Lao Voices

According to The Nation, Bangkok’s Independent Newspaper, Laos’s State Inspection Authority looks to become a new government mechanism to make the state administration more transparent after having been legally empowered, according to a senior state inspector. This Law on State Inspection will enable them to work more effectively. The National Assembly passed the Law on State Inspection in June and it is expected to be promulgated by the President in the near future.

According to the VP of the State Inspection Authority, Mr. Thongsy Ouanlasy, he said in the past his organization was mandated only to follow a prime ministerial decree when it carried out inspection work, but now it has to implement the law, which is more applicable and enforceable than a decree. A decree covers government administration bodies but the law covers all situations and every person from every walk of life, including government officials.

In fact the content of both the decree and the law are not much different, but since the law is in place, they can now carry out regular inspections of all levels of state administration throughout the country, and no one will be able to refuse inspection. The inspections aim to ensure that administration processes were transparent and to prevent officials from using their power for personal gain. The inspections also ensure that officials are aware of their good and weak points. It is also to encourage officials to find solutions to problems and to improve the performance of their duties.

According to Mr Thongsy, the results of the inspections would be reported to the top officials in the organization so that they would find ways to resolve administration problems and strengthen the good points, and in some cases, officials who failed to fulfill their assignments would be warned, and in serious cases would be fired. He said that if the inspection uncovered evidence that officials were using their power for personal gain, or that their actions caused serious harm to the state, the authority could report the inspection results to the people’s prosecutor and ask for a legal investigation at the people’s court.

“We do not have the power to take officials we find guilty of wrongdoing to the court. This is the sole right and duty of the people’s prosecutor, in protecting the interests of the nation,” he said.

The state inspection authority plan to carry out a great deal of work in the near future; this would include disseminating information about the law to every level of state administration bodies nationwide. This would be very important because it’s the policy of the Party and the government to ensure that all officials and the public knew of the law, very few people would be able to implement the law if they didn’t know its detail. He added that his organization is planning to intensify its work to ensure the effective and transparent performance of all government administrative bodies throughout the country.

I believe this is a good sign for the future, from decree to law is a big transformation for Laos, and hope that things will be more transparent.

Source.