Notable policies coming into force from mid-July 2019

1. New provisions on the organizational structure of Governmental agencies

This is a highlight in Decree 47/2019/ND-CP, which amends Decree 10/2016/ND-CP on Governmental agencies and comes into force from July 20th, 2019.

According to the Decree, there are amendments to some regulations regarding the organizational structure of Governmental agencies. The details are as follows:

- A board shall only be formed when the work requires at least 15 officials or public employees.

- The maximum number of deputies of the affiliated service providers, offices and boards of each governmental agency (if any) varies according to the number of its working officials and public employees.

2. Amendments to the reporting and management system of officials’ dossiers

This content is introduced in Circular 06/2019/TT-BNV, which amends Circular 11/2012/TT-BNV on the reporting and management system of officials’ dossiers. To be specific:

- Amendment to Clause 2 and Clause 3 of Article 11 on amending of officials’ dossiers;

- Amendment to Point b Clause 3 of Article 18 on the authority and responsibility of the heads of official management agencies.

In addition, Circular 06 nullifies the regulations in Clause 4, Clause 5 and Clause 6 of Article 11 of Circular 11.

More details are available in Circular 06/2019/TT-BNV. This Circular comes into force from July 15th, 2019.

3. Income from repo transaction of Governmental debt instruments

According to Circular 30/2019/TT-BTC (effective from July 15th, 2019), income from repo transaction, borrowing and lending of Governmental debt instruments is promulgated as follows:

- Right to receive nominal interest and relevant incomes (if any) from debt instruments of the seller (in repo transactions) or the lender (in borrowing and lending transactions).

- In the case that the buyer/borrower receives nominal interest at the point(s) in time during the transaction period, the buyer/borrower is obligated to return the received nominal interest to the seller/lender: 

+ If the nominal interest payment is made outside a transaction system:

The interest payment time shall be decided by both parties but it shall be no later than 05 business days from the date of the bond interest payment.

+ If the nominal interest payment is made via a transaction system:

The payment time is the time of completion of a transaction. At the beginning of a transaction, both parties shall agree on the interest rate (if any) calculated based on such nominal interest.

4. 04 levels of radioactive source security

Recently, the Ministry of Science and Technology promulgates Circular 01/2019/TT-BKHCN regarding the security of Pu-239 and sealed radioactive sources with activity subject to notification and authorization. 

To be specific:

Based on the hazards of radioactive sources and the latent risk towards humans and the environment, their security levels are divided into 4 levels A, B, C and D as follows:

Security level A is applied to radioactive sources with the highest level of hazard and latent risk.

Security level D is applied to radioactive sources with the lowest level of hazard and latent risk.

This Circular comes into force from July 15th, 2019.

5. Guidelines on calculation of allowances for officials from July 1st, 2019 

The Ministry of Home Affairs promulgates Circular 04/2019/TT-BNV, which provides guidelines on statutory pay rate for salary and allowance earners in organizations and public service providers of the Communist Party, the Government, and socio-political organizations and associations.

According to the Circular, from July 1st, 2019, the allowances of officials are calculated as follows:

- Allowances based on statutory pay rate = 1.490.000 dong/month x Current allowance coefficient

- The salary-based allowance plus (+) leadership allowance and extra-seniority allowance (if any) is calculated as follows:

Allowance = [(1.490.000 dong/month x Current salary coefficient) + Leadership allowance from July 1st, 2019 (if any) + Extra-seniority allowance from July 1st, 2019 (if any)] x Rate of current allowance

- The fixed allowances shall remain unchanged in accordance with applicable regulations.

Circular 04/2019/TT-BNV comes into force from July 15th, 2019.

6. New guidelines on application of precedents in adjudication

This is a notable content in Resolution 04/2019/NQ-HDTP regarding selecting, publishing and application of precedents.

The Council of Judges of the Supreme People’s Court provides guidelines on application of precedents as follows:

- Each precedent shall be studied and applied after 30 days from the date on which it is published.

- When deciding on a case, the judges and the jurors must study and apply precedents to ensure that cases with similar circumstances have similar results.

In the case that a precedent is not applied to a case with similar circumstances, the reason shall be fully provided in the judgment and/or decision of the court.

- In the case that the court applies a precedent to settle a case, the number, name, circumstances, rulings of the precedent and the circumstances of the current case must be cited, analyzed and included in the court’s opinions.

A precedent may be fully or partially cited on a case-by-case basis in order to clarify the viewpoints of the court when settling similar cases.

Circular 04/2019/NQ-HDTP comes into force from July 15th, 2019.

7. Archiving of public employees’ dossiers

According to Circular 07/2019/TT-BNV (coming into force from July 15th, 2019), the filing of public employees’ dossiers shall comply with the following requirements:

- Organize the dossiers in alphabetical order or by employer to facilitate search and extraction;

- For ease of perusing, documents inside each public employee’s dossier must be separately organized into groups in chronological order and put into a folder. A document checklist and document control log shall be included in the folder;

- Information such as full name; aliases; hometown and dossier number (employee ID (if applicable) ) shall be written on the outside of the folder to facilitate searching and archiving.

- Ensure ease of managing; prevent wrinkles, damage or loss.

8. Amendments to specific expenses used for local traffic order and safety assurance

Circular 28/2019/TT-BTC introduces the additional expenses used for local traffic order and safety assurance in Clause 4 Article 3 of Circular 01/2018/TT-BTC, which includes:

- Expenditures on operation of the traffic hotline;

- Expenditures on treatment of accident black spots in accordance with the provisions issued by the Minister of Transport. Ensure that these expenditures are not covered by more than one funding source;

- Expenditures on additional interdisciplinary traffic safety missions to further ensure traffic order and safety in cooperation with Departments, regulatory bodies, agencies affiliated to the People’s Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities.

Circular 28/2019/TT-BTC comes into force from July 15th, 2019.

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