Ministry of Public Security explains proposal to add 6 positions with highest rank of general

Ceremony to announce the Decision of the Minister of Public Security on the transfer and appointment of personnel of the Chief of Office of the Ministry of Public Security.

Major General Pham Cong Nguyen - Director of the Department of Legislation and Administrative and Judicial Reform of the Ministry of Public Security answered the press regarding the proposal of the Ministry of Public Security.

PV:Major General, could you please tell us the new highlights of the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on People's Public Security?

Major General Pham Cong Nguyen: The first Law on People's Public Security was promulgated in 2005 and was amended and supplemented in 2014 and 2018. In this amendment and supplement, the Standing Committee of the Drafting Committee plans to propose focusing on the following provisions:

Firstly, amend and supplement the regulations on the highest service age of officers, non-commissioned officers, and police workers to suit the specific nature and regulations on increasing the retirement age of the Labor Code; accordingly, supplement the regulations and increase the highest service age of police workers (men increase by 2 years, women increase by 5 years); increase the age of officers and non-commissioned officers by 2 years; female officers with the rank of Colonel increase by 5 years, female officers with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel increase by 3 years; female officers with the rank of General still keep the current age of 60 years.

Age increase time according to the roadmap: Each year, increase 3 months for men and 4 months for women. For officers and non-commissioned officers with the highest service age under 60 years old for men and under 55 years old for women, the age increase is 2 years, not according to the above roadmap. The time to increase the highest service age starts from 2021 to be consistent with the provisions of the Labor Code, but this provision does not apply to cases that have retired before the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on People's Public Security takes effect.

Second, amend and supplement the regulations on early promotion to the rank of General for People's Public Security officers with outstanding achievements in combat and work; accordingly, the Law assigns the Government to specify the criteria and standards for early promotion to the rank of General for People's Public Security officers with outstanding achievements in combat and work as a basis for proposing the President to consider and decide on early promotion to the rank of General for convenient application in practice.

Third, amend and supplement the regulations on the highest ranks for positions and titles of People's Public Security officers; accordingly, add a number of positions with the highest ranks of General and Colonel in the People's Public Security to suit the practice, structure and organization of the Ministry of Public Security.

Major General Pham Cong Nguyen - Director of the Department of Legislation and Administrative and Judicial Reform of the Ministry of Public Security answered the press regarding the proposal of the Ministry of Public Security.

PV:One of the notable points of the draft law is the regulation to increase the number of Senior Lieutenant Generals to 7 and add 5 positions with the rank of General. Why did the drafting committee make this proposal, sir?

Major General Pham Cong Nguyen: The Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on People's Public Security proposes to amend and supplement a number of regulations on the highest rank of General, specifically: Adding 1 position with the highest rank of Senior Lieutenant General and 5 positions with the highest rank of Major General.

Firstly, regarding the position with the highest rank of Senior Lieutenant General, the 2018 Law on People's Public Security stipulates 6 positions with the highest rank of Senior Lieutenant General for 6 people holding the position of Deputy Minister of Public Security.

Currently, the Ministry of Public Security has a Deputy Minister on secondment to work at the National Assembly's Committee on National Defense and Security and has been approved by the National Assembly for the position of Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on National Defense and Security, but the 2018 Law on People's Public Security has not yet specified the rank for this position.

Therefore, to ensure consistency in regulations on ranks for People's Public Security officers, the Standing Committee of the Drafting Committee proposes to supplement the regulation on the highest rank of Senior Lieutenant General for People's Public Security officers approved by the National Assembly to hold the position of Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on National Defense and Security.

Second, regarding positions with the highest rank of Major General, implementing the 2018 Law on People's Public Security and related documents, the organization of the police apparatus at all levels has been fundamentally and comprehensively reformed and streamlined (eliminating regulations on the General Department level). In particular, most of the Heads of Department-level units and equivalent Department-level units under the Ministry have the highest rank of Lieutenant General and Major General, but there are still Heads of some Department-level equivalent units that have not been regulated to have the highest rank ceiling of General, so there is a lack of consistency and unity in regulations on ranks for equivalent positions and titles.

For example, according to the provisions of the 2018 Law on People's Public Security, the Director of the People's Security Academy, the Director of the People's Police Academy, the Director of the People's Public Security Political Academy have the highest rank of Lieutenant General, but the Principal of the People's Police University, the Principal of the People's Security University only have the highest rank of Colonel; meanwhile, these are units under the Ministry, are two key schools of the People's Public Security force, training human resources for the Southern region, so it is not suitable for the position, function and tasks of these two units.

Or according to Regulation No. 30 dated August 19, 2021 of the Politburo on standards, conditions, tasks, powers, appointment procedures, policies and regimes for the positions of Assistant and Secretary, a Politburo member has 2 Assistants and enjoys salaries, policies and regimes equivalent to the General Director. However, currently, there is only 1 Assistant to a Politburo member and Minister of Public Security who is prescribed to have the highest rank of Major General...

Therefore, the Drafting Committee proposes to amend and supplement the regulations on ranks of People's Public Security officers to suit the practice, structure and organization of the Ministry of Public Security.

PV:Thank you!