The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested to review and propose a plan for arranging cadres and civil servants after the merger.

On the afternoon of September 6, the Provincial People's Committee held a meeting to listen to and give opinions on the draft Resolution of the Provincial People's Council on "Overall project on the arrangement of commune-level administrative units in the period of 2019 - 2021 of Nghe An province". Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Alternate member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the meeting. Also attending were leaders of relevant departments, branches, localities and members of the Steering Committee, Working Group to implement the arrangement and merger of commune-level administrative units in Nghe An province. Photo: Thanh Duy

Expected surplus of 185 officers, 199 civil servants after merger

Nghe An has 16 commune-level administrative units (14 communes, 2 towns) with both criteria (area, population) below 50% of the regulations and must be arranged and merged with adjacent administrative units in phase 1 (2019 - 2021).

According to the merger plan, Nghe An has 36 commune-level administrative units merged into 16 units, reducing 20 units belonging to 9 districts and towns including: Que Phong, Tuong Duong, Thanh Chuong, Dien Chau, Nghi Loc, Nam Dan, Nghia Dan, Hung Nguyen and Thai Hoa town. At that time, the whole province has 460 commune-level administrative units remaining, including 411 communes, 32 wards, and 17 towns.

To date, localities have completed collecting public opinions on the merger plan and achieved a relatively high consensus rate. The People's Councils at the same level have met to approve the merger plan.

Comrade Le Dinh Ly - Director of the Department of Home Affairs presented the draft "Overall project on rearranging commune-level administrative units in the period 2019 - 2021 of Nghe An province". Photo: Thanh Duy

On that basis, the Department of Home Affairs has developed a "Master plan for the arrangement of commune-level administrative units in the 2019-2021 period of Nghe An province" to submit to the Provincial People's Committee for comments before submitting to the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Council, which will meet this month to issue a Resolution on "Master plan for the arrangement of commune-level administrative units in the 2019-2021 period of Nghe An province", before submitting to the Central level.

According to the report of the Department of Home Affairs, the organizational structure will be arranged and assigned according to the regulations of the Party, the State and the charters of mass organizations.

At the meeting, delegates basically agreed with the issues raised. However, many delegates were concerned about the plan to arrange, organize, and resolve the surplus of cadres, civil servants, and non-professional workers.

Currently, 36 commune-level administrative units subject to merger have 345 cadres, 389 civil servants and 514 part-time workers.

After merging into 16 new commune-level administrative units, it is expected that 160 cadres, 190 civil servants and 208 part-time workers will be arranged. Thus, there will be a surplus of 185 cadres, 199 civil servants and 306 part-time workers.

Many local leaders have requested clarification on the solution for redundant cadres, civil servants, and part-time workers. Comrade Dinh Xuan Que - Chairman of Nam Dan District People's Committee proposed to the province to study additional arrangements for commune-level cadres such as allowing them to transfer to work as civil servants in other communes or districts.

Comrade Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the Legal Department, Provincial People's Council spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

Representing the Legal Department of the Provincial People's Council attending the meeting, comrade Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the Legal Department said that, regarding the plan to arrange the number of redundant cadres and civil servants, the policy should be studied more broadly, not just about financial support. In addition, the Provincial People's Committee should soon draft and submit amendments to Resolution 117 on the allowance level for non-professional cadres in the block, hamlet and village because after the merger, the number of households increased, so there needs to be a new, appropriate allowance level to encourage the cadres of the block, hamlet and village to work with peace of mind.

Some opinions also raised concerns about the merger into new commune and hamlet administrative units, but one commune and one old hamlet have reached the new rural destination, while the remaining communes and hamlets have not. Therefore, there needs to be specific guidance and direction; promoting propaganda work for cadres and people to create high consensus...

Develop many solutions to arrange redundant cadres and civil servants

Concluding the meeting, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Thai Thanh Quy highly appreciated the preparation work of the Department of Home Affairs, as well as the process of implementing the merger plan and collecting public opinions of related district-level units; at the same time, basically agreed on the "Overall project on rearranging commune-level administrative units in the period of 2019 - 2021 of Nghe An province".

However, the Department of Home Affairs needs to add a summary table to see the merger implementation process, the number of merged communes, the rate of people participating in voting, the rate of agreement... before submitting it to the Provincial People's Committee, the Provincial Party Standing Committee, and the Provincial People's Council.

The Standing Committee of Nghia Dan District Party Committee inspected the polling station to collect people's opinions on the commune merger in Nghia Lien commune. Photo courtesy of Thanh Lien

In addition, to ensure the merger is carried out effectively, the Department of Home Affairs must advise so that after the Provincial People's Council meets and passes the resolution on the Project to merge commune-level administrative units of the province, the Provincial People's Committee directs all 9 district-level units that have merged commune-level administrative units to immediately review the quantity, re-evaluate the capacity, qualities, qualifications, prestige, strengths, and propose a clear plan for arranging cadres and civil servants.

Based on the actual situation of the personnel work of the units proposed for arrangement and assignment, the province will synthesize and have an official plan for the whole province, so that after the National Assembly Standing Committee approves the merger plan, it can be implemented promptly and synchronously.

During that process, the Department of Home Affairs must assign cadres to handle the areas of the 9 district-level units above, work closely and participate right from the preparation stage; at the same time, the Department also needs to review all documents related to personnel work, study situations to have solutions; then provide guidance on the arrangement and assignment of cadres and civil servants right after the Provincial People's Council finishes its meeting for implementation.

The Department of Construction must step in, help districts and towns research and survey to come up with a plan to select the location and location of the headquarters of the merged units if there is a change in headquarters; propose a plan to use which headquarters as a temporary headquarters while waiting for the new headquarters.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee also requested that the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department and the Department of Information and Communications coordinate to help related districts and towns continue to carry out propaganda work so that the ideology, awareness, cadres and people must be unified. Ideological work, propaganda, mobilization and persuasion must go one step ahead.

At the same time, advise the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee to direct the members of the Executive Committee and the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee in charge of the areas with merged communes to directly review and contribute responsibility in directing the merger.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Thai Thanh Quy concluded the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

Also at the meeting, delegates listened to the Report of the Department of Home Affairs on the development of a draft "Resolution on support policies for cadres, civil servants, non-professional workers in communes, wards, towns and hamlets, blocks, and villages that are redundant due to the arrangement of communal-level administrative units and the merger of blocks, hamlets, and villages in Nghe An province. This is a content that many delegates are interested in discussing.

After listening to the opinions and concluding on this content, comrade Thai Thanh Quy suggested that the Department of Home Affairs coordinate with the Provincial Party Committee's Organization Board to study policies to synchronize regulations related to the work of cadres and civil servants to have a solution, in the spirit of not only having a financial support plan, but also having other solutions for arrangement and assignment. Particularly for cadres of blocks, hamlets and villages, it is necessary to study policies in the direction of needing support and encouragement when they quit their jobs due to redundancy after the merger.

Also at the meeting, delegates listened to and gave their opinions on the draft Resolution on merging and renaming hamlets and blocks in communes, wards and towns in the districts of Anh Son, Nghi Loc, Vinh City and Hoang Mai Town.

Merging administrative units at hamlet and commune levels: The entire political system gets involved

(Baonghean) - Merging administrative units at the hamlet and commune levels is a major policy of the Party and State, aiming to streamline the organization and improve the efficiency of grassroots government management. However, with a large amount of work affecting many people, the merger process requires strong determination from all levels of government as well as consensus from the people.