Proposal to spend 15,000 billion VND to resolve policies for commune civil servants who do not meet job position requirements

The Ministry of Home Affairs has just submitted to the Government a draft revised Law on Cadres and Civil Servants. The draft revised Law consists of 8 chapters and 53 articles, 34 articles fewer than the current Law. It is expected that the draft Law will be submitted to the National Assembly at the upcoming 9th session (May 2025).

The draft Law has amended regulations to connect commune-level cadres and civil servants with provincial-level officials, unifying a civil service regime from the central to commune level.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, as of December 31, 2024, the number of commune-level cadres and civil servants is 212,606 people, of which 92.4% have graduated from university or higher and 7.6% have graduated from college or lower. The number of commune-level cadres and civil servants who do not meet the standards is only a small percentage and will be resolved according to the policy of ensuring legitimate interests according to the Government's regulations.

In the draft Law submission, the Ministry of Home Affairs proposed that the budget for resolving policies for commune-level cadres and civil servants who do not meet the requirements of their job positions should be from the state budget of about VND 15,000 billion. This expenditure has been calculated and arranged in the budget for implementing the arrangement of administrative units at all levels. This proposal aims to resolve about 7.6% (equivalent to more than 16,150 people) who do not meet the standards out of a total of 212,606 commune-level cadres and civil servants.

In addition, the draft Law also proposes transitional provisions for commune-level cadres and civil servants. Specifically, commune-level cadres and civil servants elected or recruited before the effective date of this draft Law will be converted into cadres and civil servants according to the provisions of this draft Law and their numbers will remain the same until the review, streamlining, restructuring and arrangement of positions according to new regulations are completed and their current salary will be retained until new jobs are arranged according to Government regulations.

Compared with the draft submitted to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal, the draft Law submitted to the Government this time has adjusted the implementation time for arranging, streamlining and restructuring the team according to the approved job position project to 3 years instead of 5 years.

Within 3 years, provinces and centrally run cities must arrange, streamline and restructure their staff according to the approved job position plan. The transition for this staff will be carried out according to Government regulations.

Within 3 years from the effective date of this draft Law, the following shall be implemented: Agencies must complete the development and approval of job positions to fully implement the provisions of this draft Law.

During this period, Government regulations on recruitment, employment and management of civil servants continue to be implemented until the approval of job positions is completed.

The salary regime (including salary allowances) and bonuses applicable to cadres and civil servants shall be implemented according to regulations until the new salary regime according to job position is implemented.

The Government promulgates a new salary regime according to job positions and implements the conversion of salaries of cadres and civil servants according to ranks and grades to salaries according to job positions on the basis of inheriting the salary levels already enjoyed, creating motivation to improve labor productivity and work efficiency of cadres and civil servants. The regulations on ranks of specialized laws will continue to be implemented until competent authorities have new regulations in accordance with the job position system./.