The border commune of Na Ngoi (Ky Son) has 19 villages scattered at the foot of Puxailaileng mountain. What is easy to see when coming here is the rather quiet scene, some houses are closed. "A few go to work on the fields, the majority go to work far away, some families go away, the village is only full of old people and children. Since the beginning of the year, the village has had to reorganize the Women's Union, the Farmers' Union and replace the Deputy Head of the village because some staff go to work far away" - Secretary of the Party Cell of Pu Kha 1 village Vu Ba Tong said.
It is known that not only in Pu Kha 1 village but also in many villages in Na Ngoi commune, there is a phenomenon of village cadres asking to leave to work far away. For example, in Keo Bac village, in 2022, Party Cell Secretary Lau Giong Ma asked to leave, so the Village Chief had to be arranged to be Party Cell Secretary, then promoted to be Village Chief. After that, the new Party Cell Secretary, Mua Xia Pho, also went to work far away for 2-3 months before returning. In Pu Quac 1 village, in 2023, Party Cell Secretary Mua Ba Denh also asked to leave to work far away, so the commune had to implement a similar plan in Keo Bac village, which was to arrange the Village Chief to be Party Cell Secretary, and promote the Village Deputy Chief to be Village Chief.
According to the leaders of Na Ngoi commune, not only village officials but also commune-level officials such as Gia Ba Cho - Vice Chairman of the Commune Fatherland Front also asked to quit due to the pressure of making a living. "Working for a company still earns 10-15 million VND/month, but at home, the allowance is only 1 million VND/month, I can't support my wife and children so I have to leave" - Gia Ba Cho explained.
In Huoi Tu commune - where the Mong, Thai, Kinh, and Kho Mu ethnic groups live together, of which the Mong ethnic group accounts for 97%, some villages are also facing difficulties in personnel work. For example, in 2022, the two villages of Huoi Mu and Huoi Uc both had Party Cell Secretaries working far away and had to be reorganized, while in Huoi Thang village, the Deputy Village Chief and the police officer both worked far away and have not been reorganized yet. According to the leaders of Huoi Tu commune: in early 2023, the Deputy Secretary of the Commune Youth Union, Vu Ba Xo, born in 1987, also resigned to work at a rubber company, then in June 2023, the Vice Chairman of the Commune Fatherland Front, Vu Ba Chay, also resigned. "They are all capable people, but we have to accept their resignation to stabilize their lives...", said Mr. Mua Ba Gio - Chairman of the People's Committee of Huoi Tu commune.
Similar situations also occur in many other communes in Ky Son district, such as in Muong Long commune. By the end of April 2023, 8 officials of the People's Committee of the commune and village had resigned, including: 1 Deputy Head of the Inspection Committee of the Commune Party Committee, 1 Vice Chairman of the Veterans Association, 1 commune veterinary officer, 2 Heads of the Front Work Committee (Tham Pang and Huoi Khun villages) and 3 village chiefs (Huoi Khun, Tha Lang, Tham Hang). Of the 8 people who resigned, 5 went to the South to find work.
In Bao Thang commune, in 2023, 4 village officials submitted their resignations. Among them was Mr. Xeo Van Tan - Secretary of the Party Cell of Cha Ca 1 village. Mr. Tan said that his wife's health was poor, and with raising 3 children, the economic burden fell on his shoulders. The work in the village was often unstable, with many meetings, so he did not have time to take care of his children and family. Therefore, he asked for leave to find a job to earn more income to support his family. In addition to Mr. Tan, Mr. Moong Van Mai - Head of Cha Ca 2 village also submitted his resignation in February 2023 for the same reason.
Previously, Bao Thang commune was on the list of key communes with complicated social order and security, and village chiefs like Moong Van Mai received an allowance coefficient of 1.75 compared to the basic salary (about 2.6 million VND/month). However, after the commune was recognized as having successfully transformed and was no longer a key, complicated area in terms of security and order, according to the provisions of Resolution 22/2019/NQ-HDND of the province, the allowance for Party cell secretaries and village chiefs had a coefficient of 1.1 compared to the basic salary; the Head of the Front's work committee was adjusted down from 1.5 to 0.8 compared to the basic salary. This means that the amount of allowance Mr. Mai received each month was reduced to about 1.6 million VND. After the Commune People's Committee announced that this allowance regime would be implemented from January 2023, in February 2023, Mr. Moong Van Mai submitted an application to resign from his position as village chief to go to the South to find work.
Meanwhile, the Party Secretary of Tay Son Commune (Ky Son) Vu Ra Tenh said, "Nowadays, finding people with prestige and capacity to stick with the people and the village for a long time is not easy. Given the urgent need for family economy, it is inevitable to have to reorganize the staff every year. In 2022, Tay Son Commune has the Head of Lu Thanh Village - Mr. Mua Ba Cho and the Head of Dong Duoi Village - Mr. Ha Ba Bi going to work far away, so they have to be reorganized. Even at the commune level, the Vice Chairman of the Front has been working far away from home from 2021 to 2023, and the Deputy Military Commander of the Commune has been gone since March and has not been reorganized yet"...
The situation of cadres asking to resign does not only occur in mountainous districts but also in plain districts. For example, in Nghi Quang commune (Nghi Loc) - a special area with a population of about 6,900 people, distributed in 7 hamlets, including 3 parish hamlets. According to the Party Secretary and Chairman of the Commune People's Committee Nguyen Van Than: Young workers in Nghi Quang commune mainly go to work abroad in European countries (about 1,000 people), so there is a shortage of part-time cadres, especially the youth union branches in the hamlets that must be supplemented and strengthened regularly, there are branches that have to replace 3-4 secretaries each year, mainly the student force structure. Even the Standing Committee of the Commune Youth Union, Mr. Hoang Ba Canh, born in 1990, a young and capable cadre, suddenly asked to resign to go work abroad. In 2022-2023, in addition to a branch secretary, there are also a number of branch presidents of women's associations and village team leaders who have resigned to reorganize...
Secretary of the Bac Son 2 hamlet Party Cell and Vice Chairman of the Nghi Quang Commune Farmers' Association - Chu Van Toan, born in 1979, said: Bac Son 2 hamlet has 142 households, 585 people, almost every house has someone who goes to work abroad or works in industrial parks inside and outside the province, so supplementing and creating a source of cadres for the hamlet's political system and Party development work faces many difficulties. The hamlet Party Cell currently has 11 party members, and for the past 6-7 years has not been able to admit new party members. In 2022, an outstanding mass member, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Duan - Secretary of the Youth Union, was trained, and when he was preparing to file for party admission, he went to work abroad. The successor Secretary of the Youth Union, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kieu Oanh, also went to study abroad in Korea, so the hamlet promoted the Deputy Secretary of the Youth Union to become Secretary, but it is not certain that it will be stable.
Sharing about the situation of grassroots cadres, especially young cadres as well as the young labor force increasingly tending to leave their hometowns to look for jobs, many commune leaders said that, in addition to economic difficulties and work pressure "all over the place", the allowances for village cadres, associations and unions are currently low, forcing them to find other jobs to support their families. Some young people have better economic conditions, but their capacity is limited, or they are not interested in social work and unions.
The young force left the locality, the hamlet and village work fell on the shoulders of the elderly, while after the merger, the administrative boundaries were large, the population was large, many programs were deployed to the grassroots such as building new rural areas, advanced new rural areas, socio-economic development projects... causing pressure on the hamlet and village cadres. They had to both propagate and directly mobilize people to contribute to building the movement, as well as directly collect people's obligations. Besides, there were a series of unnamed tasks such as directing people to develop production; preventing diseases on crops and livestock; maintaining security and order in hamlets; reconciling the grassroots, reviewing and evaluating poor households...
Therefore, in Nghia Hop commune (Tan Ky) in 2023, in the same hamlet, both the secretary and the hamlet chief resigned due to pressure, the local Party Committee and government had to propagate and mobilize them to continue working. Or in Tan Lam hamlet, Phu Son commune (Tan Ky), in 2022, Party Cell Secretary Nguyen Xuan Tuan resigned to go work abroad due to difficult circumstances. After that, the commune Party Committee supplemented Mr. Ha Dinh Niem, born in 1962, to be the Hamlet Chief and Head of the Front Work Committee. Having experience before the merger, he had been Party Cell Secretary and Hamlet Chief, but Mr. Niem expressed: “Being the head of a small hamlet is different from a large hamlet. Tan Lam hamlet after the merger has an area of 1,400 hectares of natural land, from the beginning of the hamlet to the end of the hamlet is more than 6km. At this age, I also want to rest, but because many young people in the hamlet go to work far away, there is no one to take on the responsibility of the people and the hamlet, so when the commune came to persuade me, I accepted.”
Mr. Nguyen Ba Thanh, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Phu Son Commune Party Committee, said: “Finding a source of successors to supplement the team of village and hamlet cadres is facing many difficulties. Therefore, in some places, a vicious cycle occurs: every time there is a congress of the Party cell or the congress of political and social organizations, commune-level cadres have to mobilize and persuade village and hamlet cadres to continue participating in the work, which is often associated with the responsibility of Party members. In addition, the fluctuations of mass organizations, especially the Youth Union, also make it difficult to create sources of Party members. The entire Party Committee of the commune currently has 213 Party members, of which 28 are working far away. In 2023, the target of admitting 6 Party members was set, but only 1 person was admitted.”
Or in Na Ngoi commune (Ky Son), talking about the difficulties in perfecting village cadres, comrade Vu Ba Ly - Secretary of the Commune Party Committee gave an example that in Ka Duoi village, because they could not find a person with enough capacity and prestige within the village to take on the position of Party Cell Secretary, the commune had to arrange for comrade Gia Tong Thu, former Party Cell Secretary of Buoc Mu 2 village, member of the Commune Party Executive Committee, to work as Party Cell Secretary in Ka Duoi village to stabilize the situation, bring peace to the people and the area.
Many local leaders believe that if the allowance level for village and hamlet level officials is not improved, it will be very difficult to retain them, especially young and qualified officials.
At the meeting and dialogue between the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee and more than 1,000 key officials of 460 communes and towns in the province in 2023, some leaders of grassroots localities also raised the issue of the regime and policies for non-professional activists and those directly participating in activities in hamlets, blocks, and villages that still have many shortcomings, not meeting the requirements to ensure a minimum living standard; leading to the fact that there are not many young, qualified, and capable people participating in activities in hamlets and blocks, mainly the elderly and retired officials, causing difficulties in the work of training and fostering cadres and the activities of the political system in hamlets and villages...
