Minister of Home Affairs reveals which departments and branches do not have to merge

Minister of Home Affairs Le Vinh Tan. Photo: Thu Hang

Minister of Home Affairs Le Vinh Tan said that the draft amendments to Decrees 24 and 37 regulating the organization of specialized agencies under the People's Committees at the provincial and district levels have been completed and consulted.

"The Government meeting on June 1 will approve the draft for the Prime Minister to sign and issue," informed the Minister of Home Affairs.

According to the Minister of Home Affairs, the draft Law on Organization of Local Government being discussed by the National Assembly assigns the Government to stipulate the framework of specialized agencies under the People's Committees at the provincial and district levels (departments, branches, and offices). Therefore, the Government stipulates this in the draft amendments to Decrees 24 and 37.

Merge departments with similar tasks and functions

"Up to this point, the draft regulation stipulates that some departments and branches will be organized rigidly, meaning organized uniformly throughout the country," the Minister shared.

Specifically, the departments are organized rigidly including: Justice, Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Natural Resources and Environment, Health, Education, Inspection, Home Affairs, and People's Committee Office.

The remaining departments can merge and consolidate with units with similar functions and tasks.

"The government will guide the framework and not let each province merge however they want," said the Minister.

He also informed that the number of deputy directors of departments and branches is also regulated by the Government, not the previous rigid regulation that each department should have no more than 3 deputy directors.

Accordingly, the Government regulates the number of deputy heads of departments and branches in a province. Localities base on this framework to make appropriate arrangements depending on the situation.

"Thus, some departments can have 4 or 5 deputy directors, but some departments only have 1 or 2 deputy directors, as long as the total number of deputy directors in departments and branches does not exceed the Government's prescribed framework," said the Minister of Home Affairs.

The draft amendments to Decrees 24 and 37 regulating the organization of specialized agencies under the People's Committees at provincial and district levels were put out for comments by the Ministry of Home Affairs in April 2018.

According to the initial draft, specialized agencies that are organized firmly and uniformly throughout the country include 4 departments: Justice, Natural Resources and Environment, Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, and Health; the remaining 17 departments and branches will be merged and consolidated.

Some departments proposed to be merged according to the initial draft include: Planning and Investment and Finance to be called the Department of Finance and Planning; Transport and Construction to be the Department of Transport and Construction; Agriculture and Rural Development with Industry and Trade;...

Then, Lao Cai province took the lead in merging the Department of Transport and the Department of Construction into the Department of Transport - Construction in June 2018.

Next, Ha Giang merged the Provincial Party Committee's Organizing Committee with the Department of Home Affairs, the Provincial Party Committee's Inspection Committee with the Provincial Inspectorate in September 2018.

A series of other provinces also merged and consolidated departments in 2018.

In early December 2018, Minister of Home Affairs Le Vinh Tan signed a document to send to the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities requesting to temporarily suspend the arrangement of departments and offices to wait for the Government's decrees.

Thus, after half a year of stopping the arrangement of departments and branches, a Government decree is about to be issued for localities to continue to arrange and merge departments and branches.