Quitting church: A profound lesson for 'public servants'

In recent days, public opinion has been stirred up by the fact that 5 officers and employees of the Records Management Department, Hanoi Social Insurance, went to the Mau Temple in Hung Yen City (Hung Yen Province) during working hours, and then the fact that the Director of the Export Support Center, Trade Promotion Agency (Ministry of Industry and Trade), along with a number of officers and employees of the Center went to the temple at the beginning of the year during working hours.

Illustration photo.

It must be said that this is not a rare occurrence after each Lunar New Year holiday. Every year, the press reports that this or that agency or unit uses public vehicles to attend festivals, or that offices are empty of officials, civil servants, and public employees during working hours…

But the information is like "throwing stones into a pond of duckweed" and few people are "exposed" and named to the extent of being "noisy" like in the past few days.

Many people jokingly said that it was “unlucky” and that lack of discretion was discovered and reported to the press and radio. But no one has been able to calculate how many officials, civil servants, and public employees quit their jobs to attend the festival among the hundreds of early spring festivals and thousands of people who went to the festival.

That shows that the idea that "January is the month of partying" has been deeply ingrained in a large number of cadres, civil servants and public employees.

The situation has perhaps become so alarming that, on the first day back to work after the week-long Tet holiday, February 2 (the 6th day of Tet), the head of the Government had to issue a telegram urging people to carry out their duties.

The dispatch clearly stated that cadres, civil servants and public employees must strictly implement discipline and order according to Directive No. 26/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister; urgently focus on solving and handling work immediately after the Tet holidays, creating the most favorable conditions for production, business and investment activities of enterprises and transaction needs of people.

Absolutely do not attend festivals during working hours, do not use public vehicles to attend festivals except when performing duties, do not organize festivals that affect work time and efficiency.

Leaders of ministries, agencies and localities do not attend the festival unless assigned by competent authorities.

The spirit of the Official Dispatch has demonstrated the Government's determination, right from the first days and hours of the new year, to strive to organize the implementation of Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP on tasks and solutions for directing and implementing the socio-economic development plan and the state budget estimate for 2017; thoroughly grasping the Government's 2017 action theme of "Strengthening discipline, promoting responsibility, competing creatively, developing rapidly and sustainably", building an honest, creative, action-oriented Government, whose words go hand in hand with deeds.

Perhaps due to a poor sense of responsibility and the inherent habit of "ignoring" regulations, the above cadres, civil servants and public employees still defy them.

Seeing signs of labor discipline violations, on the afternoon of February 8 (one day after the press reported information), Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh established a Disciplinary Council chaired by Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Khanh to consider and decide on disciplinary action against civil servant Bui Quang Hung, Director of the Export Support Center; assigned the Trade Promotion Agency, according to the decentralization of personnel management, to establish a Disciplinary Council to consider and decide on disciplinary action against other officials and employees who participated in the ceremony during working hours.

Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security Pham Luong Son also spoke out that he would strictly handle the case of Hanoi Social Security officials attending a ceremony during working hours.

The disciplinary measure imposed by Hanoi Social Insurance is to lower the emulation to the lowest level (type C) in the first quarter of 2017 for 5 individuals who violated the agency's regulations.

On February 8, Hanoi Social Insurance also issued a document requesting all officials and employees to absolutely not attend festivals during working hours; not to use public vehicles to attend festivals.

This is a profound lesson for every agency and unit in managing cadres, civil servants and public employees and also an event for each "public servant" to be more responsible for each of their words and actions.

And that incident also needs to be strictly handled by the competent authorities to maintain discipline and the law. It is time to tighten discipline from the smallest things in accordance with the Law on Cadres, Civil Servants, and the Law on Public Employees in accordance with the Prime Minister's direction./.

According to VOV