Vietnam - Justice system still going slow

VietNamNet Bridge – Justice Minister Ha Hung Cuong last Friday acknowledged that the justice sector had not fulfilled its target of lowering the number of unsettled civil cases.

Speaking at the National Assembly's meeting on Friday, Cuong said the sector had targeted lowering the number of civil cases that drag on by 5-10 per cent, but had fallen short by managing to reduce these cases by only 2.08 per cent.

However, it still reflected the sector's efforts amid a global recession, Cuong said.

The Minister stressed that, since the Law on Enforcement of Civil Case became effective in 2009, there had been a lot of progress made in the settling of civil cases.

Commenting on ways to speed up the work next year, Cuong noted that the Justice Ministry was working with the Supreme People's Court, the courts at the provincial and local levels, and provincial and district's People's Committees on accurate classifications of civil cases.

Deputies also expressed concerns over increasing juvenile crime. Deputy Ngo Thi Minh from Quang Ninh Province said she considered the worrying trend as the result of a "problematic" education system. 

She stressed the need to intensify co-operation among schools, society and families.

Deputy Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa from Bac Ninh Province suggested Government agencies build supporting programmes for parents to help them better manage their children. She also urged other measures that can families become more "resistant" to social evils.

At the meeting, head of the Government Inspectorate Huynh Phong Tranh also discussed efforts to fight corruption. He said he agreed that some of the anti-corruption efforts were not effective and were merely words, not followed through by action.

Government agencies had been able to educate about 3 million State staff on anti-corruption work while also raising awareness on the issue among 15 million resident this year. However, these numbers were still quite modest, Tranh said.

NA deputies also expressed concerns over the work of Government inspectors and the low rate of repayments made after State funds and property have been revoked.

There are about 10,000 inspections nationwide at all levels. However, the legal framework to make sure that the results of these inspections can be strictly enforced has been quite limited.

In the past 12 months, Government inspectors have conducted about 6,000 inspections and proposed that nearly VND6.5 trillion (US$311 million) related to corruption cases be repaid to the State budget, but only VND141 billion, or 2.1 percent, of this amount has been recovered.

VietNamNet/VNS

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