Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee Le Hong Vinh proposed to build a National Index on practicing thrift and fighting waste at the local level.

On the morning of May 16, in Vinh City, the Central Public Security Party Committee coordinated with Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, Communist Magazine and National Political Publishing House Truth to organize the National Scientific Conference "Building a culture of thrift and fighting waste in the new era of development".

The workshop was connected online to 62 local police departments and a number of units under the Ministry of Public Security, with nearly 10,000 delegates.

Comrades: Senior Lieutenant General, Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Quoc To - Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Central Public Security Party Committee, Deputy Minister of Public Security; Dr. Hoang Trung Dung - Member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Communist Magazine; Nguyen Duc Trung - Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee chaired the workshop.

At the workshop, comrade Le Hong Vinh - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee presented a speech: "Nghe An actively practices thrift, combats waste associated with streamlining the political system apparatus". Nghe An Newspaper summarizes the speech.

During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh was always an exemplary embodiment of the virtues of diligence, thrift, integrity, and uprightness; a shining example of a simple, honest lifestyle, closely attached to the people. According to him, the moral qualities of cadres and party members must be vividly demonstrated in every daily action; if one wants to mobilize and guide the people, one must first set an example himself.

Deeply imbued with Uncle Ho's thoughts, Our Party and State always identify this as a central, regular task, closely linked to the work of Party building and rectification and sustainable national development.

In the letter Uncle Ho sent to the Party Executive Committee of Nghe An province on July 21, 1969, he advised: "We must manage well to increase labor productivity and fight against waste and embezzlement"; "We must strive to develop production and practice thrift". Those simple but profound instructions for every cadre, party member and citizen of Nghe An are always an endless source of spiritual strength, a compass to guide the cause of building and developing the homeland.

The Party Committee, Government and People of Nghe An province always determine that practicing thrift and fighting waste is not only a revolutionary ethical standard, but also a political task; therefore, proactively implementing thrift and fighting waste associated with streamlining the political system apparatus, innovating leadership and management methods to improve effectiveness and efficiency is always a great concern of the province.

Nghe An is the province with the largest natural area in the country, the fourth largest population. The number of administrative units is large. Previously, there were 21 district-level administrative units and 480 commune-level administrative units. The Party Committee and the Government of Nghe An province have proactively set goals to rectify and organize to improve work efficiency and labor productivity in accordance with each period and stage of the country.

In the 2017-2024 period, the province has reduced 46 administrative units at the provincial and district levels; 234 public service units; 7 deputy heads at departments, branches and sectors and 69 deputy heads of departments. The total number of streamlined government staff is 10,842 people, reaching a rate of 16.43% compared to 2017.

After summarizing Resolution 18-NQ/TW, the streamlining process continued to be promoted: the provincial level reduced 1 Party committee, 2 specialized departments, 1 department for protection and health care of cadres; ended the activities of 2 Party committees, Party delegations, and Party executive committees. The mass organizations reduced 1 committee, 4 industry unions, and 1 public service unit. The government reduced 6 departments (from 21 to 15), 1 public service unit under the Provincial People's Committee (from 12 to 11), 31 departments, offices, branches, and 10 public service units at the department level.

At the district level, 49 specialized departments (from 257 to 208) and 48 public service units (from 1,449 to 1,401) were reduced. It is expected that the whole province will continue to streamline 76 more cadres, civil servants and public employees (30 at the provincial level, 46 at the district level). In addition to the Central Government's direction, the province proactively merged the Department of Culture and Sports with the Department of Tourism; ended the operation of the Center for Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion (currently seeking the Government's opinion).

From 2019 to now, the province has reduced 1 district-level administrative unit, 68 commune-level units (from 480 to 412), 2,087 villages, hamlets, and blocks. Currently, the province is submitting a project to rearrange commune-level administrative units, reducing from 412 to 130 units (68.45%).

Through streamlining and streamlining the apparatus, Nghe An has saved nearly 500 billion VND from increasing the level of self-guaranteeing regular expenditure in the health sector; reducing nearly 100 billion VND in regular expenditure each year; 100% of provincial and district-level administrative agencies have implemented the financial autonomy mechanism.

The greater and more profound achievement is the change in the mindset of management and operation of the system: From considering the payroll as a "retained quota" to the awareness that "the payroll is a valuable resource" that must be allocated to the right people, the right jobs; promoting centralized procurement, digitalizing public asset management; tightening control of public investment; reviewing nearly 350 public real estate facilities; recovering and effectively reusing more than 90% of redundant headquarters after merging communes, blocks, hamlets and public service units.

Nghe An also frankly acknowledged the difficulties and limitations:

The first,At the initial stage of implementation, the work of determining the plan for arrangement and organization of the apparatus inevitably caused some confusion. The organization plan in some places was not really proactive and flexible, and was still applied mechanically.

Monday,The functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of some agencies and organizations are unclear; there is overlap and interference, leading to the replacement or omission of tasks.

Tuesday,The leaders of some sectors, fields and localities are still not determined in streamlining cases of weakness in responsibilities, tasks and capacity.

Wednesday,The arrangement of redundant cadres and civil servants is still prolonged; the handling of redundant facilities in some places is not timely. The arrangement of non-professional cadres at the commune level, as well as policies for cadres in villages, hamlets and communes in some localities are still inadequate.

Therefore, Nghe An determined that streamlining the apparatus cannot stop at just consolidating focal points on paper, but must reorganize and reallocate resources scientifically to create effectiveness and efficiency.

From more than 7 years of implementing streamlining the apparatus combined with practicing thrift and fighting waste, Nghe An has drawn some lessons:

The first,The process of organization, deployment and implementation must ensure the comprehensive leadership of the Provincial Party Standing Committee and Party committees; especially the role and responsibility of the leader must be promoted.

Monday,Streamlining the apparatus does not mean cutting down on machinery and mechanics, but reorganizing to serve the people more effectively.

Tuesday,The practice of saving must have clear goals and specific incentive mechanisms. In Nghe An, a system of evaluating “value per budget expenditure” has been gradually built for each program and each unit.

Wednesday,Reform of the apparatus must go hand in hand with reform of administrative procedures and innovation of leadership methods.

Thursday,and also the most profound lesson: saving is not about cutting spending to the extreme, but about focusing on spending in the right place, on the right thing, for the right goal, and with the right strategy.

Practice in Nghe An shows that: Projects and constructions that are not really necessary are boldly cut, to concentrate public investment resources on essential fields, focusing on serving people's lives and socio-economic development.

The Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress has identified two strategic goals: By 2030, Vietnam will become a developing country with modern industry and high average income; by 2045, it will become a developed country with high income.

To realize those goals, the practice of thrift and anti-waste associated with streamlining the political system apparatus plays a very important role. This guiding viewpoint was deeply expressed by General Secretary To Lam in the articles: "Anti-waste", "Slim - Lean - Strong - Effective - Effective - Efficient".

In that spirit, Nghe An would like to propose 5 recommendations:

The first,Building a National Index on practicing thrift and combating waste at the local level.

Monday,Propose that the Central Government allow localities to retain part of their savings to reinvest in administrative reform, digital transformation and improving staff capacity.

Tuesday,Propose that the Central Government study and issue separate mechanisms and policies to deal with the surplus staff, civil servants and public employees after the rearrangement of administrative units.

Wednesday,Propose to encourage piloting of public and transparent governance models associated with open data.

Thursday,It is recommended to gradually shift the measure of local governance from the criterion of “how much is spent” to the criterion of “how much value is created” and to evaluate local development results based on the effectiveness of public spending, the actual impact of policies, and the satisfaction level of people and businesses.

“With the highest determination and sense of responsibility, Nghe An commits to continue to seriously and synchronously implement solutions to reform the State apparatus, practice thrift, fight waste and build a clean and strong political system,” Comrade Le Hong Vinh affirmed.