How to detect the abuse of power and position in personnel work?

More than 3 years after the implementation of the 12th National Resolution, this is the stage of preparing personnel work for the 13th National Party Congress. The review and preparation of positions under the management of the Politburo and the Secretariat and positions under the authority of the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee and the Provincial Party Committee are being carried out with the determination that "those who seek positions or power will definitely not be used", "those who assist in seeking positions or power will be disciplined".

So what lessons can be drawn to detect and eliminate political opportunists and those who seek positions and power in order to build a team of cadres worthy of the Party's trust and the people's entrustment?

VOV reporter interviewed Mr. Luu Binh Nhuong - Deputy Head of the People's Aspirations Committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee about this content.

PV:According to you, what problems have arisen in party member work, leading to the increasing number of party members expelled from the party in recent years?

Mr. Liu Ping Ruong: Looking at the number of party members handled in the past shows that these numbers have increased over the years, not because the quality of party members is getting worse but because the quality of input in previous years is poor. Because the problems of previous years are big.

Furthermore, in the process of putting cadres into positions, they were not controlled. At the beginning, cadres may be good but later they can degenerate over time, especially when they have power, they degenerate even faster. In addition, this time we discovered and resolutely dealt with it, so the number of party members expelled from the Party is increasing.

The ancients said: "A needle hidden in a bag will eventually come out" and when it comes out, it will be dealt with, so it is right that the number of disciplined officials has increased.

PV: Through the purification and review, weaknesses and shortcomings in personnel work have also been exposed. And in fact, many valuable lessons have been learned in this work. What do you think those lessons are?

Mr. Liu Ping Ruong: As per the recent Party directives, especially Conclusion No. 43, dated December 28, 2017, which stated: continue to synchronously implement all stages of personnel work, especially assessment, planning, rotation, appointment, election, introduction of candidates, training, and fostering; issues related to the revocation of issued decisions that have been violated and the removal of unqualified people.

This shows that the Party is paying attention to the lesson of cadre planning, planning to put cadres in position, rotate and appoint. If this lesson is not learned quickly and not corrected, it will be extremely dangerous, because this creates a team of low-quality cadres but is "covered with a coat", "stamped with quality" - this is very dangerous.

Lax management is extremely dangerous. When you put officials in positions such as Vice Chairman or Deputy Secretary of the province, but you let them go, leave them to the locality, or put too much trust in them.

The next lesson is the supervision of the State, the people, and the press, while inspection is the work of the Party, organizations, and Associations. This step was loose in the past, so when inspecting in the past, many officials were found to be at fault.

The next lesson is a firm stance and attitude, and courage in handling the situation. That means we must be brave, have a “furnace owner”, have a “furnace worker”, and have someone ready to provide firewood. After all, as the General Secretary said, we must really find the person who made the “cage” and lock the power in the “cage”.

Another lesson that needs to be learned is to respect and listen to the breath of public opinion and the people because it is the people who discover and help the Party purify its ranks.

Mr. Liu Ping Ruong:The first thing to look at is the state of political marketization, creating a "market" for buying and selling power and positions and creating opportunities through buying and selling. For example, buying and selling degrees, buying and selling prestige, fixing ages, fixing resumes, beautifying resumes, although the resumes are unclear, they still find ways, through many different levels and agencies, to legitimize them.

Most recently, I questioned the Minister of Industry and Trade, the Minister of Home Affairs, and the Prime Minister about two cases in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, one case of transfer and one case of appointment, with unclear backgrounds, why were they still appointed or transferred despite such violations. Thus, the opportunity is not only created by the person himself, but others are assisting them.

This opinion of the Head of the Central Organizing Committee is very important, that is, people who seek positions and power create opportunities, and at the same time, there are also people who help them to create opportunities, as well as those who seek positions and power, that is, those people receive material or non-material benefits to promote officials to positions of advancement. They did not choose talented and virtuous people but chose "cronies" and the same interest group.

The Prime Minister also said: it is strictly forbidden to choose relatives but must choose talented people. I think that identifying this is also very easy because now society is very alert, it will point out clearly, such as having this kind of resume, not being recruited but already being like that, or you are working in the private sector but being appointed to work in a State agency, where is your planning? Obviously there is a story of buying positions and power. In society, people can list hundreds of signs to identify buying positions and power, as well as political opportunities.

PV:According to you, besides the supervision of the people, public opinion, and the press, what solutions are needed to detect and eliminate all political opportunists, those who seek positions and power, and those who assist in such actions?

Mr. Liu Ping Ruong:We now have Conclusion No. 43 as mentioned above, which is one of the important documents to prepare for a comprehensive review of the leadership team, especially the strategic leadership team, in preparation for the 13th Congress.

In some respects, the Party's inspection work must be strengthened at this time. I agree with the policy of giving the Central Inspection Committee the right to inspect at the district level, because commune cadres are managed by higher-level Party committees, and we also need to seriously review, and if there is public opinion, we must inspect immediately.

The State also strengthens the supervision of elected officials. I have stated before the National Assembly that we have had supreme supervision of the State apparatus, which is the supervision of the shell of the house. Now, closely supervising the work of cadres means supervising the interior of that house.

Next is the internal inspection and examination stage because there are problems arising from within. How can we make sure that the staff who are truly qualified and talented can speak up and discover them within the organization? Because many cases of embezzlement, corruption, power abuse, and unclear backgrounds are discovered internally.

Therefore, it is necessary to promote the spirit of party members within organizations and agencies. That is one of the fundamental solutions to detect and identify negative factors.

PV: At this time, the Central and localities are preparing personnel work for the 13th Congress. In your opinion, to find a truly clean, fair, and exemplary team, what are the requirements for Party committees at all levels and localities?

Mr. Liu Ping Ruong:First of all, it is necessary to properly implement policies on cadre work according to Resolution 7 of the Central Committee. Fully implement activities and stages of the Party's inspection work on cadre evaluation.

The Central Committee's Conclusion Notice No. 43 contains very important issues, including reviewing the standards, conditions, and procedures for recruiting civil servants and public employees, and appointing leadership positions under its management authority from June 2012 to present, including those elected or appointed to participate in local Party committees, including commune level; directing the withdrawal of incorrect and inappropriate regulations and decisions on personnel work, and at the same time reviewing and clarifying the responsibilities of organizations and individuals with violations, if any.

We must regularly review the cadre team and update information about cadres. To do this, we must take the people as the root, the people know, the people discuss, the people do, the people inspect, and the people will also help us see the problems of cadres; localities must also rely on the people, the Front, and local organizations to evaluate party members and cadres.

PV:Thank you sir./.