I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Scope of application

This Circular guides the organization and operation of "Cong Bao" (including provincial-level "Cong Bao" and provincial-level "Cong Bao" offices) managed by People's Committees of provinces or centrally-run cities.

2. Provincial-level "Cong Bao"

a/ Provincial-level "Cong Bao" (hereinafter called "Cong Bao" for short) is an official legal information publication of the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which is published by provincial/municipal People's Committees and functions to publish the legal documents defined in Section II of this Circular.

b/ "Cong Bao" is published in Vietnamese and can be translated into foreign languages or ethnic minority languages as provided for in Clause 5, Section I of this Circular.

3. Ways and techniques of presenting "Cong Bao"

a/ "Cong Bao" is printed in 20.5 cm x 29 cm size and uniformly presented in the form of "Cong Bao" published at the central level.

b/ The front page of "Cong Bao" is printed with the national emblem and the country name of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, with words "CONG BAO" in red capital letters and the name of the provincial-level People's Committee responsible for the publication.

c/ The last page of "Cong Bao" is printed with the name, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and website of the provincial-level People's Committee responsible for the publication and the "Cong Bao"-printing establishment.

The forms of front page and last page of printed "Cong Bao" are set in Appendices I and II to this Circular (not printed herein).

4. Legal validity of legal documents published in "Cong Bao"

a/ Only legal documents published in "Cong Bao" shall be valid as the originals thereof and be used in all official relations and transactions.

b/ Legal documents published on the mass media and other publications shall be valid for reference only.

5. The translation of "Cong Bao" into foreign languages and ethnic minority languages

a/ Based on the conditions of each locality, the "Cong Bao" office shall propose to the provincial-level People's Committee for consideration and decision the translation of "Cong Bao" into foreign languages or ethnic minority languages in order to facilitate the enforcement and application of law.

b/ The front page of the "Cong Bao" translated into foreign languages, ethnic minority languages shall not be printed with the national emblem, the country's name and the words "CONG BAO"; the name of the publication must be clearly inscribed in such foreign languages or ethnic minority languages "THE TRANSLATION OF CONG BAO INTO..." (foreign languages or ethnic minority languages) in black capital letters.

c/ The translations of "Cong Bao" into foreign languages or ethnic minority languages shall be valid for reference only.

II. LEGAL DOCUMENTS PUBLISHED IN "CONG BAO"

1. Normative documents:

a/ Resolutions of provincial-level, district-level People's Councils;

b/ Decisions, directives of provincial-level, district-level People's Committees.

2. Other legal documents:

a/ Resolutions of provincial-level, district-level People's Councils, which do not contain legal provisions and are promulgated for settlement of peculiar, specific tasks.

b/ Decisions, peculiar directives of provincial-level People's Committees, which are issued for performance of tasks, powers of such provincial-level People's Committees, specified in Articles 82 thru 96 and Article 124 of the 2003 Law on Organization of People's Councils and People's Committees.

c/ Decisions, directives of provincial-level People's Committee presidents, which are issued for performance of tasks and powers of such provincial-level People's Committee presidents, specified in Clauses 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7, Article 127 of the 2003 Law on Organization of People's Councils and People's Committees.

d/ Decisions on correction of legal documents containing errors in ways and techniques of presentation.

e/ International treaties which central state bodies have concluded or acceded to and are applied directly in localities.

f/ International agreements which the localities have signed with localities of other countries or territories, international organizations according to the provisions of current law on conclusion and implementation of international agreements of provinces, centrally-run cities, socio-political organizations, social organizations and socio-professional organizations of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

g/ The publication in "Cong Bao" of legal documents not defined at Points a, b and c, Clause 2, Section II of this Circular and other legal documents of district-level People's Committees and presidents of district-level People's Committees shall be specified by presidents of provincial-level People's Committees.

III. FUNCTIONS, TASKS, POWERS AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES OF PROVINCIAL-LEVEL "CONG BAO" OFFICES

1. Positions, functions of provincial-level "Cong Bao" offices

Provincial-level "Cong Bao" offices are established under the name "Trung Tam Cong Bao" ("Cong Bao" centers) attached to offices of provincial-level People's Committees, having the function of publishing legal documents in "Cong Bao," directly managing the publication and distribution of "Cong Bao," managing the allocation and use of "Cong Bao" supplied free of charge for agencies and organizations in provinces.

"Cong Bao" centers are non-business units which have the legal person status, their own seals and accounts and are provided with local-budget funding for their operation and for publishing activities according to provisions of law.

2. Tasks and powers of "Cong Bao" centers

a/ To receive, register, publish, archive legal documents sent by state bodies and persons competent to promulgate them.

b/ To review and check for the last time the legal documents before they are published in "Cong Bao" under the following criteria: legal grounds for publication, competence, contents, forms, ways and techniques of presentation of legal documents according to provisions of law.

c/ To return and propose the agencies that have promulgated the legal documents to correct errors (if any) of the legal documents before they are published in "Cong Bao."

d/ To directly manage the publication and distribution of "Cong Bao"; to sign, perform and liquidate contracts on printing, distribution of "Cong Bao" according to the provisions of law.

e/ To initiate, formulate and submit to competent authorities for decision matters related to operations of "Cong Bao."

f/ To assist directors of offices of provincial-level People's Committees in drafting and submitting to provincial-level People's Committees for promulgation the legal documents relating to operations of "Cong Bao" and organize and inspect the implementation of such legal documents after they are published; to advise leaders of provincial-level People's Committees on contents related to the review and systematization of legal documents published in "Cong Bao."

g/ To manage and update the database of provincial-level "Cong Bao" onto online "Cong Bao" of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; organize the operation of and directly manage provincial-level online "Cong Bao" after they are established.

h/ To estimate the annual operation funding, "Cong Bao" publication and distribution funding for submission to competent authorities for approval; to manage the financial activities and use the finance of "Cong Bao" centers according to the provisions of law.

i/ To submit to the direction, inspection and direct guidance by the central "Cong Bao" office and have the responsibility to report periodically or at request of the central "Cong Bao" office on professional operations of publishing and distributing "Cong Bao."

j/ To perform other assigned tasks.

3. Payroll of "Cong Bao" centers

Based on the professional titles of "Cong Bao" centers provided in this Circular and the work scale and volume, provincial-level People's Committees shall decide on the specific payrolls to ensure that the "Cong Bao" centers well fulfill their assigned tasks.

A "Cong Bao" center is staffed with a director, deputy-directors and professional personnel. The appointment and dismissal of leaders of "Cong Bao" centers shall comply with current provisions of law.

4. Organizational structure of "Cong Bao" centers

Based on the functions, tasks and work volumes, provincial-level People's Committee presidents shall specifically decide on the organization and number of professional bureaus of a "Cong Bao" center for the performance of the following principal tasks:

a/ The General Affairs-Operation Bureau:

- To receive, classify and enter the register the legal documents;

- To review, check for the last time legal documents sent for publication in "Cong Bao." Upon detection that legal documents contain errors in legal grounds for promulgation, competence, contents, forms, ways and techniques of presenting the documents, to propose the promulgating agencies to amend or recommend handling schemes for submission to competent authorities for decision;

- To arrange the qualified legal documents into every "Cong Bao" issue for transfer to the Editorial Bureau;

- To make periodical and extraordinary professional reports for report to provincial-level People's Committee presidents and the central "Cong Bao" office according to general guidance;

- To estimate annual operation funding, "Cong Bao" publication and distribution funding for submission to competent authorities for approval;

- To perform financial-accounting and administrative-executive tasks under general provisions.

b/ The Editorial Bureau:

- To gather the electronic documents, edit them and bear responsibility for the edited contents of every "Cong Bao" issue;

- To proof-read and find errors of the proofs as compared with the originals; to approve the final proofs before official printing.

c/ The Distribution Bureau:

- To draw up monthly, quarterly and annual plans on "Cong Bao" publication and distribution; to make biannual and annual sum-up reports on "Cong Bao" publication and distribution for submission to the provincial-level People's Committees according to the provisions of law;

- To inspect and monitor the progress and quality of "Cong Bao" printing and distribution;

- To draft contracts on "Cong Bao" printing and distribution and perform the contractual transactions according to the provisions of law;

- To conduct other transactions related to "Cong Bao"-publishing and -distributing activities.

d/ The online "Cong Bao" Bureau:

- To build up, manage and update database of every "Cong Bao" issue onto provincial-level websites;

- To update the databases of provincial-level "Cong Bao" on the online "Cong Bao" of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam according to the provisions of law;

- To prepare material and technical prerequisites for the emergence of online "Cong Bao" and deploy operations after the online "Cong Bao" is established.

5. Criteria of cadres and employees of the "Cong Bao" centers

Cadres and employees of "Cong Bao" centers must satisfy the general criteria and requirements prescribed for cadres and civil servants and must possess certain experiences and knowledge on law, state management, foreign language, informatics in order to well perform their assigned tasks, specifically:

a/ Cadres and employees responsible for receiving, reviewing and systematizing legal documents must have the law bachelor diploma;

b/ Cadres and employees in the Editorial Bureau and the online "Cong Bao" Bureau must have the bachelor diploma in suitable specialties;

c/ Cadres and employees responsible for monitoring the finance of "Cong Bao" must have intermediate accounting diploma or higher.

IV. PROCEDURES FOR SENDING DOCUMENTS TO BE PUBLISHED IN "CONG BAO"

1. Procedures for sending documents to be published in "Cong Bao"

a/ Within 2 days after their signing for promulgation, the legal documents specified in Section II of this Circular must be sent for publication in "Cong Bao."

b/ Document-promulgating agencies shall have to send 2 originals and electronic records, containing accurate contents of the original documents for publication in "Cong Bao"; the first page of a document must be stamped in red ink with the inscription: "Van ban gui dang cong bao" (Documents sent for publication in "Cong Bao").

c/ The ways and techniques of presenting legal documents of People's Councils, People's Committees of the provincial level and the district level and documents of provincial-level People's Committee presidents, which are sent for publication in "Cong Bao," shall comply with the provisions of Article 7 of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents of People's Councils and People's Committees; Point a, Clause 1, Article 5 of Decree No. 110/2004/ND-CP of April 8, 2004, of the Government, on clerical work; and Joint Circular No. 55/2005/TTLT-BNV-VPCP of May 6, 2005, of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Government Office, guiding the ways and techniques of presenting documents.

d/ The effective time of legal documents issued by People's Councils, People's Committees of the provincial level or the district level and sent for publication in "Cong Bao" shall comply with Article 51 of the 2004 Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents of People's Councils and People's Committees and be clearly inscribed in such documents.

2. Procedures for reception of legal documents to be published in "Cong Bao"

a/ When receiving legal documents sent for publication in "Cong Bao," the "Cong Bao" centers must register them in "the book of registration and comparison of documents published in Cong Bao," fully inscribing the following contents:

- The ordinal number;

- The name of the promulgating agency, the code, date of issue, extracted contents of the document;

- The effective date of the document;

- The date of receipt of the document;

- The date and serial number of the "Cong Bao" issue which publishes the document;

- Notes (documents which are sent late, must be corrected, returned,...).

b/ The form of "the book of registration and comparison of documents published in Cong Bao" shall be prescribed by the Government Office and applied uniformly nationwide.

3. Archive of documents published in "Cong Bao"

The arriving documents must be classified and archived in a systematic manner in the "Cong Bao" centers in service of the comparisons with the documents published in "Cong Bao."

The archival duration for these documents shall be 2 years counting from the date the documents are published in "Cong Bao."

V. PROCESS OF EDITING AND PUBLISHING DOCUMENTS IN "CONG BAO"

1. Process of editing "Cong Bao"

a/ After being registered in the "book of registration and comparison of documents published in Cong Bao," the documents shall be transferred to the General Affairs-Operation Bureau for final review of the criteria: the legal bases for promulgation, the competence, contents, forms, ways and techniques of presenting the documents according to the provisions of law.

b/ Upon detecting that legal documents contain errors, "Cong Bao" centers must immediately issue official letters, returning the documents and requesting the promulgating agencies to handle, correct them according to the provisions of law. The "Cong Bao" centers shall not bear responsibility for the late publication of such documents.

The documents returned to promulgating agencies must be inscribed with the reasons therefor, the day, month and year of return at the "Notes" column in "the book of registration and comparison of documents published in Cong Bao."

The form of document-returning cards is prescribed in Appendix III to this Circular (not printed herein).

c/ Corrections shall be made only to errors in ways and techniques of presenting documents to be published in "Cong Bao." Particularly legal documents with incorrect codes which lead to confusion of their legal nature must be disregarded and new documents shall be issued for inscription of correct codes prescribed by law.

Documents with wrong legal bases, competence and contents must be handled in accordance with the provisions of law regarding documents with signs of being contrary to law detected in the process of self-inspection and inspection according to competence.

d/ When receiving documents, the Editorial Bureau shall have the responsibility to edit the contents, make technical design for each "Cong Bao" issue, ensuring that all documents sent shall be fully published within the law-prescribed time limit. In the course of edition, editors may prune the sections on urgency (if any) and on the addressees in the form of documents.

e/ Editors must ensure that the final proofs are error-free and the head of the Editorial Bureau shall sign for approval and bear responsibility before they are sent for official printing.

2. Order of publishing documents in "Cong Bao"

a/ The order of publishing documents in "Cong Bao" shall comply with the principle that documents received first shall be published first and documents received later shall be published later.

b/ For legal documents which provide important measures or policies and must be published as soon as possible in "Cong Bao," directors of "Cong Bao" centers shall consider and decide thereon.

VI. "CONG BAO" DISTRIBUTION

1. Free supply of "Cong Bao"

a/ Annually, under the guidance of the Minister-Director of the Government Office and on the basis of the specific local situation, "Cong Bao" centers shall project the lists of subjects to be supplied free of charge with "Cong Bao" for submission to provincial-level People's Committees for decision.

b/ "Cong Bao" centers shall directly organize or coordinate with agents in organizing the sufficient and timely supply according to the approved lists; take responsibility for monitoring, inspecting the distribution progress; manage the use of "Cong Bao" supplied free of charge and report thereon to provincial-level People's Committees according to regulations.

c/ Local budgets shall allocate the entire funding for publication and distribution of free-of-charge "Cong Bao" under decisions of provincial-level People's Committees.

2. Distribution of "Cong Bao" to other subjects

In addition to the volume of free-of-charge "Cong Bao" as mentioned above, based on readers' demands, "Cong Bao" centers shall directly or via qualified agents or individuals distribute "Cong Bao" to domestic and foreign agencies, organizations and individuals by mode of self-financing.

3. Prices and distribution charges of "Cong Bao"

a/ Prices and distribution charges of "Cong Bao" shall comply with the prices and distribution charges of central "Cong Bao," decided by Minister-Director of the Government Office. When changing the prices or distribution charges, "Cong Bao" centers must notify such to readers, agents and business individuals 15 days in advance.

b/ All transactions related to distribution of "Cong Bao" shall be performed by "Cong Bao" centers under contracts.

The contracts on distribution of "Cong Bao" shall be signed and performed in compliance with the model contract guided by the central "Cong Bao" office.

4. Financial management of "Cong Bao" operation

a/ "Cong Bao" centers shall perform the direct financial management of activities of "Cong Bao" publication and distribution according to provisions of law.

b/ "Cong Bao" centers shall draft and submit to competent authorities for promulgation the decisions on financial management regulations applicable to "Cong Bao" activities.

c/ Annually, based on the approved lists of subjects to be supplied with "Cong Bao" free of charge, "Cong Bao" centers shall have to estimate funding for publication and distribution of "Cong Bao" according to the provisions of law.

VII. ORGANIZATION OF IMPLEMENTATION

1. Responsibilities of document-promulgating agencies

a/ To take full responsibility for the contents, promulgating competence, forms, ways and procedures of sending of documents for publication in "Cong Bao" in compliance with the provisions of law.

b/ Where documents already published in "Cong Bao" contain errors in procedures, forms, the agencies promulgating such documents must issue decisions to correct the documents, which are signed by their heads or authorized persons; the document correction decisions must be published in "Cong Bao."

The form of document correction decision is printed in Appendix IV to this Circular (not printed herein).

c/ To notify the names, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail of the principal units responsible for sending documents and electronic records to "Cong Bao" centers.

d/ Before the 5th of every month, the principal units responsible for distribution of legal documents of People's Committees of the provincial level, the district level shall send to "Cong Bao" centers the lists of legal documents already published in the preceeding month for "Cong Bao" centers to examine and compare them, ensuring that all documents have been published in "Cong Bao."

2. Responsibilities of "Cong Bao" centers

a/ Based on monthly, quarterly and annual plans for promulgation of legal documents of promulgating agencies, "Cong Bao" centers shall draw up plans for adequate and timely publication and distribution of "Cong Bao."

b/ Where documents already published in "Cong Bao" contain errors made by "Cong Bao" centers, the latter must issue correction decisions to be signed by center directors or authorized persons. The correction decisions must be published in "Cong Bao."

The form of correction decision is printed in Appendix V to this Circular (not printed herein).

c/ To ensure that the documents are fully received and published in "Cong Bao" in an adequate and accurate manner within 10 days (in special cases, this time limit may be prolonged, but must not exceed 15 days) as from the date the documents were adopted or signed for promulgation; to be answerable for the non-publication, inadequate and/or untimely publication of the received documents which meet the conditions for publication in "Cong Bao."

d/ To build, manage databases of provincial-level "Cong Bao" and connect them with the database of the online "Cong Bao" of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. In case of absence of websites, the "Cong Bao" centers must forward the electronic records of every "Cong Bao" issue by information-carrying means to the central "Cong Bao" office.

e/ Monthly, the "Cong Bao" centers shall assist directors of Offices of provincial-level People's Committees in making and submitting reports on the receipt and publication of legal documents in "Cong Bao" to presidents of provincial-level People's Committees; recommend and propose measures for removing all difficulties and problems (if any) in order to ensure the full, accurate and timely publication of legal documents in "Cong Bao."

f/ Annually before January 15, "Cong Bao" centers shall send their annual reports on operation situation to the central "Cong Bao" office for sum-up report to the Prime Minister according to the provisions of law.

Upon requests of the central "Cong Bao" office, "Cong Bao" centers shall have to send fully and on time reports on "Cong Bao" publication and distribution to the central "Cong Bao" office.

The form of the report shall be guided by the central "Cong Bao" office and uniformly applied nationwide.

g/ To send one copy of every issue of "Cong Bao" to the central "Cong Bao" office for inspection and direction of professional activities according to the provisions of law.

3. Implementation effect

This Circular takes effect 15 days after its publication in "CONG BAO."

If problems arise in the course of implementation, provincial/municipal People's Committees and relevant agencies shall report them to the Government Office for timely consideration and settlement.