The discussion of the draft Law on Denunciations (revised) on May 24 as part of the 5th session of the 14th National Assembly saw different views on such forms of denunciations as via telephone or email. 

Head of the National Assembly's Law Committee Nguyen Khac Dinh delivers a report summarising ideas on the draft Law on Denunciations (revised) at the NA's fifth session 

While agreeing that it is an urgent need to adopt the law, many disagreed over whether to accept denunciations through phone calls or emails. 

The deputies who support the expansion of forms of denunciation to fax, email and phone calls pointed out that the use of information technology has become common in most areas of social life and in State management. They noted that many denunciations of wrongdoings by government officials, public employees and State agencies by means of social networks or other electronic forms, though yet to be officially recognised, have greatly contributed to the fight against corruption, crime and other law violations. 

Meanwhile, those who insist that only two forms of denunciation – in written form and in person – as stipulated in the current law, argued that if other forms of denunciation are allowed, it may result in rampant and inaccurate denunciation, causing difficulties to State agencies in processing the denunciations and dealing with denunciators who provide wrong information. 

 Deputy Nguyen Thanh Thuy of Hau Giang province cited the report on the implementation of the current Law on Denunciations, which showed more than 60 percent of received denunciations were inaccurate, 20 percent contained both wrong and right information and only more than 10 percent were accurate. Thus the deputy said allowing other forms of denunciation will make it difficult to control and handle all the denunciations. 

 However, deputy Nguyen Huu Cau of Nghe An province cited Clause 1 of Article 15 of the 2005 Law on Corruption Fight and Prevention, which allows reports of corruption by phone, online and other forms as stipulated by law. 

“The National Assembly has allowed such forms of denunciation for 13 years, so why should we leave out them in the draft law,” he asked, adding that we should not avoid something just because it causes difficulties to State agencies. 

Another issue that drew great attention during the discussion was the rights and duties of denunciators and officials in charge of handling denunciation. 

Deputy Nguyen Van Man of Quang Binh province suggested that there should be punishment on officials who showed irresponsibility or handled denunciations against the law which resulted in material loss or harm the mental health and honour of the denunciator. 

Many opinions agreed with the draft law which stipulates in Clause 1 of Article 48 that not only the denunciators but also their spouses, parents and parents in law, adoptive parents, own children and adoptive children are subject to protection under the law.

Lawmakers emphasises need for measures to protect denunciators

Deputies join discussions at the 14th National Assembly’s fifth session on May 24 

Lawmakers stressed the need to protect denunciators and their kin on the sidelines of the 14th National Assembly’s fifth session which discussed several contentious points of the draft Law on Denunciation (revised) on May 24.

Many deputies noted an outstanding feature of the revised draft law is to contain more specific regulations on the protection of accusers. It has three groups of protection measures: personal information; life, health, assets, honour, dignity, prestige and other personal rights; and working positions and jobs of accusers.

Deputy Luu Binh Nhuong from the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre suggested that the legislature should collect recommendations of people, especially those involved in denunciations, in order to propose forms and scales of protection. The concept of kin subject to protection should be based on the definition as regulated in the Civil Code.

According to Nhuong, denunciation cases must be classified, so that specific protection measures are carried out for serious cases with possible threats to the denunciators.

Sharing the same view, deputy Nguyen Thanh Hai from northern Hoa Binh province said that the draft law has extended the subject to protection to include people with certain relationship with the denunciator. .

According to him, the subject of protection should be proposed by the denunciator and be limited to a certain scale as the issue is related to financial and human resources to carry out the work. 

In terms of denunciation forms, there remain different ideas on the expansion of denunciation forms.

Deputy Bui Van Xuyen from northern Thai Binh province emphasised the need to regulate only two forms of denunciation, through written petitions or face-to-face forms in the current stage. He noted that at present, only 15-20 percent of denunciations are accurate, while 60 percent of denunciations are wrong, and the remaining contain both right and wrong information.

If denunciation forms are expanded, the agencies handling denunciations will have to deal with too many issues and face a lot of difficulties, which can affect the law’s feasibility, he added.

Meanwhile, several said that the recognition of only the current two forms of denunciation is out-of-date, in the context of the fourth industrial revolution. The use of SMSs, fax or email will create favourable conditions for citizens to exercise their right to denunciation.

VNA