Vietnam passes law on citizens' complaints
HANOI - Vietnam's National
Assembly has passed a law that creates a legal
framework for people to lodge complaints against
errant bureaucrats, state media said on Tuesday.
The official Vietnam News daily said the law, which
also allows people to denounce officials over alleged
corruption or other irregularities, was passed on
Monday.
The complaints law had been postponed from an earlier
assembly session in April this year after delegates failed
to reach agreement.
Vietnam's National Assembly, the country's legislative
organ, has been sitting for almost four weeks and is
expected to approve a number of new laws and
amendments.
Rural unrest and discontent due to corruption, problems
over land allocation and local abuses of power have
become a major source of concern to the ruling
Communist Party.
``Since the beginning of 1998 the situation of
complaining and denouncing by citizens has become
increasingly serious and complicated,'' Nguyen Thi Hoai
Thu, member of the National Assembly's Standing
Committee, told delegates recently.
In a report delivered to the assembly, she said 50,000
complaints over various issues were lodged in the third
quarter of this year, a rise of 25 percent over the same
period in 1997.
Complaints were especially a problem in northern areas
of Vietnam, she said.
Violent rural unrest mainly triggered by local-level
corruption hit northern parts of the country in 1997.
Ta Huu Thanh, Vietnam's inspector general of state,
said in an interview earlier this month that corruption
was a problem among lower-level officials but insisted
no senior government members were tainted.
Reuters - November 23, 1998.
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