Vietnam: Fisheries get first right to check on problems at sea

Hanoi, August 19 (VNA) - Members of the Vietnamese National Assembly’s Standing Committee have agreed to allow the Fisheries Surveillance and Resources Department to act as an initial investigative body to more efficiently solve trade, environment and international relations problems that arise in the seas. NA Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong said this at a meeting on the draft Law on the Organisation of Criminal Investigative Bodies on August 17. NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung said that the draft law should regulate the responsibilities of the department and impose sanctions if they fail to fulfill their tasks. Deputy Public Security Minister senior lieutenant-general Le Quy Vuong made a controversial amendment proposal that would also permit initial investigative bodies in the General Department of Taxation and the State Security Commission of Vietnam (SCC). He reported that the number of crimes in the three sectors had increased and urged that they create investigative sub-units within the sectors to halt the increases. Acting as initial investigative bodies, they would be allowed to conduct short investigations and then transfer their results to official investigative bodies. A majority of the members of the steering Committee did not agree with the proposal, voicing that if each sector created their own investigative bodies, there would be considerable overlap with existent investigative agencies. The country's current official criminal investigative bodies are branches within the People's Public Security Forces, the People's Army and the Office of the Supreme People's Procuracy. Vice Head of the Party Central Committee's Commission for Internal Affairs, Nguyen Doan Khanh, said that new investigative bodies should be established to fix shortcomings of official investigative bodies only when the work is in difficult areas like the sea, or deals with difficult subject matter. Lieutenant General Tran Dinh Nha, Vice Chairman of the NA Committee of Security and Defense, agreed and added some support for Vuong's idea. He said that the SCC should be empowered to investigate stock-related violations because of their unique expertise. "Cooperation among bodies is important to avoid overlapping," Nha said, but clarified that they shouldn't create too many investigative units. "The move is only needed in remote areas that official investigative bodies find difficult to reach," he said. The NA Standing Committee on August 17 also discussed the contents of the draft Law on Custody and Temporary Detention./.