That is "fear of mistakes, fear of responsibility, fear of losing votes", according to the confession of comrade Cao Xuan Diep - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Son Hai commune (Quynh Luu) when answering the question of Nghe An Provincial Party Secretary Thai Thanh Quy about the process of implementing administrative procedures at the commune level, especially whether there is a state of administrativeization or not?
The Chairman of the People's Committee of Son Hai Commune said: At the commune level, there is still a lack of exemplary behavior, violations of discipline and administrative discipline, especially fear of work, avoidance of responsibility, and lack of determination in handling work among a number of cadres and civil servants, including management leaders; especially, related to specialized civil servants in fields such as: land management, resources, finance, and justice.
In addition to the objective causes, Comrade Cao Xuan Diep said that there are also subjective causes such as the awareness of Party regulations and State laws; the awareness and responsibility for the working position of some cadres and civil servants are not high. A number of cadres and civil servants have not studied hard to improve their qualifications, expertise, and professionalism; they are still afraid of collisions, do not dare to do, or are afraid of making mistakes, afraid of taking responsibility, so they are still hesitant in performing their tasks. There are even some very capable leaders, but because of the fear of "losing votes", they still avoid and shirk responsibility;...
From the above situation, the Deputy Party Secretary and Chairman of the People's Committee of Son Hai commune suggested that it is necessary to do well the work of political and ideological education, propaganda, and dissemination in a flexible and timely manner of Party regulations and State laws; attach importance to the work of inspection, supervision, and urging the performance of public duties by cadres and civil servants; at the same time, strengthen the leadership of the Party Committee and the superior authorities in deploying and performing tasks for the commune level.
Regarding the issue raised by the Provincial Party Secretary: When achieving new rural areas, some localities stagnate, are no longer active and enthusiastic; Comrade Kha Van Lap - Secretary of the Party Committee of Nga My commune (Tuong Duong) stated: One of the reasons leading to the mentality of "stalling for time" is because according to regulations, communes in areas III and II will be transformed into communes in area I when reaching the new rural area finish line, leading to many policies and regimes for people, students, and cadres being cut or reduced.
According to the Secretary of the Nga My Commune Party Committee (Tuong Duong), it is necessary to strengthen propaganda and mobilization in many forms to change the thinking and awareness of cadres, party members and people; at the same time, it is necessary to exploit and effectively use the mechanisms and policies of the Central and the province to create a "push" in economic development, create income for people to escape poverty, build new rural areas; associated with that is to maximize local resources. Through the forum, comrade Kha Van Lap proposed that the province consider policies for mountainous and border communes that have reached the new rural finish line such as: supporting health insurance for people, supporting students to go to school... associated with policies to encourage households with will, aspiration, self-reliance, self-reliance, to rise up to become the nucleus of economic development in the area.
Also from the local practice, comrade Tran Van Sao - Party Secretary, Chairman of the People's Council of Nghi Van commune (Nghi Loc) said: Party building work in rural communes is facing two problems: the low quality of Party cell activities and difficulties in developing Party members. These are also the difficulties that the Provincial Party Secretary pointed out and asked key leaders at the commune level to suggest solutions.
Comrade Tran Van Sao stated that the reason is that rural party cells are mainly composed of elderly party members, so they are reluctant to join the Party cell committee; the capacity of elderly party members also has certain limitations, so the quality of leadership in the party cell is still not high; on the other hand, in rural areas, the young generation often goes to school or work far away, leading to a lack of resources to develop party members.
The Party Secretary and Chairman of the People's Council of Nghi Van commune also informed that in Nghi Loc district, the members of the District Party Executive Committee and the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee have visited and worked with rural party cells to grasp the situation, lead and promptly motivate the party cells; at the same time, for party member development, in addition to building and reviewing union members and association members to create resources, comrade Tran Van Sao suggested that the province should have a solution to support part of the funding as well as arrange suitable study time for the masses to study Party sympathy, or for new party members, because many people have to work to earn a living, such as workers who cannot take time off from their companies and factories during the working day to study.
Party Secretary of Xuan Lam Commune (Hung Nguyen) Le Viet Hung is one of the cadres transferred to the grassroots level for more than 2 years now. Talking to reporters, he shared his honor when his superiors trusted him to transfer him to the grassroots level to thoroughly grasp the reality, have the opportunity to practice and if he can affirm his own capacity, he will develop. However, coming to the meeting and dialogue program, he also brought with him the concern that the Central Government only stipulates a 30% allowance for cadres and civil servants working in Party agencies, the Fatherland Front and political and social organizations at the district level, but not at the commune level.
“My income dropped from 14 million VND to 11 million VND; while in reality, working conditions at the grassroots level still have difficulties, when there is no official housing, leading to many inconveniences in “eating, living and traveling”, comrade Le Viet Hung said and added: “After I spoke, many cadres transferred to the commune called and texted to express their agreement. Because this is also their common concern”.
Returning after the meeting, comrade Le Viet Hung expressed his excitement when the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee listened, understood, and shared the difficulties of the transferred cadres, including continuing to make recommendations to the Central Committee so that cadres doing Party work at the commune level also receive allowances like those at higher levels; at the same time, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu also said that, implementing Regulation No. 21-QD/TU dated May 12, 2023 of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee on cadre rotation, the draft policy to support rotating leaders and managers in Nghe An province is currently being consulted by the Provincial People's Committee and will be submitted to the Provincial People's Council for consideration and approval in the coming time.
Discussing the implementation of new rural construction, regarding the cement support policy for communes that register to finish in the year, the supply is often slow and direct support in the form of cement is no longer suitable in many localities, when people have to sell the supported cement, then use the money to buy fresh concrete because it is more convenient, Chairman of the People's Committee of Thanh Tung Commune (Thanh Chuong) Phan Van Dung expressed his opinion that "should the cement support policy be applied flexibly, maybe in cash". Regarding this issue, Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghe An province Nguyen Duc Trung agreed that cement support in some localities is not suitable; thereby, the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development and Finance to research to make it suitable with regulations and practice.
Handling redundant cadres and civil servants is also a current issue at the grassroots level, a huge "burden" for the province and localities. Along with the pressure to continue to deal with the number of redundant cadres and civil servants in the 2019-2021 period, which currently has 127 people due to the merger of 39 commune-level administrative units, Nghe An is facing pressure when implementing the second phase of arrangement, it is expected that there will be 1 district-level unit and 88 commune-level units subject to merger, accordingly, there will continue to be a surplus of nearly 2,000 people. At the Dialogue Program, Party Secretary, Chairman of the People's Council of Dien Lam commune (Dien Chau) Le Anh Nga said that the above situation greatly affects the ideology and efforts of the team of cadres, civil servants and non-professional cadres.
Regarding this issue, the leader of the Department of Home Affairs said: The Provincial People's Committee is assigning the Department to organize survey teams to concretize Decree No. 33 of the Government regulating commune-level cadres, civil servants and non-professional workers at the commune level, in villages and residential groups, to ensure compliance with Central regulations and suitability with local realities, especially, creating opportunities for those with qualifications, capacity and aspiration to contribute to the apparatus.
On September 15, 2021, the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee issued Regulation No. 08-QD/TU on assessing the quality of Party cell activities. This is a new content, unprecedented in Nghe An. Besides creating many positive changes in improving the quality of Party cell activities, practice also poses some shortcomings. Comrade Hoang Dinh Hung - Party Secretary, Chairman of the People's Council of Quang Trung Ward (Vinh City) proposed that the Provincial Party Committee continue to study and adjust regulations on time; rate of Party members participating in activities; number of Party members' opinions participating in speeches; some qualitative scoring contents such as reports and conclusions at meetings...
Responding to the above issue, Standing Deputy Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Thong said: Currently, the Provincial Party Committee is assigning the Provincial Party Committee's Organizing Committee to collect information and comments from the grassroots... to advise the Provincial Party Committee's Standing Committee to amend and supplement Regulation No. 08 to handle practical problems after 2 years of implementation.
Within the framework of the program, it is certainly not possible to record and answer all the difficulties and shortcomings from the practice of grassroots leaders. However, what remains and is more valuable is that through exchanges with each other, along with flexibility and liveliness in the management process, the Program of meetings and dialogues with the heads of Party committees and authorities of 460 communes, wards and towns in 2023 has opened up an open and democratic space, without any reservations or fears, thereby creating a genuine dialogue that results in achieving common awareness, political determination and high action from provincial leaders to heads of Party committees and authorities of communes, wards and towns in the province on implementing the province's political tasks.
