Minister of the Interior: Cannot defend officials who do not dare to do things and are afraid of making mistakes

Speaking at the group discussion session on socio-economic issues on the morning of May 25, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that currently, there is a situation where many cadres, civil servants, and public employees work half-heartedly, push things around, avoid, lack responsibility, and are afraid of making mistakes in performing their duties.

The Minister said: "I will not say anything about the manifestations and will explain them at the upcoming discussion session. But it must be determined that these are manifestations of political and ideological degradation. Because of the shirking, evasion, lack of responsibility, and fear of making mistakes in performing public duties, a number of cadres, civil servants, and public employees have violated the regulations according to the Party's resolutions, first of all, Resolution 04 of the 11th and 12th Party Central Committees on Party building and rectification."

According to the Minister, these manifestations also violate the provisions of the Law on Local Government, the Law on Government Organization and the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants.

"We must affirm this and have a very clear attitude towards this manifestation. We cannot defend these manifestations in the context of the country's great difficulties. Such a situation hinders economic and social development and reduces people's trust in the team of cadres and civil servants in the State administrative system," Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra shared.

Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra spoke at the discussion session this morning.

The Minister said that recently, the Prime Minister has paid great attention to this issue. The Government has issued many directives and telegrams on strengthening discipline and order in State administrative agencies.

Eliminate the perception that "if you don't do it, you can't do it wrong"

To address this issue, the Home Minister said,There are 5 groups of solution tasks..

Regarding ideology and awareness, the Minister emphasized that this is the leading solution, promoting political and ideological education, strictly implementing Party resolutions and laws related to the responsibilities and powers of each agency and unit, especially the responsibilities and tasks that civil servants must perform.

In particular, the Minister affirmed that "it is necessary to eliminate the perception of a number of civil servants that 'if you do nothing, you are not wrong, it is better to stand before a disciplinary council than stand before a court'. This is a very dangerous perception, greatly affecting the construction of public service, the duties and responsibilities of cadres and civil servants". The Minister said that in the current context, more than ever, we must overcome difficulties and challenges to carry out this task.

The solution group is to build and perfect institutions, the Minister analyzed, the policy system has overlaps, contradictions, and is not suitable to practical requirements, so the process of implementing public services will also have difficulties, barriers, and obstacles.

When performing tasks related to fields such as investment, finance, budget, public investment, business development... it is easy to make mistakes when officers and civil servants do not fully understand and perceive legal regulations, which can easily lead to a fear of making mistakes.

Therefore, the Minister believes that institutional improvement is very important. It is necessary to promote decentralization and delegation of power, review and abolish regulations or habits of asking for opinions, agreements, policies, and consensus... The Minister said that he is reviewing to overcome these.

The Minister informed: "We are very focused, advising the Government to issue a decree on encouraging and protecting dynamic, creative cadres who dare to think, dare to do, dare to take responsibility for the common good. However, we are entangled in many legal regulations."

These decrees and resolutions will have all the legal framework, only then can we protect officials. Otherwise, it will be very difficult, because there are regulations in some laws that are all entangled.

The Minister said that without a resolution from the National Assembly, "it is impossible to break through barriers and do this."

In addition, the Ministry of Home Affairs is also studying to amend the Law on Cadres, Civil Servants and the Law on Public Employees, because the contents related to encouraging and protecting cadres must be included in this law. This is an important legal corridor for cadres and civil servants to dare to think, dare to do, and dare to take responsibility.

Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra also said that it is necessary to determine the responsibility of the head of the organization. "Ultimately, the role and responsibility of the head is to dare to think, dare to do, dare to take responsibility and resolutely handle officials with the above manifestations," the Minister emphasized.

Ms. Tra cited that wherever there are leaders from central to local levels who dare to do and take responsibility, there will still be development. Practice has proven that, for example, in public investment, some localities have done very well.