'It is necessary to immediately remove officials who are afraid of making mistakes and do not dare to do anything from the system'

The story of a number of cadres and party members being afraid of responsibility in performing public duties continued to heat up the parliament at the recent 3rd session of the 15th National Assembly. Delegate Mai Thi Phuong Hoa (Nam Dinh delegation), Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Judicial Committee, shared the mentality of many cadres, saying, "nowadays, they are afraid of making mistakes in everything they do. After they finish doing something, they don't know if it's wrong or not. When they make a mistake, they don't know where it's wrong, and even doing nothing can lead to mistakes."

Delegate Mai Thi Phuong Hoa - Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Judiciary Committee (NA Delegation of Nam Dinh province) spoke at the National Assembly hall on June 2. (Photo: NA)

This is not a new story. Previously, at the 2nd session, Deputy Head of the National Assembly's Petition Committee, Mr. Hoang Anh Cong, a delegate from Thai Nguyen province, also raised the story that in many localities during the epidemic prevention period, many places were afraid to purchase medical equipment, machinery, and supplies because of fear of making mistakes.

During his tenure as Prime Minister, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc also warned about this situation and called it the "virus of fear of responsibility". In the regular Government meeting in May and the first 5 months of the new year, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also pointed out the difficulties the country is facing, among many causes, there is a subjective cause that some agencies, units, and leaders have not been really resolute and proactive in solving work according to their functions, tasks, and powers.

Expressing his opinion on this story, Mr. Nguyen Mai Bo, former Standing Member of the National Assembly's Defense and Security Committee, said that those officials should be removed from the State apparatus.

Officials who are afraid of making mistakes should put them aside.

PV:What do you think when many officials have the mentality of "fearing mistakes in everything they do, even doing nothing can lead to mistakes...."?

Mr. Nguyen Mai Bo: It is good for officials to know fear, so there will not be hundreds of officials being disciplined and prosecuted; but if they are so afraid that they do not dare to do anything because they are afraid of being wrong, afraid of responsibility; do not dare to do anything because they do not know whether it is right or wrong, then those officials should be removed from the State apparatus.

When receiving a task, there is no one who does not promise to devote all their efforts to contributing. The Law on Civil Servants and specialized laws also clearly stipulate the responsibilities, duties and powers of civil servants in general, but it is unacceptable for officials to say they are afraid of responsibility, say "doing nothing can lead to mistakes", or "not knowing where they did wrong". 100% of officials before being promoted to management have studied and graduated from an administrative management course, so officials only need to work for the people, serve the interests of the people, how can they do wrong?

In the fight against corruption, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong once stated very clearly that “anyone who feels hindered or discouraged should step aside and let someone else do it.” Similarly, in the performance of public duties, I think it is also necessary to thoroughly understand this message of the General Secretary.

It is not by chance that a volleyball player is transferred to become a football player, which means that those players have grown up in that field. The story here, in my opinion, is deliberately ignorant.

Officials who do not dare to do or remain silent, that is, lack of responsibility, can be understood as not doing or not doing according to the provisions of the law, not because they do not understand the law. The law here is the provisions on functions, tasks, order, procedures and tasks that must be done, expressed in legal documents, not separate from their functions, tasks and powers. All legal documents have provisions on the functions, tasks and powers of each position, moreover, you grow from the grassroots.

The root cause is still the ethics of the cadres.

PV:There have been many opinions pointing out the cause of this story. What do you personally think is the root cause?

Mr. Nguyen Mai Bo: The root of this story comes from the story of unethical civil servants who take advantage of their positions and powers to protect their own interests, their own backyards, and group interests, to do illegal things. You did wrong, so you are afraid.

I agree with the view of journalist Nhi Le, former Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Communist Magazine, that everything comes from poor ethics. It is true that no one can understand everything, but that does not mean that there are no laws to regulate and no specialized departments to help. The root of the problem is the backyard, group interests. In the case of Mr. Nguyen Quang Tuan, it is said that he is a doctor with no expertise in economic law, so where were his deputies and the financial and accounting department that assisted him, and what were they doing?

Another reason, in my opinion, is that people do not dare to do things and are afraid of showing that they do not meet the standards of qualifications, abilities, expertise, and professionalism, but because of their desire for fame, not all, but some people have run to achieve that title, so when they are appointed, they do not know what to say and have to stay silent, which leads to the story of manipulation by subordinates.

Mr. Nguyen Mai Bo - former Standing Member of the National Assembly's Defense and Security Committee

PV:What will the future of an agency, unit, or locality be like if its leaders are afraid of making mistakes and do not dare to develop?

Mr. Nguyen Mai Bo: This is a very alarming situation. At the agency level, more broadly at the local level, even the whole country, if every cadre is afraid of making mistakes and does not dare to do anything, then where will the future of those agencies, units, and localities be when the leadership is clumsy and stagnant? In reality, although not all, there are many cadres who, when rotated to the local level, do nothing for 2-3 years, do not handle violations, do not propose anything new, try not to clash with anyone, and safely withdraw.

Such cadres will cause great obstacles to the development of society. We have a legal system on organization and operation, and there are also very strict regulations on specialized activities, but the story behind it is that group interests manipulate, so some advice is ignored.

Group interests are exchanged on the golf course.

PV:There are opinions that the reason why officials are afraid of making mistakes is because of the mechanism. At this time, the mechanism may be right, but at another time, it may be wrong?

Mr. Nguyen Mai Bo: The nature of the policy mechanism is correct, but what is not correct is that people take advantage of the mechanism to do shady things to serve their own interests and group interests.

Group interests are now exchanged on golf courses, and the sponsorship of officials through VIP tickets and membership cards also originates from that. Many officials who go there are served food and entertainment, but must pay back with projects. If you want to give to one person, of course you have to leave the others out. The cause and conditions for committing crimes are exactly like that.

So we cannot blame the mechanism. If it were the mechanism, why do many civil servants accept poverty rather than corruption? We cannot say that they do not understand the law, but they have ethics and self-respect. Meanwhile, there are high-ranking officials with great power who have no integrity, so how can they do the right thing?

PV:From the stories of many officials recently, many opinions say that in our country, whoever is good at their profession is promoted to management. The appointer also thinks so and the appointee also likes it, so that's why this happened?

Mr. Nguyen Mai Bo: In reality, in our country, the story of people thinking that party members can do everything, so they arrange cadres to do things that are against their professional capacity is true. For example, full-time National Assembly representatives of some Committees do not have knowledge about the activities of the National Assembly, nor do they have the courage to work full-time at the Committee, leading to many people not saying a word for 5 years because they do not know anything to say.

So the story of thinking that party members can do everything needs to be reconsidered, the arrangement must be appropriate to their level of knowledge and ability. For example, I am an expert in the judiciary but I am assigned to work in finance, I am responsible for the debt and the gain. Or those who have expertise in finance but are assigned to work as judges; a person who does movements in the Association but is assigned to work as Secretary of a locality, do they have enough knowledge to do the job?

The way of appointment does not pay attention to expertise, which can easily lead to mistakes due to lack of expertise, because the person with expertise cannot make decisions, while the person with the right to make decisions does not have expertise. In our country, the appointment of officials without expertise is not rare.

PV:Thank you.