The system has too many bosses, no budget can support them.

If the apparatus keeps expanding, with too many people in leadership and management positions but not effectively, it is a waste, no budget can support it - National Assembly Deputy Le Thanh Van expressed his opinion.

National Assembly Deputy Le Thanh Van, standing member of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee, shared with VietNamNet about the current state of the cumbersome apparatus - one of the contents expected to be discussed at the 6th Central Conference.

National Assembly Delegate Le Thanh Van. Photo: Pham Hai

The more bosses, the more responsibility is pushed around.

According to him, is it because of the Vietnamese mentality of liking to be a boss or a leader or because being an official brings too many benefits, "when one person becomes an official, the whole family benefits"?

Yes. Old ideas are heavy in society. It is a form of corruption of power to accumulate benefits.

Nowadays, this situation is even more distorted in that they abuse that power to arrange for family members and relatives to become leaders, "the whole family becomes officials, the whole clan becomes officials" to gain economic benefits.

Being an official nowadays brings great benefits and great power, but they abuse their influence to benefit not only themselves but also their family. Therefore, everyone is trying to become an official. And that is the root cause leading to group interests.

What are the consequences of a cumbersome apparatus with more directors than executors, sir?

Having more bosses than soldiers will make the system heavily bureaucratic. Because when leaders sit in the chair, they often do not do specific work but only point their fingers, there is no one to do the work, only people to assign work. This is a big problem, if not thoroughly overcome, the effectiveness and efficiency of the system will be really worrying.

There are also other harmful effects such as unclear responsibility of the leader; the more leaders there are, the more common the situation of blaming and shirking is, and the quality of consulting, organizing and operating the system is not high.

Need a "distillation", cutting out the middleman

During the recent supervision of administrative reform, many localities explained that the situation of having more bosses than soldiers “was not created by the province or ministry itself”. What do you think about this explanation?

Current regulations allow for a certain number of departments and a certain minimum and maximum number of leaders, so they will be able to install enough. The apparatus has many intermediate levels and the division of tasks is not clear, so it is natural that the leadership positions occupy 3/4 of the total.

So, the localities did not do anything wrong. The problem is to restructure the apparatus to be truly scientific and reasonable.

The nature of the administrative system operates under a command system, the head leads the whole system, takes the lead and is responsible. The division of work of the administrative apparatus must be directed towards the head. From the head, it spreads out in a cone-shaped model.

Faced with such a situation, how do you think it should be overcome?

We are facing too much pressure to reform the apparatus, including pressure on spending.

Currently, spending on maintaining the apparatus accounts for a very large and unprecedented proportion of the budget (currently, regular spending fluctuates around 70% of the budget), while public debt pressure is increasing.

If we do not reform the apparatus but let it swell, no budget can support it, especially with an apparatus with too many leaders and managers who are ineffective and inefficient, that is a risk.

There needs to be a "distillation" and a real determination to cut off intermediate levels and remove from the apparatus those officials and civil servants who do not meet job requirements.

Doing well can reduce 50%

If we really reform the apparatus in the true sense of streamlining as you said, then how much should the current apparatus be reduced to be appropriate?

If done well, I think it will at least be reduced by half.

The basis for me saying this is that if the intermediate level is reduced, the intermediate staff will immediately follow. Currently, our intermediate staff accounts for approximately 50%.

Another problem is that we are currently dominated by the concept of uniformity in organizational structure, whatever is above, is also below, making the structure cumbersome.

While the nature of the administrative apparatus is a conical structure; the signal from above must spread throughout the system.

How to make the determination to streamline the apparatus practical and not just empty words?

To be effective, the leader must have an iron fist, establish discipline with strong will and determination, and say what you do. If you are in a high position and say nothing, it is no different from “talking nonsense”. The problem is still people.

Without a breakthrough, still dealing with the "cutting off the top" and then "following the process and regulations" will not have an effective solution to this extremely important problem.

According to Vietnamnet.vn