Authority in law enforcement on sanctioning administrative violations

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, to effectively implement the legal policy on sanctioning administrative violations, the provincial and municipal customs departments, the Anti-smuggling and Investigation Department, and the Post-Clearance Audit Department need to implement the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations actively.

Accordingly, regarding the transfer of dossiers to the competent person to sanction administrative violations following the provisions of Clause 5, Article 58 of the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations, it is stated: "In case of administrative violations not falling under the sanctioning competence of the record makers, the records and other related documents must be transferred to persons having sanctioning authority within 24 hours from the date of making such records, except for cases where administrative violation records are made aboard aeroplanes, ships or trains."

In Clause 8, Article 12 of Decree 118/2021/ND-CP stipulates: If persons with power to issue offence notices or relative entities having failures in late transferring offence notices or dossiers of violation cases leading to the time limit  for making decisions on penalties is over, they are subject to handling as prescribed by laws.

Professional activities at North Hanoi Customs Branch. Photo: N.Linh

Accordingly, for cases falling under the power to impose penalties of the head of the Customs Department of the province, inter-province or city directly under the Central Government, the Director of the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department, the Director of the Post-Clearance Audit Department, within 24 hours from the date of making the administrative violation record, the head of the unit where the violation occurs shall sign a document to transfer the case dossier to the person who has the power to impose penalties; at the same time, the minutes and dossiers of the violation must be transferred by the unit during that time.

For cases falling under the authority of the Director of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, the Director of the Customs Department of the province, inter-province and centrally-run city, the Director of the Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department, Director of Post-Clearance Audit Department based on the actual situation in his unit to determine the power to impose penalties to sign documents to transfer the administrative violation minutes to the Director General of Vietnam Customs, the Chairman of the provincial People's Committee for sanctioning according to his authority; ensuring the principle that within 24 hours from the date of making the administrative violation minutes, the document transferring the administrative violation minutes must be signed and concurrently delivered within that time limit  (enclosed with the violation case file - if any).

In addition, the authority to issue decisions on enforcement of decisions sanctioning administrative violations complies with Clause 3, Article 23 of Decision 166/QD-TCHQ dated January 18, 2021, of the General Department of Vietnam Customs promulgating guidelines. The order and procedures for sanctioning administrative violations and settling complaints about sanctioning administrative violations in the Customs sector: "For the sanctioning decisions issued by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, the Director of the provincial and inter-provincial Customs Departments under the Central Government where the violation case dossier is transferred is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the sanctioning decision and reporting the implementation of the sanctioning decision to the Chairman of the provincial People's Committee. Furthermore, suppose the decision on sanctioning administrative violations is not implemented within the prescribed time limit . In that case, the Director of the Customs Department is responsible for proposing coercive measures to the Chairman of the provincial People's Committee to issue a coercive decision.

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, recently, there has been a situation where the customs unit has issued a decision to enforce the sanctioning decision against the sanctioning decision issued by the Chairman of the provincial People's Committee.

Compared with Clause 2, Article 73, Article 87 of the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations, the General Department of Vietnam Customs requires the units to properly implement the authority to issue coercive decisions and the provisions of Clause 3, Article 23 of Decision 166/ Decision-TCHQ dated January 18, 2021.

In addition, to write the authority to issue the decision to handle administrative violations for the case where the sanctioning decision is issued by a civil servant, the "authority to issue" part of the sanctioning decision form needs to be written, "a customs officer of the customs branch."

Regarding the "title of the signer" (Note 21 of the sanctioning decision form), if the civil servant does not have a position, the content "signer's title" should not be written. Only "civil servant" sign and write the signer's full name.