Difficulties in implementing autonomy mechanisms in public service units

(Baonghean.vn)-The progress of implementing Decree No. 43/2006 and Decree No. 16/2015 on the autonomy mechanism in public service units in the province is still slow; many units are still hesitant and confused.That is the assessment of the Supervisory Delegation of the Provincial People's Council's Legal Committee at the working session with the Department of Finance on the implementation of the autonomy mechanism in public administrative units.

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According to the report of the Department of Finance leaders, implementing Decree 16/2015/ND-CP of the Government, the Department has issued a document advising the Provincial People's Committee to develop an implementation plan. At the same time, the Department of Finance advised the Provincial People's Committee to classify public service units in accordance with the actual conditions of the locality.

Accordingly, autonomous units are divided into 4 types: Public service units that self-guarantee operating costs; self-guarantee part of regular costs; State-guaranteed operating costs; and Public service units that self-guarantee regular and investment expenses and apply financial mechanisms like enterprises.

Comrade Nguyen Ngoc Duc - Deputy Director of the Department of Finance reported on the results of implementing the autonomy mechanism of public administrative units in the province. Photo: Thanh Le.

In the context of budget difficulties, in the coming time, the Department of Finance is gathering, reviewing and classifying which units are eligible to switch to autonomy in regular expenditure, investment expenditure and fully autonomous units to reduce the burden on the budget and increase the initiative for the units. Accordingly, in 2017, the province is focusing on units in the health sector.

Regarding the implementation of Decree 43 and Decree 16 of the Government, comrade Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the Legal Committee of the Provincial People's Council reflected: Through inspections in a number of units, it was found that the implementation of the autonomy mechanism in administrative agencies in our province is too slow. Specifically, the Decree was issued in 2015 but the province has only issued an implementation plan. It was not until 2017 that the Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Finance issued documents urging the units.

“Many units are still confused in implementing the autonomy mechanism because there is no focal unit to advise. The monitoring team at Ha Huy Tap High School, the school leaders still do not understand what autonomy is, what kind of autonomy?” - Comrade Thai Thi An Chung cited.

Sharing the same view, comrade Dang Quang Hong - Deputy of the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council suggested: "Through this monitoring period, the Legal Committee should recommend that the Provincial People's Committee assign the competent unit to thoroughly implement the Decree and not let the current general situation remain."

The conversion of public service units to the equitization model according to Decree 22 of the Government has been implemented by the province to date, only 7/131 have been assigned by the Provincial People's Committee. Where does the difficulty come from? - the asset management mechanism of public administrative units that are completely autonomous is shifting to the equitization model - Comrade Hoang Quoc Hao - Director of the Department of Justice wondered.

Comrade Phan Duc Dong - Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Internal Affairs Committee, Head of the Provincial People's Council's Legal Committee concluded the working session. Photo by Thanh Le.

Regarding the implementation of the autonomy mechanism in public service units, Deputy Director of the Department of Finance Nguyen Ngoc Duc said: "Currently, autonomous public service administrative units only stop at being autonomous in funding allocated by the budget. Therefore, they are still in a state of running to apply for staffing because the more staffing, the more funding is allocated.

Responding to the issues raised by the monitoring delegation, the Deputy Director of the Department of Finance said: The implementation of Decree 16/2015-ND-CP is chaired by the Department of Home Affairs. However, the implementation is up to the units to learn and implement.

Although the Decree has been issued, the guiding documents of ministries and branches are not yet synchronized, so the Department has not issued them. Regarding the conversion of administrative service units into joint stock companies, comrade Nguyen Ngoc Duc said: The Department advised the Provincial People's Committee to convert public service units into joint stock companies, but no unit met the required criteria.

At the meeting, the Department of Finance clarified the concerns of the members of the monitoring delegation regarding service prices, the mechanism for controlling autonomy of public service units, developing internal spending regulations, managing state assets after equitization of public service administrative units, and autonomy in staffing in public service units, etc.

The autonomous mechanism has helped Vinh City General Hospital develop many new techniques. Photo: Archive

Based on the assessment of results and limitations in implementing the autonomy mechanism, comrade Phan Duc Dong requested the Department of Finance to coordinate with relevant sectors to develop a plan for implementation, strengthen supervision, evaluation, inspection, control, and resolutely convert eligible units to the autonomy and self-responsibility mechanism.

At the same time, advise the Provincial People's Committee to issue a list of public services. Accordingly, the presiding agency must make annual progress reports and have a clear reward and punishment mechanism. From there, it will ensure a gradual reduction in state funding while still increasing work efficiency.

Thanh Le