Guidelines for Formulating Provincial Governor Agreements

Article

Lao People's Democratic Republic
Peace, Independence, Democracy, Unity, Prosperity
Bokeo Province No.: 2927/Provincial Office

Guideline
On the Formulation of Provincial Governor's Agreement

- Pursuant to the Law on Local Administration No. 68/NA, dated December 14, 2015.
- Pursuant to the Law on Legislation No. 06/NA, dated November 16, 2021.
- Pursuant to the Proposal of the Bokeo Provincial Justice Department No. 852/Provincial Justice Department, dated August 15, 2023.

The Provincial Governor's Agreement is a normative act issued by the Provincial Governor for state management, economic-social management, effective in a specific area or throughout the province, aiming to implement certain articles, certain paragraphs that have been delegated from
The legislation of higher state organs is detailed in implementation, but in the past, the creation of sub-law legislation at the provincial level, especially the decisions of the provincial governor, various departments, equivalent agencies, and surrounding provincial departments, found that the creation of decisions has not yet been implemented in accordance with the Law on Legislation, from the stages of planning, preparation, appointment of a committee responsible for drafting or amending the provincial governor's decision, data collection, consultation, soliciting opinions from relevant parties, verification of accuracy, consideration by the provincial administrative body, and consideration for approval and promulgation, which has resulted in the decisions of the provincial governor that are created and amended not yet being as effective as they should be, and after legislation is issued, its implementation is not
Achieved good results. Therefore, in order to ensure that the drafting and revision of provincial governor agreements can proceed correctly and completely according to the procedures prescribed by law, ensuring that newly drafted and revised provincial governor agreements are consistent in direction, complete in content, clear, concise, and implementable, while also ensuring timeliness.

The provincial governor issues guidelines:

I. Purpose.

This guideline is issued to provide guidance on the procedures for drafting provincial governor agreements, such as: assessing the policy impact in drafting the agreement, developing a drafting plan, appointing a drafting committee, drafting the agreement, collecting data for research, analysis, and study before proceeding
Drafting the content of the agreement, writing the draft agreement, soliciting comments on the draft agreement, reviewing the consistency of the draft agreement, considering the draft agreement, and adopting the draft agreement, in order to ensure that all departments and provincial-level equivalent agencies have a unified understanding and jointly implement it correctly in accordance with laws and regulations, contributing to the strict rule-of-law management of the state and socio-economic affairs.

I. Formulation of the Governor's Agreement.

The process of drafting the Governor's Agreement under the Law on the Making of Legislation No. 06/NA, dated November 16, 2021, in Chapter 8 (Articles 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93 and 85).
of the Law on Making Legislation) is very important. Therefore, all departments, organizations equivalent to provincial departments shall proceed to draft the said agreement as follows:

1. Proposal of the plan for making the agreement by the Governor.

- Provincial departments, state organizations equivalent to provincial departments, research, develop and propose the annual and semi-annual plan for drafting the agreement. The content of such plan must define policies, objectives, necessity, estimated impacts, benefits and losses from making the said agreement. This means that a comprehensive impact assessment must be conducted, such as research, analysis and study, on the benefits and losses to the economy, environment, society, health, safety of all sectors.
Involving all sectors including state, business and private, as well as implementation capacity, including mechanisms and personnel, budget and other issues, what is the situation of drafting the said agreement. After assessing the impact of the policy on drafting the agreement, then determine to include in the plan in which year, first half or second half of the year, to be clear and precise. After the provincial departments, state agencies equivalent to provincial departments have completed the plan for drafting the governor's agreement, submit the said plan to the Provincial Justice Department no later than October 20 of each year.

- For the Provincial Justice Department to research, review and coordinate with various departments and agencies.
Equivalent to provincial departments and surrounding agencies, to reconfirm and consolidate into a single plan for drafting agreements, clearly specifying in that year how many total agreement drafting plans there are, among which in the first 6 months how many and which ones, and in the last 6 months how many and which ones, then submit to the Provincial Office within November of each year.

- In order to submit the various agreement drafting plans to the agenda of the provincial administrative organization meeting for consideration, in case the provincial administrative organization meeting decides to amend the said plan, the Provincial Office shall coordinate with the Provincial Justice Department, departments, and agencies equivalent to provincial departments and surrounding agencies to amend the plan according to the decision of the provincial administrative organization meeting. After the amendment is completed, the administrative organization
The province will propose to the Provincial People's Council Standing Committee for research and submission to the Provincial People's Council meeting for consideration and approval of the draft plan for the Governor's agreement.

- After the Council meeting passes a resolution approving the plan and sends the said resolution together with the plan for drafting the Governor's agreement to the Provincial Administration, the Provincial Office must issue a notification for all departments, organizations equivalent to departments, and surrounding provincial units to implement the said plan.

2. Appointment of the committee responsible for drafting the Governor's agreement.
The committee responsible for drafting the agreement is appointed by the Governor and consists of:
- Vice Governor as Chairperson.
- Head of department or Deputy Head of department, Head of state organization equivalent to provincial department that proposes the draft agreement as Vice Chairperson.
- Representative of the Provincial People's Council as member.
- Representative of the Provincial Governor's Office as a member.
- Representative of the Provincial Justice Department as a member.
- Representative of relevant sectors as a member.
- Head of the relevant division of the department or equivalent agency proposing the draft agreement as a member and also as head of the secretariat.
- The secretariat support staff includes: 2 technical officers from the division responsible for drafting the agreement, and 1 technical officer each from the Provincial Governor's Office, the Provincial People's Council, and the Provincial Justice Department.
3. Writing the draft agreement.
The secretariat researches the structure of the draft agreement, then submits it to the responsible committee for consideration, through the Provincial Justice Department to determine the structure of the draft agreement for consistency with other draft agreements.
4. Data collection for research, analysis, and study.
The appointed responsible committee must collect data in the field to research, analyze, and review provincial policies, strategies, and legal instruments related to the draft agreement, the current socio-economic reality, and set targets to obtain clear data in each work area according to reality.
In case it is not possible to collect actual data in districts and relevant grassroots units due to the rainy season making travel difficult, the committee responsible for drafting the agreement can collect data by sending a proposal letter along with a questionnaire to the target data collection points, or through electronic systems such as ID Free, or by organizing remote meetings (video conference) to collect data.
5. Writing the content of the draft agreement.
After completing the collection of various data and having conducted research, analysis, and detailed study, the Secretariat begins drafting the content of the draft agreement according to the structure agreed upon with the Provincial Justice Department. The written content must be clear, explicit, concise, tight, using words with definite meanings, easy to understand, and should use words with clear meanings. After the initial completion of the draft agreement content, the Secretariat must submit it to the committee responsible for drafting the agreement for consideration and guidance. In case the head of the committee responsible for drafting the agreement finds that there are still some issues that should be added or removed, the Secretariat must take the draft agreement back for revision. But if the head of the committee
Responsible, agree to the content of the draft agreement. Basically, the responsible committee will take the aforementioned draft agreement, along with various impact assessment reports, to seek comments from relevant sectors.
6. Seeking comments on the draft agreement of the Governor.
To ensure transparency, openness, expansion of democracy, and to gather comments from all relevant sectors, including the opinions of the people within the province. The consultation on the draft agreement shall be conducted as follows:
1) Sending the draft agreement to relevant sectors for comments
Relevant sectors may submit comments through the incoming-outgoing system of each department, agency, and provincial office concerned, or through electronic systems such as: IM.T. M-Gate.
In sending the draft agreement to relevant parties for comments, the committee responsible for drafting the agreement must make a submission letter specifying the objectives of seeking comments, targeted questions, date, time for returning comments to the drafting committee in detail and clearly.
The targeted questions must raise issues related to the responsibilities of the target of consultation and other related issues, such as: organizational structure, budget, representation, consistency and harmony with related agreements or legislation, necessity in state management and social management, gender roles, exercise of rights and obligations of individuals, legal entities or organizations.
2) Organizing consultation meetings to seek comments.
In organizing a consultation meeting to seek comments on the draft agreement, the committee responsible for drafting the agreement shall organize a direct in-depth consultation meeting, and also determine the objectives, expected level, and target participants of the meeting in detail and clearly; at the same time, it must send the draft agreement, along with probing questions and related documents such as the explanatory note on the draft agreement and the impact assessment of the draft agreement, to the meeting participants at least 05 days before the opening day of the meeting.

3) Seeking comments via website.

The responsible committee must also post the entire content of the draft agreement, including the explanatory note on the draft agreement, on the website of the provincial administrative organization or through mass media for at least 30 days, so that the public and all
Sectors can provide comments when submitting the draft agreement to the official correspondence website of the Ministry of Justice for consultation, in accordance with the methods and procedures stipulated in the Agreement of the Minister of Justice No. 1106/MJ, dated October 10, 2017, on the management of official correspondence.

The Secretariat shall continue to revise and reorganize the draft agreement, then report to the responsible committee for consideration. After the head of the responsible committee approves, the department responsible for drafting the agreement must submit the draft agreement along with the explanatory memorandum, the impact assessment of the draft agreement on the Provincial Justice Department, for technical review of legislative drafting and legal consistency of the said draft agreement, at least 75 days before the opening of the Provincial People's Assembly meeting.
?. Legal compliance review of the draft agreement by the Provincial Justice Department.

The Provincial Justice Department shall accept a draft agreement when the provincial department or equivalent agency responsible for drafting the agreement submits complete documents as follows:

- Submission letter.
- Explanatory note on the draft agreement.
- Policy for formulating the agreement.
- Impact assessment report of the policy for formulating the agreement.
- Structure and draft agreement.
- Probing questions (if any) and other related documents.

The legal compliance review of the draft agreement by the Provincial Justice Department must be thorough and comprehensive, focusing on the conformity of the draft agreement with policies, the Constitution, laws, treaties, gender equality, necessity, and the reasonableness of administrative procedures.
and legislative techniques such as the arrangement of parts, chapters and articles within 10 working days from the date of receipt of the draft agreement. In case there are still any unclear issues, the Provincial Justice Department must provide written comments to the department or equivalent agency responsible for drafting the said agreement for reconsideration, and then send them back to the Provincial Justice Department within 10 working days from the date of receipt of the comments. Thereafter, the Provincial Justice Department shall organize a meeting to review the legal consistency of the draft agreement, with the participation of the responsible committee and the secretariat for drafting the agreement, as well as relevant parties deemed necessary, in cases where the content of the draft agreement is substantially complete or
The committee responsible for drafting the agreement has revised and reorganized it according to the comments of the Provincial Justice Department. The Provincial Justice Department prepares a written proposal or report on the review of consistency and technique of drafting the agreement, issues of disagreement or unresolved problems, and sends it to the Provincial Office to report to the Provincial Administrative Meeting.

8. Consideration of the draft agreement by the Provincial Administrative Meeting.

The Provincial Office receives various documents related to the draft agreement, including the proposal or report on the legal consistency review by the Provincial Justice Department, for study and consideration. After the Provincial Justice Department has reviewed consistency in accordance with Article 92 of the Law on Legislation, it must
Research and consider, especially regarding new policies, issues of disagreement, issues requiring guidance, then include in the agenda of the provincial administrative body meeting, and must send the draft decision to participants at least 5 days before the opening of the provincial administrative body meeting.

The provincial-level administrative body meeting will consider the draft decision, specifically on new policy issues, issues not yet agreed upon, issues requiring guidance, and options for problem-solving. Then the responsible committee must coordinate with the Provincial Justice Department to revise and re-edit. After completing the revision and re-editing, the responsible committee must report in writing on the revision and editing, and send the draft decision to the Provincial Office for submission to the Governor for consideration, then present to the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Assembly.
At least 60 days before the opening of the provincial people's assembly session.

The consideration and adoption of the draft agreement by the provincial people's assembly shall be carried out in accordance with Article 94 of the Law on Legislation and Specific Legislation of the Provincial People's Assembly.

[||. Implementation.

Assign the Provincial Justice Department to take the lead in coordinating with all relevant provincial sectors to implement this guideline effectively and efficiently.

All departments, equivalent agencies, and districts shall acknowledge and strictly cooperate in implementing this guideline.

In the implementation of this guideline, if difficulties arise, departments, equivalent agencies, and provincial line agencies shall coordinate with the Provincial Justice Department for consultation and to find solutions.
Resolve in time or seek guidance from provincial leadership.

Effectiveness

This guideline shall take effect from the date of signing and official registration.

Bokeo Province, Nanmavong