DECISION

PROMULGATING THE REGULATION ON GIVING, RECEIPT AND HAND-OVER OF GIFTS BY STATE BUDGET-FUNDED AGENCIES, ORGANIZATIONS AND UNITS AND CADRES, PUBLIC EMPLOYEES AND SERVANTS

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant to the November 29, 2005 Anti-Corruption Law;

Pursuant to the December 16, 2002 Law on State Budget;

Pursuant to the November 29, 2005 Law on Thrift Practice and Waste Combat;

At the proposal of the Finance Minister,

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To promulgate together with this Decision the Regulation on giving, receipt and hand-over of gifts by state budget-funded agencies, organizations and units and cadres, public employees and servants.

Article 2.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its publication in "CONG BAO."

Article 7.- Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies, presidents of provincial/municipal People's Committees, and relevant agencies and organizations shall implement this Decision.

REGULATION

ON GIVING, RECEIPT AND HAND-OVER OF GIFTS BY STATE BUDGET-FUNDED AGENCIES, ORGANIZATIONS AND UNITS AND CADRES, PUBLIC EMPLOYEES AND SERVANTS
(Promulgated together with the Prime Minister's Decision No. 64/2007/QD-TTg of May 10, 2007)

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1.- Scope of regulation

1. This Regulation provides for:

a/ Gift giving by agencies, organizations, units and individuals using state funds and assets;

b/ Gift receipt by agencies, organizations, units, cadres, public employees and servants;

c/ Reporting, hand-over and disposal of gifts.

2. This Regulation is not applicable to the following cases:

a/ Gift giving under the Prime Minister's Decision No. 205/2004/QD-TTg of December 10, 2004, on the implementation of a number of policies and regimes for senior officials;

b/ Gift giving by competent agencies and organizations to social policy beneficiaries and persons who rendered meritorious services to the revolution.

Article 2.- Subjects of implementation

1. Cadres, public employees and servants as defined by the law on cadres and public employees.

2. State agencies, political organizations, socio-political organizations, people's armed forces units, public non-business units, state enterprises and other agencies, organizations and units using state budget and assets (below collectively referred to as agencies and units).

3. This Regulation is applicable to the following persons:

a/ Officers, non-commissioned officers and professional armymen in agencies and units of the people's army; specialist officers and non-commissioned officers and technical officers and non-commissioned officers in agencies and units of the people's public security forces;

b/ Leaders and managers of state enterprises; leaders and managers representing the State's share in enterprises;

c/ Holders of leadership and management posts in political organizations, socio-political organizations and other state budget-funded agencies and units.

Article 3.- Gifts provided for in this Regulations include:

1. Vietnamese currency, foreign currencies, savings certificates, stocks, bonds, checks and valuable papers.

2. Material items, goods and assets.

3. Services of domestic or overseas sightseeing tours, travel, healthcare, education-training, internship and refresher training and other kinds of services.

4. Rights to buy assets, houses, land use rights and equipment use rights; non state-prescribed privileges; use of assets, houses, land and equipment of other persons, which is free of charge or undercharged.

Article 4.- To strictly prohibit the giving, under all forms, of funds and assets of the State or originated from the state budget as gifts in contravention of regulations.

Article 5.- To strictly prohibit agencies, units, cadres, public employees and servants from receiving, or receiving on behalf of other persons, or receiving via agencies, units or individuals, gifts in the following cases:

1. Agencies, units or individuals give gifts in connection to public affairs under their management or under their handling responsibility or the handling responsibility of the person on whose behalf they receive gifts (before, during or after the handling of public affairs).

2. Gifts are given by agencies, units or individuals for unclear purposes.

3. Gifts are given for purposes relating to acts of corruption specified in Article 3 of the Anti-Corruption Law.

Chapter II

SPECIFIC PROVISIONS

Section 1. PROVISIONS ON GIFT GIVING

Article 6.- Agencies, units and individuals may only use funds or assets of the State or originated from the state budget as gifts in cases permitted under state regulations.

Article 7.- Gift giving under this Regulation and other relevant legal documents must comply with the State's current regulations on regimes, criteria and recipients; gift-receiving agencies and units shall make accounts for gifts in accordance with current law and disclose them in their offices according to regulations.

Article 8.- The Ministry of Finance shall amend and supplement regulations on gift giving for foreign relation and international cooperation activities of state agencies and elaborate new ones.

Section 2. PROVISIONS ON GIFT RECEIPT

Article 9.- Agencies and units may only receive gifts in accordance with law. These gifts must be disclosed, managed and used according to this Regulation.

Representatives of agencies and units shall refuse gifts that are given in contravention of the prescribed regime, criteria and recipients and clearly state the reasons to gift givers. When it is impossible to refuse, agencies and units shall manage and dispose of gifts according to Section 3 of this Regulation.

Article 10.- Cadres, public employees and servants may only receive gifts in accordance with law and shall acknowledge receipt with their signatures; and shall declare their incomes when required by law.

Cadres, public employees and servants shall refuse gifts that are given in contravention of the prescribed regime, criteria and recipients, clearly stating the reasons to gift givers. When it is impossible to refuse, cadres, public employees and servants shall report to the head(s) of their agencies or units for disposal according to Section 3 of this Regulation.

Article 11.- Cadres, public employees and servants are not required to report to their agencies or units on gifts given by their relatives or family members who do not have relations in terms of interests related to the gift recipients' public duties and by agencies, units or individuals having no relation with the gift recipients' public duties; when required by law, cadres, public employees and servants shall declare their incomes according to regulations.

Section 3. PROVISIONS ON REPORTING, HAND-OVER AND DISPOSAL OF GIFTS

Article 12.- Gifts shall be reported and handed over as follows:

1. When getting gifts in contravention of regulations, agencies and units shall hand over these gifts to the division responsible for managing gifts for disposal according to Article 13 of this Regulation.

2. When getting gifts in contravention of regulations, cadres, public employees or servants shall report to their immediate supervisor(s) and hand over these gifts to their agencies or units within five working days from the date of receipt.

When reporting and handing over gifts later than the above time limit, gift recipients shall clearly state the reasons therefor.

3. A report shall be made in writing and must include the following contents:

a/ Kind and value of the gift.

b/ Time, place and specific circumstance of receiving the gift;

c/ Name, position, agency and address of the gift giver;

d/ Purpose of gift giving (if known).

4. Apart from the cases specified in Article 11 of this Regulation, when cadres, public employees or servants who fall sick, suffer accidents, or in mourning or wedding events, or on traditional festival or lunar new year occasions, are given gifts valued at less than VND 500,000 and the gift giving does not relate to the purposes and acts prescribed in Article 5 of this Regulation, they may decide on gift receipt themselves without having to report it and are responsible for their decision.

Article 13.- Order of gift disposal

When gifts are handed over to agencies or units, heads of those agencies or units shall take over, preserve and promptly dispose of the gifts as follows:

1. To carry out procedures to transfer into the state budget gifts in cash, savings certificates, stocks, bonds, checks or valuable papers in accordance with the Ministry of Finance's regulations.

2. When gifts are in kind:

a/ To determine the gift value on the basis of the price of gifts informed by gift-giving agencies, units or individuals (if any) or the value of similar articles sold on domestic or international markets which the agency managing the gift recipient can compare and determine. When it is impossible to determine the gift value, they may request a competent valuation agency to determine it;

b/ Depending on the quantity of material items handed over, heads of agencies or units shall decide to sell them publicly every three or six months;

c/ For gifts specified in Clause 3, Article 3 of this Regulation and gifts that are animals, plants, fresh or live foods and other items difficult to preserve, heads of agencies or units shall, based on realities, decide on the disposal thereof as appropriate; or report to their immediate superior agencies for consideration and disposal when it falls beyond their competence;

d/ Agencies and units shall remit into the state budget the collected sums (after deducting expenses for disposal of material items) within 30 days from the date of selling the items.

3. Agencies and units shall make reports on the collection, hand-over and disposal of gifts on a quarterly and annual basis and send them to their immediate superior agencies and disclose them in their offices.

4. Gift-disposing agencies and units shall notify in writing gift-giving agencies and units or agencies and units managing gift givers of the gift giving for consideration and handling thereof according to law.

Chapter III

IMPLEMENTATION RESPONSIBILITIES

Article 14.- Cadres, public employees and servants have the responsibilities:

1. To strictly observe regulations on gift giving, receipt and hand-over in accordance with law and this Regulation.

2. To introduce and disseminate legal provisions on gift receipt to their relatives and family members for compliance.

Article 15.- Heads of agencies and units have the responsibilities:

1. To organize the strict implementation of this Regulation and other relevant laws.

2. To disseminate and popularize legal provisions on gift giving, receipt and hand-over in their agencies and units.

3. To monitor, check, supervise and adopt measures to prevent acts of giving and receiving gifts in contravention of regulations; promptly handle violations of this Regulation in their agencies and units; and disclose violation handling results in their agencies and units.

4. To annually report to their immediate supervisors on the implementation of this Regulation and disclose these reports in their agencies and units.

Article 16.- Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies and presidents of provincial/municipal People's Committees have the responsibilities:

1. To direct, inspect and supervise their attached units in implementing this Regulation.

2. Before November 15 every year, to report on gift giving, receipt and hand-over in their offices according to this Regulation and submit reports to the Ministry of Finance for summing up and report to the Prime Minister before December 15 every year.

Article 17.- State inspection, oversight and audit agencies have the responsibilities:

1. Within the ambit of their functions, tasks and powers, to detect violations of the provisions stipulated in this Regulation and handle them according to their competence, or report them to competent agencies for handling in accordance with law.

2. To coordinate with agencies and units in exchanging information, documents and experience on the observation of this Regulation.

Article 18.- Financial agencies and state treasuries at all levels have the responsibilities:

1. Financial agencies at all levels shall intensify the oversight and control over the use of state funds and assets in accordance with current regulations and this Regulation.

2. State treasuries at all levels shall implement the mechanism of state budget expenditure control toward agencies and units funded with the state budget via treasuries; and create favorable conditions for agencies, units, cadres, public employees and servants to remit donated sums into the state budget.

Chapter IV

HANDLING OF VIOLATIONS

Article 19.- Handling of violating agencies, units and individuals

1. Agencies and units giving gifts in contravention of regulations shall refund the value of gifts to the public fund. Individuals giving gifts not in accordance with competence or regulations, or for the purposes relating to corruptive acts specified in Article 3 of the Anti-Corruption Law shall refund the value of gifts, and shall, depending on the nature and severity of their violations, be handled according to law.

If agencies, units, cadres, public employees and servants that receive gifts in contravention of regulations fail to report or make untruthful reports thereon, they shall, depending on the nature and severity of their violations, be handled according to law.

2. Persons who decide on the use of state funds or assets as gifts in contravention of regulations shall, as their decisions are detected through inspection, oversight or auditing, refund with their own money to the public fund all sums and value of material items used as gifts.

3. Persons who give or receive gifts in contravention of regulations but report, refund or hand over these gifts before their acts are detected may be considered for discipline remission in accordance with law.

4. Agencies, units, cadres, public employees and servants who violate this Regulation are not eligible for consideration of emulation titles and rewards.