Improving the effectiveness of supervision and criticism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front

Ms. Ha Thi Nga, Member of the Party Central Committee, Vice President - Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, chaired the Workshop.

Do not let the legitimate opinions of the People fall into silence

The workshop aims to evaluate 13 years of implementing Decision 217, Decision 218 on supervision, social criticism, participation in Party building, government building of the Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations; thereby proposing and recommending solutions to synchronously improve the mechanism for the Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations to widely participate in supervision, social criticism, Party building, and government building activities in the coming time.

Speaking to introduce the Conference, Ms. Dam Thi Van Thoa, Deputy Head of the Democracy, Supervision and Social Criticism Committee of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, stated clearly that the activities of supervision, social criticism, and participation in contributing opinions to build the Party and government of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations and the People in recent years have been concerned by the Party and the State, promulgating many regulations and concretizing them in legal documents such as: Decision No. 217 and Decision No. 218 of the Politburo, Constitution, Law on the Vietnam Fatherland Front, Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents... This is the basis and condition for the Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations and all classes of people to promote their roles and responsibilities in supervision and social criticism, participate in contributing opinions to build the Party and government, strengthen the great national unity bloc, implement democracy, and create social consensus.

Besides the achieved results, the implementation of Decision 217 and Decision 218 of the Politburo after nearly 13 years has also revealed some limitations and inadequacies affecting the quality and effectiveness of supervision, social criticism, participation in Party building, government of the Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations such as: The awareness of promoting the role of the People directly participating in contributing opinions and reflections as well as promoting the role of supervision and social criticism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front in controlling power is not really complete and profound;

The quality of some opinions and reflections from the People, as well as supervision and social criticism, is not high, still formistic; The reception and feedback of opinions and recommendations after supervision and social criticism is not considered important, lacking implementation mechanisms;

There is still a situation where Fatherland Front officials and socio-political organizations are afraid of clashes and avoidance in opinions and reflections from the people as well as in supervision and social criticism sessions;

The conditions to ensure this work are still limited: facilities and techniques do not meet the requirements of contributing opinions, reflecting, supervising and social criticism, especially the Vietnam Fatherland Front at the commune level in the context of digital transformation; funding for organizing activities of contributing opinions, supervising and social criticism is still low...

Promoting the role of the Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations in social supervision and criticism activities

Contributing opinions at the workshop, Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Duong, Chairman of the Council of Members of Democracy and Law, Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, said that contributing opinions to reflect supervision and social criticism are methods of controlling the power of society over the political power of the Party and the power of the State. In particular, through the Vietnam Fatherland Front at all levels, the participation of people in contributing opinions and reflecting on manifestations of degradation in ideology, politics, ethics and lifestyle "Self-evolution", "Self-transformation" of Party cadres and members has become an official social reflection channel. This is an important channel to detect manifestations of bureaucracy, alienation from the people, degradation in ethics and lifestyle, corruption of Party cadres and members. Thanks to that, many pressing cases at the grassroots level have been reflected, and State agencies and individuals with authority have explained, received or overcome them.

To continue to promote the role of the Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations in social supervision and criticism activities, Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Duong said that it is necessary to improve the capacity to organize and implement the collection of opinions and recommendations of the people and social supervision and criticism through building a contingent of cadres and civil servants of the Fatherland Front at all levels who have political bravery, have social supervision and criticism thinking, have legal qualifications, and have the ability to analyze policies. In particular, Front cadres must be truly close to the people, close to the people, have an independent and objective spirit, and dare to protect the right.

Along with that, it is necessary to promote the presiding and proactive role of the Fatherland Front at all levels, strengthen coordination and unification of activities between member organizations in building and implementing programs and plans to participate in Party building and government building through activities to gather and reflect people's recommendations and social supervision and criticism work; Develop and promulgate detailed regulations of the Party and laws of the State on the organization and implementation of the gathering of opinions and recommendations of the people for cadres and party members, especially for heads and people with positions and powers.

It is necessary to build and consolidate Advisory Councils, Advisory Boards, and Advisory Groups that are strong enough, capable enough, and enthusiastic enough to participate in Party building and government building work of the Fatherland Front at all levels; and at the same time apply digital technology in gathering opinions and recommendations from voters and people, monitoring and social criticism," Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Duong expressed his opinion.

From another perspective, Dr. Nguyen Van Pha, Member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, also proposed solutions to improve the quality of social supervision and criticism. In which, it is necessary to improve institutions, to standardize the process of supervision and criticism at each level; improve the quality of staff, strengthen training and professional development in social supervision and criticism through building in-depth training programs on policy criticism skills, legal analysis and impact assessment, and sociological survey skills; Organize training according to actual situations, simulate supervision and criticism sessions. In addition, there needs to be a reasonable remuneration mechanism to attract experts and intellectuals, consolidate consulting organizations, and it is necessary to establish a network of critic experts for each field.

It is necessary to innovate the content and methods of operation. Accordingly, it is necessary to choose key issues to organize supervision. Prioritize supervision of land, environment, social security issues, complaints and denunciations of the people, issues with the risk of negative developments... Avoid spreading out, only selecting a few but deep each year. Strengthen dialogue and policy debate by coordinating direct dialogue between policy-making agencies - People, businesses - Experts," Dr. Nguyen Van Pha suggested.

Accepting the heartfelt and responsible opinions of delegates attending the Workshop, Vice President - Secretary General Ha Thi Nga emphasized that Decision No. 217 - QD/TW and Decision No. 218-QD/TW are important bases for the Vietnam Fatherland Front to promote its role in participating in social supervision and criticism activities, especially participating in contributing opinions to build the Party and State. From the opinions of delegates attending the Workshop, the Drafting Committee needs to continue to receive, revise and evaluate the achieved results, the advantages, limitations and difficulties, obstacles, causes, lessons learned, and propose solutions to improve the quality of supervision, criticism, and contributions to building the Party and Government of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations, creating mechanisms and conditions for the Vietnam Fatherland Front to well exercise its rights and responsibilities in supervising, criticizing, and contributing opinions to building the Party and Government.

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