The chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Science, Technology and Environment has proposed that complainants pursuing their complaints for which a conclusion or settlement has been reached must pay a deposit for their repeated complaints.

Chairman Phan Xuan Dung made the proposal at the meeting held on March 19 by the NA Standing Board to discuss the Bill on Citizen Reception. In talking with Tuoi Tre yesterday, Dung said, “The right to make complaints and denunciations is a citizen’s right that has been provided for in relevant laws. My view here is that along with ensuring such rights, there should be a regulation on the liability of complainers in order to prevent the rights from being abused.” For example, there are complaints or denunciations that have been settled in accordance with laws, but those who originally brought up the issue continue to file their complaints or accusations to many agencies, even to a number of leaders of the State or the Party, Dung said. Therefore, there should be a regulation that in such cases, the complainers must pay a cash deposit that they will lose if they lose the case. In case they win the case, the deposit will be paid back to them, Dung said. Ksor Phuoc, chairman of the NA’s Ethnic Council, also said, “I think that in case people insist on pursuing their complaint by submitting their repeated complaints to a citizen reception office, then such offices have the right to refuse to receive and handle such complaints.” Meanwhile, lawyer Pham Van Thanh, from the HCMC Bar Association, said, “The right to make complaints and denunciations are a citizen’s right that is provided for in the Law on Complaint and Denunciation that took effect on July 1, 2012. Therefore, forcing people to pay a deposit for their complaint is unenforceable and violates the rights and obligations of those who filed their complaints or accusations.”

In reality, there have been cases in which people who made repeated complaints finally won their case, which means such complaints were legitimate and correct, Thanh explained. Nguyen Hong Diep, head of the Division for Reception of Citizens and Handling Complaints and Denunciations under the Government’s Inspectorate, said he does not agree with Dung’s proposal. “Such a proposal is unenforceable. If it is applied, how can people who have no money pursue their complaints when they believe that their complaint is correct?”, Diep wondered. Meanwhile, deputy chief inspector of the Government Inspectorate Nguyen Chien Binh, said he has yet to comment on this issue, since it is only an idea from Dung and no one has proposed anything similar.

At a meeting in Buon Me Thuot City in March 2012, the Inspectorate announced that 80 percent of complaints from people against authorities in 18 provinces and cities in the central region involve land management.