The Ministry of Home Affairs proposed many breakthrough policies to arrange redundant cadres and civil servants when merging districts and communes.

Summarizing the implementation of the arrangement of administrative units at district and commune levels in the period of 2019-2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that after the arrangement, the whole country reduced 8 districts and 563 communes. Along with that, the whole country reduced 3,437 agencies at commune level and 429 agencies at district level.

Nearly 3,400 redundant officials have not been resolved

Besides the achieved results, the Ministry of Home Affairs also pointed out that there are still some shortcomings, limitations and problems, including the story of arranging redundant cadres, civil servants and public employees after the arrangement.

Specifically, when submitting the reorganization project, many localities have proposed plans to strive to resolve the surplus by 2022. However, at the same time, localities must simultaneously implement many regulations related to streamlining the payroll, arranging and assigning cadres and civil servants.

For example, implementing the policy of arranging regular police to work at the commune level (reducing 1 commune police chief) or implementing the provisions of Decree No. 34/2019 to reduce 2 commune-level officials and civil servants and reduce 8-9 non-professional workers at the commune level.

Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra. Photo: Hoang Ha

This leads to a very large number of redundant district and commune-level officials and civil servants after the rearrangement, making it very difficult for many localities to fulfill their commitment to resolve the surplus by 2022.

Specifically, out of a total of 706 redundant district-level officials and civil servants, 361 have been resolved so far, with 345 still to be resolved; out of a total of 9,705 redundant commune-level officials and civil servants, 6,657 have been resolved so far, with 3,048 still to be resolved.

Meanwhile, the job position framework at commune-level administrative units and district-level specialized departments and offices has basically been fully arranged, making it difficult to arrange redundant staff.

This leads to a situation where there are more civil servants than prescribed for the same job position; inevitably, the arrangement and assignment of civil servants is not in accordance with their expertise or wishes.

Some cases of forced secondment, job transfer or dismissal also affect the thinking of cadres, civil servants and workers, affecting the quality and efficiency of work.

Besides, the age of most of the current civil servants is still young, the time for arrangement is short, the regime and policies are not enough to support cadres and civil servants to stabilize their lives after quitting their jobs and finding other jobs,...

Proposing many breakthrough policies

To solve this problem, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has proposed many breakthrough policies, quite strong in the two draft Decrees on the policy of streamlining the payroll; on commune-level cadres, civil servants and non-professional workers at the commune level, in villages and residential groups.

Specifically, in the draft Decree on streamlining the payroll, the Ministry of Home Affairs has proposed a series of strong enough policies to encourage and adequately support redundant cadres, civil servants and public employees due to the rearrangement of administrative units at district and commune levels to voluntarily streamline their payroll immediately.

Accordingly, redundant cadres, civil servants and public employees due to the arrangement of administrative units at district and commune levels who take leave for 6 months will receive a subsidy of 1.8 million VND (equal to 1 month of basic salary applied from July 1, 2023) or 1/2 month of current salary.

The draft Decree on commune-level cadres, civil servants and non-professional workers at commune, village and residential group levels also expands the number of commune-level cadres and civil servants according to population size, without maximum control.

According to calculations by the Ministry of Home Affairs, if this regulation is implemented, it is estimated that the number of commune-level officials and civil servants nationwide will increase by 7,418 people and correspondingly increase by 7,418 people working part-time at the commune level.

Director of Bac Ninh Department of Home Affairs Nguyen Trong Tan. Photo: Thu Hang

When commenting on this content, Director of the Department of Home Affairs of Bac Ninh Nguyen Trong Tan said that the monthly support level of 1.8 million VND for redundant staff is not attractive enough to encourage them to voluntarily streamline their staff.

Therefore, he suggested taking the current salary level and setting the lowest and highest bracket so that localities can pay according to their budget situation.

"There are localities with surplus funds that want to increase the level of support but cannot, and there are places with tight budgets that have no way to spend," said Mr. Tan.

Director of Cao Bang Department of Home Affairs Nguyen Lam Thi Tu Anh also wondered if the policies as stipulated in the draft were strong enough to encourage the group of redundant cadres after the merger to voluntarily streamline their staff.

“Cao Bang has reduced 3 districts, 35 communes and has a surplus of nearly 50 people at the district level and nearly 150 people at the commune level. However, in the coming time, how to deal with the surplus staff is still a very difficult problem.

The most difficult part is that the surplus cadres have a lot of young people with qualified qualifications. Therefore, the policies and regimes need to be calculated to encourage them,” said the Director of the Cao Bang Department of Home Affairs.

In the plan to arrange district- and commune-level administrative units in the 2023-2030 period, the Ministry of Home Affairs also clearly stated that if the population size of the commune-level administrative unit after the arrangement exceeds the standard, it will be considered to increase the number of commune-level civil servants.

Redundant cadres, civil servants, public employees, and workers after the reorganization of district- and commune-level administrative units shall be subject to regimes and policies according to regulations on recruitment, use, and management of cadres, civil servants, and public employees; on severance regime; on staff streamlining policies, and other policies.

In addition, the Provincial People's Committee shall submit to the People's Council of the same level for promulgation of support policies for redundant cadres, civil servants, public employees, and workers of agencies and organizations due to the rearrangement of administrative units at district and commune levels.