Experience in merging some Party and government agencies in Quang Ninh

The merger of a number of advisory agencies assisting district-level Party Committees with specialized agencies under the People's Committees of the same level with similar functions and tasks has been and is being implemented by localities across the country.From the Central's policy on innovation in leadership methods, increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Party committees' leadership and government management, Quang Ninh has boldly innovated its organizational apparatus, including merging agencies with similar purposes, objects, functions and tasks.

In early 2018, Quang Ninh merged the Party Committee's Organization Board with the District-level Department of Internal Affairs into the Organization - Internal Affairs Agency, and the Inspection Committee with the District Inspectorate into the Inspection - Inspection Agency.

In Ha Long city, after more than 1 year of implementing the merger, the Organization - Internal Affairs Agency has been operating in a disciplined manner and is increasingly united under a common roof. Previously, the tasks had similarities between Party work and government work but were different in terms of assigning objects and staff, and the two units still had to have coordination documents.

Becoming "two in one", the work of organizing cadres; organizing the apparatus, payroll; administrative reform; emulation and rewards, archiving,... with over 18,000 party members directly under the Party are all reasonably arranged for cadres to undertake, creating connectivity, streamlining focal points, and saving human resources.Business processes are also reduced, avoiding duplication, overlap or gaps in task performance. The number of staff is reduced from 20 to 15 people, party organizations, trade unions, and youth unions are transferred to common activities, operating expenses are transferred to the Party Committee office for monitoring and payment according to the regime.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Tho - Head of the Organization and Internal Affairs Department of Ha Long City Party Committee said: "The head is responsible for all tasks, and assigns specific tasks according to the principle of "1 person doing many tasks, each task is responsible for 1 person". After the merger, we issued operating regulations, assigning specific tasks. The merger also added some tasks to each other, thereby increasing understanding of the advisory processes for the Party Committee and the government. Therefore, the staff's qualifications are improved, and overlapping tasks are reduced".

In the mountainous district of Hoanh Bo, the positive results after more than 1 year of piloting are also remarkable. With the Inspection Agency - District Party Committee Inspectorate, after the merger, the integration of tasks has helped shorten the time, from monitoring, checking, inspecting to considering and disciplining party members. In carrying out inspections when there are signs of violations, handling petitions, participating in receiving citizens, and socio-economic inspections, there has also been a higher level of unity and efficiency than before the merger.

Head of the Inspection Agency - Inspectorate of Hoanh Bo District Party Committee, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Quy said: “After merging together, in the process of approaching, there are also certain problems related to different subjects. We send our brothers to receive professional training, the officers who do Inspection will receive professional training in Inspection and vice versa, when they return, there will be specific and appropriate assignments, suitable to each person's ability. From there, there will be an approach to advise on solving the work in harmony, going into it more smoothly and effectively".

Up to now, all 14/14 districts, towns and cities of Quang Ninh have completedThe merger of the Organization Board with the Department of Internal Affairs, the Inspection Committee with the District Inspectorate, reduced 28 focal points. Head of the Organization Board of the Quang Ninh Provincial Party Committee, Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh, said that these initial positive results were achieved thanks to Quang Ninh taking very careful and scientific steps. Localities in the province all carried out the unification of leadership positions such as Head of the Organization Board with Head of the Department of Internal Affairs, Chairman of the Inspection Committee with Chief Inspector 2-3 years before the merger of agencies.

“The practical experience of this model is to take careful, scientific and truly democratic steps from the development of projects, to collecting opinions from affected subjects, especially from officials working at the agencies that will be merged. Especially for contents that have no regulations or precedents, report to the competent authority to request permission for the pilot. This is a very important premise for Quang Ninh to continue researching other unification and merger models,” said Mr. Thanh.

This is a new pilot model and has only been implemented at the district level, not ensuring connectivity and synchronization between levels. The Standing Committee of the Quang Ninh Provincial Party Committee has conducted a preliminary review and assessment of the advantages, difficulties and obstacles in the operating mechanism and activities of the Unified Agency, and at the same time directed localities to supplement working and monitoring regulations to ensure consistency in policies and improve operational efficiency.

Regarding issues regarding funding sources, staffing, and regulations on the use of seals for merged agencies, Quang Ninh is currently waiting for implementation instructions from the Central Government to remove difficulties and continue to perfect this model locally.