According to Article 25 of the 2018 Law on Anti-Corruption and its guiding documents, “Office holders whose positions are relevant to personnel management, management of public funds, public assets, public investment; office holders who are directly involved and have influence over the operation of the organization shall be periodically reassigned”. The reassignment periods shall range from 02 years to 05 years depending on the features of each industry or field.
Given that basis, on August 8, 2022, the Ministry of Planning and Investment issued Circular No. 18/2022/TT-BKHDT (“Circular 18”) stipulating the list and the reassignment periods of officials not holding command and managerial positions and of public employees directly responding and handling local investment matters at agencies, organizations and public service providers under the management of the provincial People’s Committees. Accordingly, the reassignment periods for positions in the investment field shall range from 3 to 5 years.
Circular 18 provided a list of 8 positions subject to the periodical reassignment:
- Persons whose tasks are assessing and certifying Vietnamsese inbound and outbound investments.
- Persons whose task is assessing the projects.
- Persons whose tasks are bidding and managing the bidding.
- Persons whose tasks are establishing, allocating and managing capital plans.
- Persons whose task is managing the planning.
- Persons whose tasks are managing the industrial parks – export zones – economic zones.
- Persons whose tasks are managing enterprises and business registrations.
- Persons whose task is managing the ODA and concessional loans.
Comparing with the list of positions working in the investment field in Decree No. 59/2019 guiding the Law on Anti-Corruption, Circular 18 has supplemented two more types of positions, which are: management of economic zones and management of concessional loans.
However, comparing with the regulations on the reassignment of officials and public employees directly responding and handling local matters in other fields under the management of the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Construction. Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, etc., these regulations are quite general and inexplicitly spanning to particular positions. This indicaties the “equation” on the application of the reassignment periods for different positions, misses a clear distinction between the positions requiring high expertise and the rest, and might also lead to arbitrary and ununited application in practice, causing difficulties for businesses operating in different provinces and/or cities.
Circular 18 took effect from August 8, 2022.
Comment: