What is the root of the problem?

(Baonghean) -On March 13, the Secretary of the Quang Binh Provincial Party Committee personally made a surprise inspection at a coffee shop and he caught many civil servants drinking coffee at the shop during working hours.

At a close range, recently a district party secretary requested that agency staff not access the internet during working hours, without the direct permission of the responsible officer. The reason given by this district party secretary is to avoid the situation where officials and civil servants take advantage of their agency computers to surf the internet endlessly, wasting electricity and internet service fees, and not focusing on the agency's work.

Both of the above incidents are worthy of attention and have received many responses and expressions, including conflicting opinions. Some people are happy that the above actions have touched the hearts of cadres and civil servants in places where the leader is strict, even though he is somewhat rigid and mechanical. There are also many opinions that are concerned that this is only a way to overcome the phenomenon and manifestation, not the essence. If civil servants are allowed to work in an administrative apparatus that is operated scientifically, reasonably, effectively and efficiently; the working environment has a large amount of work, responsibilities and obligations go hand in hand with benefits; the nature of the work is important and practical for the agency, practical for themselves, then there will be little or no chance that civil servants can be comfortable when leaving their office.

For a long time, we have frankly admitted that although the administrative apparatus has been reformed in many aspects, it is still very cumbersome and operates ineffectively and inefficiently. Many departments are even heavy on formalities, not linked to specific tasks, do not have specific products and work efficiency is quite vague and unclear. Many departments, although having clearly defined functions and tasks, when put into operation, only exist in formality, operate at a standstill, and have little practical effect or impact on social life, on the people, on the political system as well as the state administrative apparatus.

A number of civil servants are doing things that they themselves do not know whether they will bring any results to the agency, the group, the organization, the society or to each individual. Therefore, a number of civil servants work in a mediocre manner, with a very weak attitude and spirit, even weak in the style of "idle hands are the devil's workshop". It is not surprising that more and more coffee shops are appearing mainly to serve office workers, giving rise to "office romance", giving rise to a class of cadres who are "inside and outside", not only do not effectively participate in the work of the agency but sometimes also make the internal affairs of the agency more complicated, and the working spirit of the agency is further weakened. And, weaknesses, shortcomings and defects are easily born from that.

That is not to mention the type of officials and civil servants who are "salon-like", far from the people, "sticking their feet under the table" advising on mechanisms and policies, leading to many mechanisms and policies having a very high degree of "misalignment" with the constitution, law, and reality, leading to many documents and circulars "dying young" and being ineffective.

That is why Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc once frankly stated that in Vietnam today, "30% of civil servants are fine without an umbrella, because they work in the style of "going to work in the morning and carrying an umbrella home in the evening", which does not bring any work efficiency" (Speaking at the first meeting of the Steering Committee for the Project to promote reform of the civil service and civil servant regime on the afternoon of January 25, at the Government headquarters).

On the other hand, the State administrative apparatus still has many limitations and weaknesses, has not met the requirements and has not promoted the responsibility, intelligence, creativity and dedication of civil servants. Therefore, turning to a cup of coffee or the keyboard to solve the problem of civil servants skipping work hours and neglecting their work, is probably not the way to solve the problem at its root. That is also something that policy makers and managers need to ponder.

Duc Duong