The Government's comprehensive program on practicing thrift and combating waste

The goal of practicing thrift and combating waste (abbreviated as thrift and anti-waste) in 2018 is to continue promoting thrift and anti-waste in all areas of economic and social life; to implement with focus and key points to create clear changes in thrift and anti-waste work with specific results; to concentrate on building solutions to improve the effectiveness of thrift and anti-waste in order to maximize all resources to achieve the goals of economic growth and development, stabilize people's lives, and ensure social security.

Thoroughly save on regular expenses

THTK and CLP are implemented in all areas prescribed by the Law on THTK and CLP, focusing on a number of specific areas. Regarding the management and use of regular expenditure funds of the state budget, in 2018, tighten fiscal discipline - state budget; ensure state budget expenditure is economical, effective and in accordance with the estimate approved by the National Assembly. Thoroughly save in accordance with the ability to balance resources right from the stages of determining tasks, making, allocating and assigning the 2018 budget estimate to ministries, agencies and units.

In particular, thoroughly save regular expenses (excluding salaries and other salary-related expenses, contributions to employees as prescribed) to create sources for salary reform, promote administrative spending. Reduce the frequency and tighten the budget for organizing conferences, seminars, and business trips; strive to save 12% compared to the approved budget for expenses for conferences, seminars, talks, meetings, receptions, celebrations, and organizing festivals and celebrations. Limit the allocation of funds for overseas research and surveys; strive to save 15% of outgoing and incoming delegations compared to the approved budget; do not arrange outgoing delegations in the regular expenditure of national target programs.

Continue to reduce 100% of the organization of groundbreaking ceremonies, commencement ceremonies, and inauguration ceremonies of basic construction works, except for important national works, group A projects, and works of important economic, political, cultural and social significance to the locality.

Thoroughly save in the management and use of funding for scientific research projects; do not propose or approve scientific research projects with duplicate content, lacking feasibility, or whose funding sources have not been determined. Gradually shift the arrangement of regular operating budget to the method of the State ordering and assigning research tasks; and allocate funding based on output results.

Effectively use state budget funds to carry out education and training tasks. State budget investment for public educational institutions needs to be focused, with priority given to universal education and continued school consolidation, especially for educational institutions in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions, ethnic minority areas, mountainous, border and island areas. Encourage social investment in developing high-quality schools at all levels. Effectively implement the new tuition fee regime to ensure reasonable sharing between the state, learners and social components.

Strengthen the mobilization of social investment resources for health care in conjunction with the roadmap for adjusting prices and fees for health services; have policies to monitor and improve the efficiency of purchasing equipment, medicines and medical supplies; link the adjustment of prices for medical examination and treatment services with the roadmap for universal health insurance and salary reform; and at the same time strengthen the control of medical examination and treatment costs. Implement transparency in health service prices, clearly distinguish the expenditure from the state budget and the expenditure of health service users; review programs and projects that have been decided by competent authorities to prioritize resource allocation for necessary and effective programs and projects, and cut down programs and projects with duplicate and ineffective content.

Strive to reduce the number of public service units by about 2.5%.

Also on the management and use of regular expenditures of the state budget, promoting innovation, improving the efficiency of public service units; increasing autonomy and promoting the socialization of public service units in the spirit of Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW dated October 25, 2017 of the 6th Conference of the 12th Party Central Committee, ensuring the goal by 2021 to strive for 10% of financially autonomous units, reducing an average of 10% of direct expenditures from the state budget for public service units compared to the period 2011 - 2015.

Continue to effectively implement the provisions of Decree No. 16/2015/ND-CP dated February 14, 2015 of the Government regulating the autonomy mechanism of public service units and documents regulating the autonomy mechanism of public service units in specific fields; promptly complete and promulgate documents guiding the autonomy mechanism of public service units in each field.

Accelerate the implementation of the market price mechanism with State regulation for prices of important public services such as healthcare, higher education, and vocational education according to the roadmap to correctly and fully calculate cost factors, avoiding strong impacts on price levels and inflation. The state budget reduces regular expenditures for public service units for expenses that have been included in service prices, allocates direct support sources for policy subjects in using public services, creates sources for salary reform and increases investment and procurement spending to improve the quality of public services. Innovate the funding support mechanism for public service units based on output results.

Continue to arrange and reorganize public service units to streamline the focal points, reduce staff, improve operational efficiency, and strive to reduce the number of public service units by about 2.5%. Implement financial mechanisms like enterprises for qualified public service units; equitize qualified public service units, except for hospitals and schools; merge and dissolve ineffective public service units.

Stop assigning additional staff

In the management, use of labor and working time, strictly manage the number of public employee and career staff. Stop assigning additional staff. Stop self-approval and assigning staff exceeding the number assigned by competent authorities; have plans and solutions to completely resolve the number of staff exceeding the assigned number. Agencies and units that have not fully used the assigned staff must review and reduce accordingly.

In 2018, reduce 1.7% of the number of civil servants compared to the number assigned in 2015; reduce at least 2.5% of the number of career positions receiving salaries from the state budget compared to the number assigned in 2015. Agencies, organizations and units only recruit new cadres, civil servants and public employees not exceeding 50% of the number of cadres, civil servants and public employees who have implemented streamlining of staff, have resolved retirement or termination of employment according to regulations.

Implement the arrangement and streamlining of the apparatus in a professional and modern direction, reduce the number of focal points, minimize the number of intermediate levels, and reduce the number of deputies; thoroughly adjust the overlapping issues of functions and tasks between agencies in the state organization system; combine with streamlining the payroll to improve the efficiency of the staff, civil servants and public employees. Conduct mergers and dissolution of ineffective units and apparatus.

Fundamentally innovate the management methods and working attitudes of state officials, service goes hand in hand with management; make state management transparent, strengthen public discipline and order among cadres, civil servants and state agencies. Strictly handle cases of non-compliance, violations of the law and violations of public ethics.

Organize and effectively implement administrative reform work to contribute to completing the goals of the State administrative reform plan for the 2016-2020 period, improving the effectiveness of public service activities.