The National Assembly yesterday agreed to remove the master plan on the development of notarisation from a law being drafted to amend planning-related laws.

A view of the central coastal province of Phú Yên. 

Those at the meeting also agreed to put the Government in charge of developing detailed regulations on the establishment and operation of notary offices, and assured the development of the notary offices complies with the Law on Planning and meets requirements of the State.

Võ Thị Như Hoa from Đà Nẵng said as a notary was a special occupation, it needed to be closely monitored by the Government and its agencies.

“Notarisation used to be a public service, but now private companies are also able to notarise after being empowered by the State. Such characteristic requires notaries and notary offices to be strictly supervised,” Hoa said.

“There are high risks that could come from rising competition among notary offices and customers,” she said, adding that some notarisation-related violations had occurred in the past because notaries worked with their customers to falsify legal documents, especially in real estate deals.

According to Hoa, the existing Law on Notarisation has some regulations on the establishment of notary offices, however, the quality of notary offices is not tightly bound to those regulations, especially when those policies, stated in the 2006 Law on Notarisation and the 2014 amended Law on Notarisation, have become out-of-date.

Thus, she asked for the improvement in the quality of notary offices so that notaries and their activities became more professional and less risky for both people and local businesses.

Notarisation is a form of business that can have negative impacts on the socio-economic development, according to deputy Trương Trọng Nghĩa from HCM City.

It was reasonable to remove the master plan on the development of the activity but it did not mean localities (provinces and districts) can get neglectful of the development of notary offices in their local areas, he said.

The impacts that notarisation could make on the socio-economic development could only be seen in the following 20-30 years after the documents were notarised, he said.

“In the case the notary office is dismissed and closed after a few active years and the owner of that office settles abroad, how can we take him back and charge him for what he has done illegally? Therefore, the State must also take responsibility for supervising notary offices even if they are set up in the remote areas.”

He suggested the issues on notarisation should not be completely resolved and approved within the 14th National Assembly meeting as further adjustment were needed.

According to deputy Đặng Thế Vinh from the southern province of Hậu Giang, four changes in the Law of Notarisation were enough and the draft law on amendment to the planning-related laws must be reviewed insightfully before taking effects so that businesses and people would not encounter overlapping policies.

“The removal of the master plan on the development of the notarisation will enable individuals and private companies set up notary offices to meet the rising demand of the people and businesses,” Vinh said.

Any violations committed by notary offices and notaries could be handled under the Law on Competition as notarisation was a condition-required service that had been included in the Law on Investment, he added.

Confusing items

Voter Hà Sỹ Đồng from the central province of Quảng Trị raised concern about Article 37 in the Law on Urban Construction and Article 49 in the Law on Urban Planning that contained two types of adjustment for both overall and local areas but did not clarify the scale and the scope of the two types.

Of the two types, local adjustment was defined as a brief, simple adjustment that did not pose ‘big impacts’ on the local area, however, the articles did not specify particular cases where the regulation should be applied, he said.

“That can allow government agents and officials to abuse their power to make unreasonable, unsustainable changes to the urban planning policies such as increasing the density of buildings and turning production and commerce establishments into apartment buildings, thus overloading the infrastructure for certain areas,” Đồng said.

He asked the National Assembly and the developers of the draft laws to stipulate in which cases the overall or local planning policies stated in the laws on urban construction and planning should be applied to keep government agencies away from “group interest issues”.

“I recommend we remove the certification process and certificates regulated by the laws on urban construction and planning to make sure the action is unbiased, transparent and public in accordance to the Law on Planning, and people and local businesses may not encounter difficulties.”

Regarding the Law on Construction, voter Hà Sỹ Đồng from the central province of Quảng Trị suggested the draft law should exclude the planning and development plans for provinces, inter-province regions, districts and special zones to avoid planning overlaps and cause losses of resources.

He also suggested the laws on urban construction and planning only focused on specific planning and development details for the urban, rural and administrative areas like other sectors such as transportation infrastructure, airport and environment.

The National Assembly participants also discussed the draft laws on breeding, and mapping and measuring on Friday. – VNS