Legal mechanisms and improvement solutions to enhance the right to access to information on administrative procedures

TNU Journal of Science and Technology 226(03): 86 - 92 
 86 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 
LEGAL MECHANISMS AND IMPROVEMENT SOLUTIONS 
TO ENHANCE THE RIGHT TO ACCESS TO INFORMATION 
ON ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES 
Pham Thi Huyen
*
, Tong Thi Phuong Thao
TNU - University of Technology 
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT 
Received: 07/7/2020 The right to access information about administrative procedures is one 
of the important contents of the right to access information and is one 
of the factors that create transparency and reliability for state 
management activities. However, this is a relatively new content, so the 
mechanism for implementing this right has not been clearly defined by 
the law in a single legal document, and there are still many problems 
during the implementation process. A research paper on mechanisms to 
ensure the right to access information about administrative procedures 
in accordance with Vietnamese law based on human rights approaches 
and traditional research methods, combined with law comparison. 
learning from that to come up with solutions in the direction of 
specifying the responsibilities of state agencies, and at the same time 
perfecting legal provisions to improve the people's right to access 
information on administrative procedures. 
Revised: 31/3/2021 
Published: 31/3/2021 
KEYWORDS 
Access to information 
Administrative procedures 
State authorities 
Human rights 
The Constitution 
CƠ CHẾ PHÁP LÝ VÀ GIẢI PHÁP TĂNG CƢỜNG 
QUYỀN TIẾP CẬN THÔNG TIN VỀ THỦ TỤC HÀNH CHÍNH 
Phạm Thị Huyền*, Tống Thị Phƣơng Thảo 
Trường Đại học Kỹ thuật Công nghiệp – ĐH Thái Nguyên 
THÔNG TIN BÀI BÁO TÓM TẮT 
Ngày nhận bài: 07/7/2020 Quyền tiếp cận thông tin về thủ tục hành chính là một trong những nội 
dung quan trọng của quyền tiếp cận thông tin và là một trong những 
yếu tố tạo nên tính minh bạch, tin cậy cho hoạt động quản lý nhà nước. 
Tuy nhiên đây là một nội dung khá mới nên cơ chế thực hiện quyền 
này lại chưa được pháp luật quy định rõ ràng trong một văn bản quy 
phạm pháp luật duy nhất, trong quá trình thực hiện còn gặp nhiều 
vướng mắc. Bài viết nghiên cứu về các cơ chế đảm bảo quyền tiếp cận 
thông tin về thủ tục hành chính theo quy định của pháp luật Việt Nam 
dựa trên cách tiếp cận quyền con người và các phương pháp nghiên 
cứu truyền thống, kết hợp so sánh luật học để từ đó đưa ra các giải 
pháp theo hướng quy định cụ thể trách nhiệm của các cơ quan nhà 
nước, đồng thời hoàn thiện các quy định pháp luật nhằm nâng cao 
quyền tiếp cận thông tin về thủ tục hành chính của người dân. 
Ngày hoàn thiện: 31/3/2021 
Ngày đăng: 31/3/2021 
TỪ KHÓA 
Tiếp cận thông tin 
Thủ tục hành chính 
Cơ quan nhà nước 
Quyền con người 
Hiến pháp 
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34238/tnu-jst.3393 
*
 Corresponding author. Email: phamhuyentc@tnut.edu.vn 
TNU Journal of Science and Technology 226(03): 86 - 92 
 87 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 
1. Introduction 
In addition to human rights such as the right to life, the inviolability of the individual and the 
legal protection of health, honor and dignity, the right to freedom of movement, the right to 
freedom of speech and etc., the right to access to information is promulgated as an important 
right protected in the Constitution and regulations. Access to information on administrative 
procedures is one of the rights of citizens, which has been internationally recognized in the 
United Nations human rights legal instruments and affirmed in the Universal Declaration of 
Human Rights (1948) [1], International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (1966) [2] and 
other International Conventions. The announcement is supposed to significantly increase 
confidence of citizens in public authorities otherwise the opposite effect is shown to the 
information hiding condition. 
The right to access to information is provided in Article 69, the Constitution of 1992 [3] and 
Article 25, the Constitution of 2013 [4]. The Law on Access to Information passed by the eighth 
session of the National Assembly on April 6, 2016 continuously emphasizes its great significance to 
every citizen and organizations. The implementation of the right to access to information, however, is 
not practically guaranteed in several fields including the right to access to information on 
administrative procedures. It, hence, means that the understanding of legal mechanisms and solutions 
to enhance the right to access to information on administrative procedures plays a significant role to 
ensure this right in practice. 
It is noted that the right to access to information is a relatively new content in Vietnamese 
law; the Law on Access to Information adopted in 2016 has just come into effect since July 1, 
2018. A number of studies on the right to access to information include “The principle of 
ensuring the right to access to information in the spirit of the Law on Information Access 2016” 
[5], “Right to access to information in legi ...  press, of access to information, to assemble, form associations and hold 
demonstrations.” At the same time, in order to ensure the exercise of citizens' right to access to 
information, Clause 6, Article 98 regulated the Prime Minister has the duty and responsibilities to 
“submit regular reports to the people through the mass media on major issues to be settled by the 
Government and the Prime Minister” [4]. 
The right to access to information on administrative procedures in legal documents 
A number of legal documents prescribed the guarantee of citizens' right to access to 
information on administrative procedures are listed as follows: the Law on Access to 
Information, the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents in 2015, the Law on Anti-corruption 
in 2018, the Law on thrift practice and waste combat in 2013, Urban Planning Law in 2009 and 
its sub-law documents on the procedure for exercising rights. The right to access to information 
mentioned include the freedom to search and exchange information; the right to request 
information, the right to disseminate information and the guarantee of citizens' right to 
information through the regulation of public responsibility of the competent authority. 
Citizens' right to information are affirmed by legal regulations on public responsibility of 
authorities which hold and store information. On the basis of the law on the right to access to 
information, institutions in the State apparatus are requested to undertake the right to access to 
information as one of the basic rights. 
The laws and mechanisms to guarantee the right to access to information are in demand to 
establish and implement in accordance with the international commitments related to the 
guarantee of the right to access to information of which Vietnam is a member. 
In order to speed up the reform of administrative procedures, the Government has gradually 
built and improved the institution on administrative procedure control which is reflected in the 
Decree No. 63/2010/ND-CP dated June 8, 2010 of the Government on controlling administrative 
procedures, Decree No. 20/2008/ND-CP dated February 14, 2008 of the Government on 
receiving, handling feedback and proposals of individuals and organizations on administrative 
regulations, Decree No. 48/2013/ND-CP and Decree 48/2013/ND-CP of the Government on 
amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Decrees related to the control of 
TNU Journal of Science and Technology 226(03): 86 - 92 
 90 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 
administrative procedures. By 2015, the content on the control of regulations on administrative 
procedures has been promulgated in the Law on the promulgation of legal documents. In the 
direction and implementation of socio-economic development tasks in the new period, the 
Government and the Prime Minister have continuously paid attention to direct the 
implementation of administrative reform which is prescribed through the recent documents as 
follows: Resolution No. 36a/NQ-CP of the Government dated October 14, 2015 on e-
Government; Resolution No. 19-2016/NQ-CP of the Government on the main tasks and solutions 
to improve the business environment, national competitiveness in the two years of 2016-2017, 
with orientations toward 2020; Resolution No. 35/NQ-CP dated May 16, 2016 of the 
Government on supporting and developing enterprises; Directive No. 13/CT-TTg dated June 10, 
2015 of the Prime Minister on strengthening the responsibilities of heads of state administrative 
authorities at all levels in administrative procedure reform. 
Limit of the right to access to information in the legal documents 
The right to access to information, as a human right, is recognized and protected by law; 
certain limitations, however, are found. Article 14, the Constitution of 2013 states: “Human 
rights and citizens’ rights shall only be restricted when prescribed by law in imperative 
circumstances for the reasons of national defense, national security, social order and security, 
social morality and community well-being” [4]. 
In addition, the limit of the right to access to information is prescribed in some legal 
documents with a wide range. Firstly, legal documents with content related to information 
disclosure are supposed to define the general principle of protecting state security. The Law on 
Protection of State Secrets in 2017 point out three levels of information undisclosed: top secret, 
secret and confidential and the scope of state secrets are listed according to each level. The 
competent authorities are listed and classified as top secret, secret and confidential ones and may 
be published or not published as prescribed by the Prime Minister or the Minister of Public 
Security [12]. 
Article 11, the Anti-Corruption Law in 2012 stipulates that authorities, organizations and units 
must publicize their activities, except for contents of state secrets and other contents as prescribed 
by the Government. The Law on Environmental Protection in 2014 also stipulates the disclosure 
of environmental information and data, except for information on the list of State secrets. Article 
38, the 2015 Civil Code specifies that privacy of individuals is respected and protected by law. 
Article 5, the Regulation on spokesperson and information provision to the press issued with 
the Decision No. 25/2013/QD-TTg of Prime Minister dated May 4, 2013 allows the spokesperson 
to have the right from refusing, not speaking out and providing information to the press in the 
following cases: issues belonging to State secrets; secret issues under Party's rules and 
regulations; issues out of the authority of the spokesman; cases under investigation or yet 
adjudicated, except for cases where state administrative authorities or investigating bodies 
request information from the press on matters favorable to investigation and fighting crimes; 
policies and schemes in the drafting process that are not allowed by the competent authorities to 
disseminate and collect opinions in the society as prescribed by the law [13]. 
Thus, it can be seen that the restriction of the right to access information on administrative 
procedures must ensure the following principles: i) Human rights protection principle; ii) The 
principle of limiting human rights must not be contrary to the Constitution and the law 
(restricting human rights on the basis of law; iii) Principles of protecting the interests of the 
state, the legitimate rights and interests of citizens; iv) The restriction must be specified in each 
specific field by legal documents. The purpose of limiting the right to access information about 
administrative procedures in particular as well as restricting human rights in general is to well 
protect human rights; this depends on many factors including the need for a mechanism to do 
it. The human rights restriction mechanism is diverse with different levels implemented by 
different actors. 
TNU Journal of Science and Technology 226(03): 86 - 92 
 91 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 
3.4. Improvement solutions to ensure the right to access information on administrative procedures 
Solutions are given as follows based on the study on the mechanism to ensure the right to 
access to information on administrative procedures under Vietnamese law. 
Firstly, it is necessary to clearly and specifically define the responsibilities of the State, 
competent authorities, organizations and individuals in promulgating policies, laws and 
commitment conditions to implement the information disclosure on administrative procedures in 
sufficient, timely and accurate manner for citizens. The law is required to obviously identify the 
agency responsible for providing the information; to state the responsibility of information 
publication and provision at the request of state authorities; to clearly define the scope of 
information content to be publicized and provided upon request; to stipulate the form of publicity 
and form of information provision; to transparently regulates the order and procedures for 
information provision and disclosure, information provision fees and sanctions against violations. 
It demands to consider the exemption and reduction for policy beneficiaries, the poor, the near-
poor, people living, working and residing in regions under difficult socio-economic conditions in 
cases of collection of information provision fees [5, p.43]. 
Secondly, regarding the mechanism to ensure the right to access to information on administrative 
procedures. Two aspects are included in the citizens' right to access information on administrative 
procedures: the citizens’ right to actively access and collect information on administrative procedures 
held by state authorities; and the responsibility of state authorities to provide information on 
administrative procedures to citizens. A mechanism is proposed to ensure the implementation of these 
two aspects as follows: 
(i) The mechanism to ensure the right to access to information on administrative procedures 
Besides stipulating a relatively wide range of information on administrative procedures to be 
proactively publicized by state authorities without any request from citizens, it is required to clear 
and convenient procedures provided by the law to ensure that citizens own the right to actively 
access to information on administrative procedures they require. 
It should be noted that citizens are able to request in writing including in the form of electronic 
documents as well as by phone or verbally. In terms of duration, it is necessary to specify that the 
request for information provision must be handled promptly within a reasonable period of time, as 
delaying the provision of information sometimes means refusal to provide information. Since 
information fails to be provided promptly, it is more likely to infringe the interests of citizens. 
Regarding the case of being denied providing information or providing information not in 
accordance with the law, the regulation allowing citizens the right to compile complaints and 
lawsuits to the competent authority (possibly the superiors or court authorities) is requested to add. 
(ii) Responsibilities of state authorities to proactively provide information to citizens 
The way citizens are able to access to information mainly depends on the activities of state 
authorities in which the capacity of public servants remains prominent. Follows are consequently 
requested to implement in terms of the responsibility of authorities in providing information 
administrative procedures for citizens: 
- Actively publicize information even when there is no request. Different forms of information 
disclosure are included: posting on websites, on the mass media, through spokespeople and etc., 
Information disclosure in a proactive and positive manner as mentioned is supposed to reduce the 
administrative burden when directly answering questions and requests for common information. 
- Periodically post information on the authorities' website; build and upgrade the database on 
administrative procedures. It allows access to information to be implemented quickly and 
inexpensively regarding both the people and authorities holding information. 
- To establish the document storage system that allows easy collection, cataloging, storage and 
provision of information so that information is smartly extracted and valuable information is 
committed not to be missing. 
TNU Journal of Science and Technology 226(03): 86 - 92 
 92 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 
- To assign officers responsible for information at the state administrative authorities acting to 
receive citizens' requests and provide information since it allows requests of information 
provision on administrative procedures are directly transferred to the head of the information-
holding authorities, thereby promptly settling the request for information provision. 
- To organize the independent authority responsible for supervising the enforcement of the law 
on the right to access to information on administrative procedures in practice, and to promote the 
supervision role of other institutions in the society such as associations and unions, National Front 
and etc. 
4. Conclusion 
In the process of building a socialist law-based state with the goal of a democratic, justice and 
civilized society, Vietnamese State has actively expanded democracy and well organized 
conditions for people to participate deeply in social management under the motto of “people 
know, people discuss, people do, people examine”. It is worth noting that the "people know" 
issue is the first basis for people to exercise their ownership associated with the right to access to 
information on administrative procedures. As a result, publicizing information on administrative 
procedures for people to access is demanded to consider as a priority of public authorities in 
countries in general as well as in Vietnam in particular. 
REFERENCES 
[1] United Nations Council, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19, 1948. 
[2] United Nations Council, Declaration on Civil and Political Rights, 1966. 
[3] National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Constitution 1992, adopted on April 15, 1992. 
[4] National Assembly of Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Constitution 2013, adopted on November 28, 
2013. 
[5] T. T. T. Phi, “Principles of Assurance for the Right to Information Access under the Law on 
Information Access of 2016,” Legislative Study Magazine, vol. 393, no. 17, pp. 12-16, 2019. 
[6] T. H. H. Le, "Right to access to information in legislative activities," Vietnam Trade and Industry 
Review, no. 12, pp. 146, 2020. 
[7] N. Son, "Ensuring the right to access information of people in the operation of state administrative 
agencies in Vietnam," Vietnam Trade and Industry Review, no. 25, pp. 19 – 27, 2020. 
[8] M. H. Hoang, “Ensuring the right of citizen’s to access information – the current issues and some 
recommendations,” Legislative Study Magazine, vol. 309, no. 5, pp. 11- 17, 2016. 
[9] Lang Son Department of Justice, Rights and obligations of citizens in accessing information, scope and 
responsibility for providing information, date June 6, 2020. 
[10] Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Decree 63/2010/ND-CP on Control of 
Administrative Procedures, dated June 8, 2010. 
[11] Communist Party of Vietnam, Document of the 12th Congress of the Communist Party, p. 310, 2016. 
[12] National Assembly of Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Law on Protection of State Secrets 2017, passed 
on November 15, 2018. 
[13] Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Decision No. 25/2013/QD-TTg on regulation on 
spokesperson and providing information to the press, dated May 4, 2013.