Personnel selection for the 13th Party Congress: Cadre evaluation must be completely impartial.

The preparation of personnel for Party committees for the 2020-2025 term must focus on introducing new individuals who possess virtue, talent, prestige, and potential. This is one of the requirements set forth by the Politburo in Directive 35, recently signed and issued by General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong, to guide Party committees at all levels in preparing for Party congresses leading up to the 13th National Congress of the Party.

Evaluating officials is a difficult task, but it is not impossible if the organization or individuals undertaking this task do so objectively, honestly, and impartially.

Before each congress, personnel issues always attract public attention. The requirement is to select individuals who possess all the necessary qualities, with talent and virtue, and even ethics, being prioritized.

Choosing the wrong officials will harm the entire system.

Evaluating the necessary and sufficient conditions for cadres is difficult, but not impossible. Therefore, according to Mr. Nguyen Trong Phuc, former Director of the Institute of Party History, in the entire process of selecting cadres (evaluation, planning, training, placement, rotation), the evaluation stage is identified as the key and decisive step. Only with accurate evaluation can we select competent and good cadres. Choosing the wrong cadres will lead to inappropriate placement and assignment, harming the entire Party organization and the political system.

The former Director of the Institute of Party History also emphasized that the selection of cadres plays a crucial, even decisive, role. Therefore, the evaluation process requires the evaluators, specifically the leaders and Standing Committee members, to be extremely objective, honest, and impartial, without any bias whatsoever. It's unacceptable to favor one person and criticize another. The responsibility of the Party committee and the leader is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each cadre before including them in the planning process. Without integrity and impartiality, those responsible for "scoring" can easily be influenced by personal or group interests.

The story of the disciplinary action against Trinh Xuan Thanh nearly three years ago remains highly relevant. Public opinion at the time suggested that the entire process should be reviewed to avoid selecting the wrong person. However, in reality, many argued that the process itself was not at fault; the problem lay in the input phase, which may have lacked proper standards.

The process was flawless, yet the wrong person was still chosen.

Mr. Le Nhu Tien - former Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Culture, Education, Youth, and Children of the National Assembly. Photo: Binh Minh

Mr. Le Nhu Tien, former Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Education, Youth, and Children, in an interview with VOV.VN, once used the image of the process of making pork sausage to illustrate the process of selecting and appointing officials. He argued that if spoiled meat is used to make sausage, even if the grinding, pounding, and cooking processes are followed correctly, the quality of the sausage will certainly not be as good as that made from fresh, high-quality meat, not to mention that the sausage will spoil and go bad more quickly.

Furthermore, in the process of selecting officials, even if the correct procedures are followed, those procedures cannot determine the quality of the output if the quality of the input is not given due importance. If individuals lack both the necessary qualities and capabilities, they will still remain unqualified and incompetent officials even after going through the process. Mr. Tien argued that we should not only scrutinize the procedures but also pay special attention to the selection of individuals for training and development into officials.

Mr. Nguyen Trong Phuc - former Director of the Institute of Party History. Photo: Binh Minh

Sharing the same viewpoint, the former Director of the Institute of Party History argued that the process itself is not flawed, yet mistakes and wrong choices are still made in selecting officials. The reason is that the process has been influenced by factions and interest groups.

Therefore, the agencies and individuals responsible for evaluation must truly prioritize the goals and ensure the fulfillment of political tasks and duties, rather than pursuing personal gain or allowing the pursuit of positions and power to influence their decisions. The appropriate job placement for each official, allowing them to best utilize their abilities and strengths, must be accurately assessed. We cannot create jobs or organizations simply because of individuals.

Avoid vote rigging in employee performance evaluations.

Another point that needs special attention in cadre evaluation, according to Mr. Nguyen Trong Phuc, is collective responsibility. Evaluating a cadre, especially evaluating them for leadership planning, is the collective responsibility of the Party committee and organization, not just of an individual, although the responsibility of the head is also very significant. That collective must also be extremely objective, honest, and impartial to avoid vote manipulation in the evaluation. While acting in the name of the collective, each individual within that collective must thoroughly understand the principles of cadre evaluation; only then will the evaluation be truly accurate, and only then will the right cadres be selected.

In an article intended to guide Party committees at all levels following the issuance of Directive 35, General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong particularly emphasized that personnel work must be carried out step by step, cautiously, meticulously, and according to proper procedures, ensuring democracy, objectivity, openness, and transparency, but truly placing the right person in the right job. He stressed the need to strengthen control over personnel work and the preparation of Party committee members; strictly prohibiting any manifestations of violating the principle of democratic centralism, seeking to promote one person while demoting another, creating suspicion, and undermining internal unity.