Vietnam: More inspection of postal and delivery companies needed
Do Thi Tinh, deputy inspector of the Ministry of Information and Communications spoke with Buu Dien Viet Nam (Viet Nam Post) about major problems with enterprises operating postal and delivery services.
The Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) sent an inspection team for the first time to carry out a large-scale examination of enterprises operating within the postal system. What were the major problems discovered?
In 2007, the Government issued Decree No 128/2007/ND-CP on managing postal delivery services. This decree mandated that firms engaging in postal delivery not only continue to register with their city or provincial department of planning and investment, but also to register and get a licence from MoIC.
One year after the decree, however, only 13 postal delivery enterprises had been licenced from MoIC, eight enterprises were waiting for licences after turning in the appropriate documents and 14 others had informed the ministry of their business. According to our statistics, some 200 enterprises are operating in delivery services.
In our recent investigation, the major problem seemed to be that many enterprises did not know about the new State policy. They did not know that doing business in delivery services is a conditional business field which requires them to get a license from MoIC, and therefore only registered with their respective department of planning and investment.
During inspections, we informed postal delivery enterprises without licences about the need to become registered with MoIC and commanded them to supplement their documents and send them in.
What have been done about the violations?
Many planning and investment departments do not apply fines, but only give warnings and order violators to turn in their documents. It has also happened that strict punishments were given.
Our inspection team has carried out examinations in three provinces and cities and has given fines up to VND50 million (USD 3,100) to enterprises without licences, those which use measuring devices that have not been tested, or those which are charging different prices than what is on the set price list.
Did the examination and fining processes encounter any difficulties?
Some enterprises which no longer operate in postal delivery services are still registered with departments of planning and investment; there are also many providing services without registering at all. This causes much trouble for the management of these enterprises.
Another problem is that enterprises in some provinces have proper offices from which to do business, while others have an unofficial person operating without an official office.
Post offices also have many violations such as expired agency contracts, collecting the wrong amount of money for calls and having no records of subscribers.
The MoIC inspection team is planning to amend and supplement some more articles in Decree No 142/2004/ND-CP on fining violations in postal services. Why does the decree need to be amended?
In the past, the inspection unit of the ministry discovered many violations of enterprises. But the decree either does not have any sanctions for these violations, or the sanctions are not feasible. The violations include having no business registration, inadequate billing information, no customs procedures or quarantine with international packages, buying unidentified postal stamps, as well as unfair competition by offering high discount rates.
Meanwhile, the sanction is too high for those who do not register their services, which makes it difficult to apply.
What is your opinion of the State’s management of postal and delivery services?
State management on postal and delivery services has not been adequate. The inspection team from MoIC is too small, and there is too much work. In my opinion, it is necessary that the State strengthen inspection in postal and delivery services in cities and provinces in order to make enterprises operating in this field do their business in accordance with the law.
