DECISION

APPROVING THE PROJECT OF LEGAL AID INNOVATION FOR THE PERIOD 2015 – 2025

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on organization of Government dated 25 December 2001;

Pursuant to the Law on legal aid dated 29 June 2006;

Considering the proposal of the Minister of Justice,

DECIDES:

Article 1. Approving the Project of legal aid innovation for the period 2015 – 2025

I. OBJECTIVES

1. General objects

Legal aid innovation towards promoting the socialization with roadmap consistently with characteristics of each area and region so that after 2025, the individuals performing legal aid as lawyer may ensure the subjects entitled to the legal aid may be provided with legal aid services in a timely manner with quality equivalent to the services provided by lawyer in the market; transforming the state legal aid Centers (Center) from mainly providing legal aid services presently into the state management organ on legal aid, simplifying organization, apparatus and staff, strongly innovating administrative formalities in accessing the state legal aid services.

2. Targets

Period from 2015 to the effect of the Law on legal aid (revised).

- Maintaining the Centers towards simplification and effective operation. In areas with difficult and particularly difficult social-economic conditions and with the lawyer contingent not yet meeting the legal aid requirements, the legal aiders should be strengthened with qualification to participate in proceedings; allocating sufficient funds for legal aid activities focusing on legal aid cases, especially criminal proceedings, marriage and family. The Center only propagate and educate about law on legal aid activities; not formulating new legal aid branches of the Center (Branch) and the legal aid Clubs; reviewing the legal aid branches or clubs to have solution to merger or dissolution.

- In the remaining provinces and centrally-run cities, the socialization of legal aid activities is strengthened by attracting the participation of reputable and experienced law-practicing organizations and lawyers performing the legal aid, quality assessment  under regular contract or cases associated with the strengthening the control of quality of legal aid service provision to ensure the people receiving the legal aid service with quality equivalent to the services provided by lawyers in the market.

- Studying and developing the Law on legal aid (revised) towards promoting the socialization so that after 2025, only lawyers provide the legal aid services; having roadmap to transform the Centers from direct legal aid service provision into organs performing state management over legal aid; simplifying the apparatus, organization and staff of the Center before 2025; promoting the administrative reform in accessing the legal aid services of the state.

b) Period from the effect of the Law on legal aid (revised) to the year 2025

- Effectively implementing the Law on legal aid (revised) after it has been passed by the National Assembly. Keeping on maintaining the Centers in provinces with difficult and particularly difficult social-economic conditions from 2015 to the effect of the Law on legal aid (revised) with the roadmap to transform the Centers from direct legal aid service provision into organs performing state management over legal aid by 2025. For the Centers in provinces and centrally-run cities with socialization condtions, they shall be transformed into organs performing state management over legal aid as stipulated by the Law on legal aid (revised).

- The state budget invested for the legal aid activities shall comply with the law on state budget.

- From the time after 2025, the provisions of the Law on legal aid (revised) shall be fully complied with the comprehensive socialization of legal aid activities of the state. The state only takes the role of management and coordination of resources to ensure the people entitled to the legal aid shall receive the legal aid service in a timely manner with the quality equivalent to the lawyer’s services provided in the market; properly meet the needs of legal aid of people receiving legal aid in the field of criminal and civil proceedings, marriage, family and administration; effective expenditure of state budget.

II. DUTIES AND SOLUTION

1. Duties

a) Duties from the year 2015 to the effect of the Law on legal aid (revised).

- About the legal aid activities:

Improving the quality of legal aid activities, focusing on legal aid cases especially participation in criminal proceedings, marriage and family, the extrajudicial representation cases, legal consultation at head office, legal consultation of pre-action; only propagating and educating law on legal aid activities;

- About organization of state legal aid: Maintaining the implementation of state legal aid on the basis of re-structuring of Centers towards simplification of apparatus, organization, staff; reducing expenses of administrative apparatus and mustering the resources for the improvement of quality of legal aid to ensure the efficiency and consistency with the social-economic conditions, the needs for legal aid, the resources providing the legal aid services of each locality and mobilizing other social organizations to participate in implementation of legal aid.

+ The Department of Justice shall take charge and coordinate with the Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Finance and other relevant Departments and sectors to develop the Project for arrangement of position and employment of public servants and officers of the Centers to be consistent with their functions and duties in each stage to ensure the Centers have 02 sections: (1) Section directly performing legal aid includes the legal aiders; (2) Section of professional management to create premises for transforming the Centers from direct legal aid service provision into organs performing state management over legal aid and legal aid services which the law-practicing organizations and lawyers shall perform the legal aid at a later stage.

The re-organization of Centers on the principles:

. For the Centers in provinces with difficult and particularly difficult social-economic conditions and their social resources cannot meet the needs of legal aid of the people receiving the legal aid, it is necessary to strengthen and rationally increase a number of legal aiders while simplifying and improving the capacity of the Section of professional management.

. For the Centers in the remaining provinces and centrally-run cities, based on the actual conditions of each locality, the need of legal aid and a number of lawyers in the areas, strongly attracting the participation in legal aid implementation from the lawyers; simultaneously with the improvement of capacity and the professionalism of the legal aiders in proceedings, pre-action consultation, extrajudicial representation, simultaneously reducing staff, improving capacity and skills of management, inspection and assessment of case quality of the section of professional management;

The redundant staff of the Centers shall be transferred to the non-business units, the administrative units of Department of Justice and the legal organizations at professional organs of provincial People’s Committee, district-level Division of Justice and state management organs on legal aid to be submitted to the competent organs for approval. Such staff are excluded from the number of staff the provincial People’s Committee has allocated to the Department of Justice, the professional organs under the management of provincial People’s Committee, the district provincial People’s Committee and the state management organs on legal aid to ensure the total number of staff of the Centers nationwide  reduces by 15% compared with the stage before implementation of Plan.

+ For legal aid branches and the legal aid Clubs:

. For Branches: Basically, no new branch shall be established. In case of required establishment of Branch, Director of Department of Justice shall report to the Minister of Justice for advice before requesting the Chairman of People’s Committee of provinces and centrally-run cities to decide the establishment. Where the branches are established improperly, not based on the need of legal aid, without legal aiders or inefffcient operation, the activities of such branches shall be terminated;

. For legal aid Club: No new legal aid Clubs shall be established. For the existing legal aid Clubs which are not operating efficiently, the Department of Justice shall plan their dissolution or merger with other clubs at localities to enhance their operational efficiency.

- About the socialization of legal aid: Mobilizing the lawyers with experiences, moral and occupational ability and reputable law-practicing organizations to take part in implementation of legal aid so that people may access the legal aid activities with high quality.

+ The state shall pay the remuneration for procedural cases to the lawyers who perform legal aid as required by the state (except the lawyers performing free legal aid under obligation stipulated in the Lawyer Law) or sign contract under the mechanism of order for public service performance with lawyers and law-practicing organizations; increase the remuneration of 01 working session for cases to the minimum level equivalent to the ceiling remuneration for legal reporters who are provincial experts as stipulated in Circular No. 139/2010/TT-BTC dated 21 September 2010 of the Minister of Finance providing for the estimate preparation, management and use of funds from the state budget for training and retraining for cadres and public servants or expenditure for cases with a minimum level equal to 03 basic salary months and the maximum of 10 basic salary months depending on the nature and contents of cases.

+ The state management organs on legal aid shall widely announce the list of legal aiders, lawyers and law-practicing organizations signing the public services supply contract for people receiving legal aid to select upon the need of legal aid. The lawyers and law-practicing organizations that are not qualified for quality as required by the state shall no longer sign contract and funded for legal aid implementation and assessment of legal aid quality.

+ The state has policies to encourage and create favorable conditions for lawyers to take part in legal aid in order to attract more lawyers with experience, qualifications and professional ability to perform the legal aid.

- About the contingent of legal aiders:

+ Reviewing the current contingent of legal aiders, on the basis of actual condition and need of legal aid of each locality to define a necessary number of legal aiders; planning the training and retraining with appropriate forms towards intensiveness to improve the professional qualifications and litigation skills; enhancing the quality of proceedings participation of legal aiders through the annual assignment of proceedings participation to each legal aider and increase in remuneration of procedural cases by 40% of that paid to lawyers;

+ Providing the training and developing the current contingent of legal experts into the legal aiders in provinces with difficult social-economic conditions or areas where it is not easy to mobilize the practicing lawyers to take part in legal aid.

+ Building mechanisms to transform the legal aiders who have participated in the proceedings and achieved the criteria of cases annually assigned with quality assurance into the lawyers (if wishing) and such lawyers shall be contracted with the state to perform the legal aid.

- About the management model of legal aid: The Ministry of Justice shall assist and coordinate the resources for legal aid cases in the field of proceedings.

Strengthening the organization and apparatus and enhancing capacity of organs performing the state management of legal aid in the Central to ensure sufficient ability to carry out the coordination for legal aid; the redundant staff of legal aid is consolidated; inspecting and monitoring the quality of legal aid cases; assessing and certifying quality of legal aid for organizations and individuals performing the legal aid in the country; temporarily stopping the organization and operation of the Vietnam Legal Aid Fund until the Law on legal aid (revised) comes into effect. The Ministry of Justice shall make arrangement and settlement for public servants, officers and employees working at the Vietnam Legal Aid Fund to ensure their legitimate rights and interests as prescribed by law.

The Ministry of Justice (Department of legal aid) shall provide fund from the central budget to the legal aid cases in the field of proceedings at localities which have not balanced their budget under the law on state budget through the signing contract with the Centers at such localities and with the lawyers and law-practicing organizations participating in legal aid. The central budget shall assist the lawyers and law-practicing organizations to perform the legal aid cases in case the local budget is not sufficient for payment; advance fund to ensure the organizations performing legal aid actively have fund to settle cases; perform the coordination of human resources between localities in the country;

For provinces and cities with poor districts, according to Resolution No. 30a/2008/NQ-CP dated 27/12/2008 of the Government concerning the Program on Rapid and sustainable poverty reduction support for poor districts (Resolution No. 30a/2008/NQ-CP); poor communes and particularly difficult villages and hamlets under the Resolution No. 80/NQ-CP dated 19/05/2011 of the Government on orientation of sustainable poverty reduction from the period 2011-2020 (Resolution No. 80/NQ-CP), in addition to assistance for legal aid cases in the field of proceedings, they shall receive the assistance of tuition fees for the officers of the Centers participating in the lawyer occupation training course at the rate of tuition fees of the Justice Institute and assistance for direct communication activities on legal aid for people to know about the available legal aid implementation organization system of the state, about the rights and obligations of the persons receiving legal aid to ensure the effective and economical performance through the following forms: (1) Establishing the hotline and communication on legal aid; (2) Recording and copying cassette bands, CD in Vietnamese language and language of ethnic minorities on legal aid; (3) Placing news table or news box on legal aid at People’s Committees, Post Centers, community activity house, cultural house and border stations in poor communes and particularly difficult villages and villages. The expenditure criteria is at least equal to the criteria specified in Decision No. 52/2010/QD-TTg dated 18/08/2010 of the Prime Minister concerning the policy on legal aid in order to raise the awareness and understanding of law for the poor and the ethnic people in poor districts for the period 2011-2020 (Decision No. 52/2010/QD-TTg), Decision No. 59/2012/QD-TTg dated 24/12/2012 of the Prime Minister concerning the policy on legal aid for the poor and the ethnic people in poor communes for the period 2013 – 2020 (Decision No. 59/2012/QD-TTg).

- Improving the efficiency of quality management of legal aid cases:

Strongly applying information technology and using database to carry out the close quality management of legal aid cases (time of case handling, persons receiving and performing legal aid, field of legal aid, time of implementation, status, result of cases). The expenditure for procedural case assessment is equivalent to the expenditure for advice of independent experts specified in Clause 9, Article 4 of the Joint Circular No. 92/2014/TTLT-BTC-BTP-VPCP dated 14/07/2014 of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice and Government Office guiding the estimate preparation, management, use and fund finalization of state budget to ensure the development of legal normative documents and completion of legal system (Joint Circular No. 92/2014/TTLT-BTC-BTP-VPCP); the expenditure for quality assessment of procedural cases is equivalent to the expenditure for written opinions as stipulated under Point a, Clause 7, Article 4 of the Joint Circular No. 92/2014/TTLT-BTC-BTP-VPCP .

- About the funds:

+ In the Central: ensures the annual budget source in the Central and fund for performance of legal aid activities in poor districts, communes and particularly difficult villages and hamlets according to the policies on legal aid specified in Resolution No. 30a/2008/NQ-CP and Resolution No. 80/NQ-CP (the fund integrated under the Decision No. 52/2010/QD-TTg and Decision No. 59/2012/QD-TTg) for assistance of procedural cases and other duties; expenditure for research, survey, building of database and computerization for connection to follow up the cases nationwide; management of system, training and communication and other expenditures estimated under the current regulations.

+ At localities: The local budget must ensure expenditure for salary, administration, facilities for Centers and legal aid activities in addition to the assistance source from the Central and expenditure for legal aid cases at least equal to 50% of total expenditure for professional legal aid allocated by the provincial People’s Committee.

- Studying and developing the Law on legal aid (revised) towards:

+ About activities: Performing the legal aid cases in the field of criminal and civil proceedings, marriage, family and administration; providing extrajudicial representation services, legal consultation at head office, legal consultation of pre-action and expanding the people entitled to legal aid.

+ About organization of state legal aid: There is roadmap transforming the Centers in provinces and centrally-run cities from direct provision of legal aid services into the organs performing state management over legal aid; legal aid services performed by the lawyers and law-practicing organizations. The state implements the role of management and coordination of resources to ensure the people entitled to the legal aid shall receive the legal aid services; supervise and control quality of legal aid services.

+ About the person performing legal aid: The legal aiders shall perform the legal aid with the active participation of contingent of lawyers. The state signs contract regularly with the lawyers (public lawyers performing legal aid) or sign case-based contract with lawyers towards there are only practicing lawyers providing the legal aid services after 2025; studying and supplementing to the Law on legal aid (revised) the regulations on permitting legal aiders who have participated in the proceedings and achieved criteria of cases annually assigned with quality assurance are transformed into lawyers (if wishing) without training and probation of law practice.

+ About the socialization of legal aid activities: Strongly implementing the socialization of legal aid activities attracting reputable law-practicing organizations and experienced lawyers to provide legal aid services and assess quality of legal aid cases;

b) Duties for the period from the effect of the Law on legal aid (revised) to the year 2025

- About legal aid activities:

Performing the legal aid cases in the field of criminal and civil proceedings, marriage, family and administration; providing extrajudicial representation services, legal consultation at head office, legal consultation of pre-action;

- About model and organization of state legal aid: is the stage of transforming the Centers from direct legal aid service provision into organs performing state management over legal aid; continuing to reduce 50% of the total non-business staff at the Centers; the legal aid services shall be performed by the lawyers and law-practicing organizations;

+ In the Central: The organs managing the legal aid in the Central shall continue to be consolidated with respect to the organization, functions and duties to meet the requirements for state management, resources coordination and allocation, supervision and control of legal aid quality

+ At localities:

For the provinces with difficult and particularly difficult social-economic conditions and the contingent of lawyers have not met the needs of legal aid, their Centers shall be maintained and consolidating the ability of legal aiders to ensure they are qualified and have skills to participate in the proceedings; allocating sufficient funds for legal aid activities with simultaneous roadmap to transform the Centers into the organs performing state management over legal aid; the legal aid services shall be performed by the lawyers and law-practicing organizations by the year 2025 as stipulated by the Law on legal aid (revised);

. For the remaining provinces and cities, there should be a roadmap soon to transform the Centers from direct legal aid service provision into organs performing state management over legal aid and legal aid services that are performed by the lawyers and law-practicing organizations; the redundant staff of the Centers is strengthened for non-business and administrative units of Departments of Justice and legal organizations at professional organs of the provincial People’s Committee, district-level justice Division and state

The state management organs on legal aid shall perform the following functions and duties: (1) Verification and handling of legal aid cases; (2) Selection and appointment of lawyer to perform the legal aid cases; (3) Assessment of quality of legal aid cases; signing of case-based contract with the lawyer performing the legal aid or assessing the quality of cases; (5) signing of regular labor contract with the lawyers (public lawyer performing the legal aid) performing the legal aid or assessing the quality of cases; (6) payment of expenses for cases with required defense counsel.

- About person performing legal aid: Before 2025: The person performing the legal aid is the legal aider and lawyer. After 2025: The person performing the legal aid is the lawyer (who has been transformed from legal aider into lawyer). The state shall sign regular contract with the lawyers (public lawyer performing the legal aid) or sign case-based contract with the lawyer practicing the legal aid services.

- About persons entitled to legal aid: The persons entitled to legal aid are expanded to the near-poor and escaped-poor households, victims of family violence, children under 18 years old and the cases with required defense counsel.

- About the fund: The state budget shall pay for the legal aid activities which are performed under regulations of law on state budget. The state shall focus on management and coordination of human and financial resources to ensure the efficiency and sustainability of the state legal aid activities.

2. Solution

a) About institution completion

- Development of Law on legal aid (revised).

+ Implementing organ: The Ministry of Justice

+ Coordinating organs: Ministry of Home Affairs; Ministry of Finance; Supreme People's Court; Supreme People's Procuracy; Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs and the Ministries and sectors concerned.

+ Implementation time: 2015-2016.

- Development of Decree superseding Decree No. 07/2007/ND-CP dated 12/01/2007 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of some articles of the Law on legal aid, in which there are the provisions on encouraging the lawyers and law-practicing organizations and legal consultation Centers performing the legal aid of the state according to the socialization policy.

+ Implementing organ: The Ministry of Justice

+ Coordinating organs: The Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs;

+ Implementation time: 2015-2016.

- Promulgation of Decision of the Prime Minister superseding Decision No. 52/2010/QD-TTg, Decision No. 59/2012/QD-TTg with the content of integrity of such fund so that the Ministry of Justice can coordinate the cases and assist the legal aid activities specified in the Decision on approving the Project of legal aid innovation for the period 2015 – 2025.

+ Responsible organ: The Ministry of Justice.

+ Coordinating organs: The Ministry of Finance

+ Implementation time: 2015

- Amending the Joint Circular No. 209/2012/TTLT-BTC-BTP dated 30/11/2012 of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice guiding the preparation, management, use and finalization of fund to ensure the activities of state organs and organizations performing the legal aid towards the increase of remuneration and simplification of administrative procedures.

+ Implementing organs: The Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice

+ Implementation time: 2015

Amending Circular No. 02/2013/TT-BTP dated 05/01/2013 of the Ministry of Justice issuing the Standard of quality assessment of legal aid cases.

+ Implementing organ: The Ministry of Justice

+ Implementation time: 2016-2017

- Promulgation of Regulation on coordination and association in legal aid activities of the State and the compliance with obligations of lawyers.

+ Implementing organs: The Ministry of Justice, Vietnam Bar Federation, Vietnam Lawyers Association.

+ Implementation time: 2015-2017

- Study and building of mechanisms and policies on transforming the contingent of legal aiders into lawyers.

+ Implementing organs: The Ministry of Justice, Vietnam Bar Federation

+ Implementation time: 2017-2018

- Coordinating with relevant Ministries and sectors to recommend the supplementation of following contents to the draft of Code of Criminal Procedure: Appointing the title of legal aider as the person involved in the proceedings as the defense counsel. Appointing the defense counsel for persons entitled to the legal aid. Supplementing the contents of warrant of urgent arrest, warrant of arrest for detention with the content of right to defense counsel, legal aid for persons entitled to legal aid; supplementing the draft of Law on temporary seizure and detention towards the supplementation of responsibility of Superintendent of temporary detention house, Head of temporary seizure house in giving explanation to the persons temporarily seized or detained about their rights and obligations according to the procedural law and right to legal aid; reviewing the relevant legal normative documents for amendment or supplementation to be consistent with the content of Project.

+ Implementing organs: The Ministry of Justice and relevant Ministries and sectors.

+ Implementation time: 2015-2016

- Development, promulgation and implementation of Plan for implementing the Law on legal aid (revised);

+ Implementing organ: The Ministry of Justice.

+ Coordinating organs: Ministry of Home Affairs; Ministry of Finance; Supreme People's Court; Supreme People's Procuracy; Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs and the relevant Ministries and sectors.

+ Implementation time: 2017

- Development of documents guiding the Law on legal aid (revised) to ensure the efficient implementation.

+ Implementing organ: The Ministry of Justice.

+ Coordinating organs: The relevant Ministries, sectors and units.

+ Implementation time: 2017 and subsequent years.

- Development of legal aid development Strategy (revised) to be submtted to the Prime Minister for promulgation.

+ Implementing organ: The Ministry of Justice.

+ Coordinating organs: The Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Finance and the relevant Ministries, sectors ministries

+ Implementation time: 2018-2020.

b) About consolidation of state legal aid organization

Reviewing and assessment of operational efficiency of legal aid Branches and Clubs; termination of operation of Branches improperly established and not based on the need of legal aid, without legal aiders or inefficient operation. Dissolution of legal aid Clubs due to inefficient operation or merger of active clubs with other local ones;

+ Implementing organs: The Ministry of Justice (Central); Provincial People's Committee; Communal People's Committee; Department of Justice, Legal Aid Center of the provinces and centrally-run cities (local).

+ Implementation time: 2015 - 2016.

c) About management of legal aid activities

- Development of Projects:

+ Information technology application Project in organization and operation of legal aid, management and assessment of quality of legal aid cases;

. Implementing organ: The Ministry of Justice

. Implementation time: 2015 - 2016.

+ Project of innovation and consolidation of organization and operation of the Department of legal aid into an organ with ability to manage and coordinate the legal aid resources in the Central.

. Implementing organ: The Ministry of Justice

. Implementation time: 2015 - 2016.

- Development of Project for arrangement of position and employment of public servants and officers at the Centers to consist with the functions and duties in each stage and to ensure the redundant legal experts shall be transferred to non-business and administrative units for the Department of Justice and legal organizations of specialized organs under the management of provincial People’s Committee and district Division of Justice and state management organs on legal aid;

+ Implementing organ: The Department of Justice, Department of Home Affairs, Centers of legal aid of provinces and centrally-run cities.

+ Implementation time: 2015 - 2016.

- Issue of criteria for participation in procedural cases to the legal aiders and criteria for emulation and rating for Centers and legal aiders;

+ Implementing organ: The Ministry of of Justice

+ Implementation time: 2015

- Strengthening of communication and propagation of law on legal aid, rights and obligations of persons receiving the legal aid, available system performing legal aid to raise the awareness of the Central and local cadres, people and subjects entitled to the legal aid on the role of legal aid.

+ Implementing organs: The Ministry of Justice shall coordinate with the relevant Ministries, sectors, means of communication in the Central; the Department of Justice (Center) shall coordinate with the relevant Department, sectors, means of communication at localities.

+ Implementation time: 2015-2017

- Strengthening of specialized monitoring, guidance, examination and inspection on implementation of legal aid and legal aid cases.

+ Implementing organs: The Ministry of Justice shall coordinate with the relevant Ministries, sectors, organizations and provincial People’s Committee;

+ Implementation time: 2015-2017

- Building of mechanism to encourage the lawyers and law-practicing organizations eligible for participation in legal aid. Announcement of list of legal aiders and lawyers on the website in the Central and localities as well as at the head office of the procedure conducting organ so that the persons entitled to legal aid can choose the legal aider or lawyer;

+ Implementing organs: The Ministry of Justice, Department of Justice, legal aid Centers of provinces and centrally-cities and local procedure conducting organs.

+ Implementation time: 2015-2017

- Building of mechanism to select the lawyers and law-practicing organization and experts to carry out the control and assessment of quality of legal aid cases.

+ Implementing organs: The Ministry of Justice shall coordinate with the relevant organizations;

+ Implementation time: 2016-2017

d) Improvement of ability for contingent of legal aid performers.

Provision of training and retraining to improve the ability of contingent of legal aiders with appropriate forms to improve their qualifications, professional skills, management knowledge, political level and strengthen the training of profession and skills of legal aid especially the skills of litigation at court and training of language of ethnic minorities in areas with a lot of ethnic minority people.

Provision training and retraining to some current experts into legal aiders as required by localities having difficult social-economic conditions and contingent of practicing lawyers who have not met the need of legal aid in areas.

+ Implementing organs: The Ministry of Justice, the Department of Justice of provinces and centrally-run cities.

+ Implementation time: 2015 -2017.

III. FUNDS

1. Stage from 2015 to the effect of the Law on legal aid (revised):

Annually, the Ministry of Justice shall prepare the funding estimate based on activities and duties mentioned in the Project sent to the Ministry of Justice to ensure the funds for implementation of Project including the funds for implementation of legal aid activities in poor districts and communes and particularly difficult villages and hamlets according to the policies on legal aid specified in Resolution No. 30a/2008/NQ-CP and Resolution No. 80/NQ-CP (the funds specified under Decision No. 52/2010/QD-TTg and Decision No. 59/2012/QD-TTg). The funds which are not used up at the end of year shall be forwarded to following year to be used in accordance with the contents specified in the Project.

2. Stage from the effect of the Law on legal aid (revised) to 2025

The Ministry of Justice shall assist and coordinate the legal aid cases to the state and social legal aid organizations. The funds annually estimated is based on the needs of persons entitled to legal aid. The budget for legal aid activities shall comply with the law on state budget.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION

1. The Ministry of Justice shall

- Coordinate with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Finance and relevant Ministries, sectors and organizations to implement the Project; guide, inspect, supervise and aggregate the reality of Project implementation.

- Organize and direct the implementation of contents of Project; coordinate with the Ministries and sectors and guide localities to organize the implementation of duties and solutions mentioned in the Project; make periodical preliminary and final aggregation and report to the Prime Minister on the implementation of Project.

- The Ministry of Justice shall coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to handle the redundancy of Vietnam Legal Aid Fund for the implementation of Project.

2. The Ministry of Finance shall

Coordinate with the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Home Affairs and relevant Ministries and sector to annually allocate funds in the Central to assist the legal aid cases and other duties for implementation of Project from 2015; review all financial legal normative documents for amendment and supplementation to be consistent with the contents of Project.

3. The relevant Ministries and sectors shall

- The Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Information and Communications, Ministry of Labour - Invalids and Social Affairs, the Government Inspectorate, Committee for Ethnic Minorities shall coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in implementation of Project.

- The Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuracy are requested to direct the active coordination with the relevant organs in legal aid activities.

4. The People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities shall

Prepare plan for implementation of Project and make annual assessment and report on the result of implementation of Project to the Ministry of Justice (Department of legal aid); direct Department of Justice to coordinate with the relevant Departments and sectors to prepare the Project for arrangement of position and employment of public servants and officers at the Centers to be submitted to the competent authorities for approval and implementation; direct Department of Justice to coordinate with the relevant Departments and sectors to allocate adequate funds for legal aid activities at localities.

5. The Vietnam Bar Federation and Vietnam Lawyers Association are requested to coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in implementation of Project.

Article 2. This Decision takes effect from its signing day. Temporarily stopping the establishment of legal aid Branches and Clubs and development of contingent of legal aiders and legal aid collaborators specified in Decision No. 678/QD-TTg dated 10/5/2011 of the Prime Minister approving the legal aid development Strategy in Vietnam by 2020 with orientation to 2030; temporarily organizing and operating the Vietnam legal aid Fund until the effect of the Law on legal aid (revised).

Article 3. The Ministers, heads of ministerial-level organs, heads of governmental organs, Chairman of People's Committee of provinces and centrally-run cities and relevant organizations and individuals are liable to execute this Decision. /.

 

PRIME MINISTER Nguyen Tan Dung