Criminal and Administrative Law, said reducing capital punishment was a trend in the legal reform process.

Some people didn't agree with a section of the proposal that said corrupt officials would escape their death sentence if they returned at least half of the money stolen, he said.

"We should not use the regulation as a way to save rich people," Dung said. "The State collected missing money from about 10 per cent of corruption cases, a low rate." 

VNS