Nghe An: Focus on implementing the arrangement of commune-level administrative units according to plan, ensuring people's consensus

On the morning of July 11, the 21st Session of the 18th Provincial People's Council conducted questions and answers on the arrangement of administrative units at district and commune levels and the settlement of policies for redundant cadres and civil servants after the arrangement in Nghe An province, period 2023 - 2025.

Comrades: Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation; Nguyen Nam Dinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Nguyen Nhu Khoi - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council chaired and ran the session.

Attending the meeting were comrades: Nguyen Van Thong - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Hoang Nghia Hieu - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province, comrades of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, members of the Provincial Party Committee Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, delegates of the Provincial People's Council; leaders of departments, branches and localities.

Expanding development space associated with streamlining the apparatus

During the questioning session, 20 delegates of the Provincial People's Council raised questions and debated. The questions clearly stated the content, were on point, and reflected that the questioning content was an issue of great concern to voters, delegates, and public opinion.

The questioning atmosphere was lively, responsible, frank and highly constructive. The provincial People's Council delegates closely followed the content of the questioning, asked basic questions that were focused and clear, clarified the current situation and responsibilities, and were ready to debate.

The Director of the Department of Home Affairs has a firm grasp of the issues and areas in charge; answered questions fully and in detail, and proposed a number of solutions to carry out related tasks in the coming time.

At the same time, the Directors of the Departments of Education and Training, Finance and the Deputy Director of the Department of Construction coordinated to clarify the issues that delegates and voters were interested in, and proposed a number of solutions to implement this issue.

Based on the report and the developments of the questioning session on this content, on behalf of the chair, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Council of Nghe An province Thai Thanh Quy concluded, thereby emphasizing that the arrangement of administrative units in Nghe An province, the period 2023 - 2025 is a major and important policy of the Party, the State and the province.

For Nghe An, as soon as the Politburo issued Conclusion No. 48, the province had a policy of temporarily suspending the recruitment of civil servants at commune and district levels to proactively arrange the staff after rearranging administrative units.

The Provincial Party Secretary and Chairman of the Provincial People's Council assessed that this policy may cause difficulties for some localities, but in terms of strategic significance, it will ensure a solution for redundant civil servants, public employees, and workers after the merger.

Nghe An is also a province that has promptly developed steps and implemented procedures in accordance with the spirit of the Politburo, legal regulations and related guidelines from developing plans and projects, through the steps in the province and reported to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the People's Council of Nghe An province stated that the arrangement of administrative units must be thought of in the direction of expanding development space, creating regional linkages, effectively promoting potentials and advantages for better socio-economic development and through this streamlining the apparatus and reducing staff.

Therefore, in the 2019-2021 period, the whole province will rearrange 39 commune-level administrative units, after the rearrangement, the province will reduce 20 commune-level administrative units. According to the project for the 2023-2025 period, Nghe An province will rearrange 92 commune-level administrative units, after the rearrangement, it will reduce 48 commune-level administrative units, leaving 412 units.

However, the Provincial Party Secretary and Chairman of the Provincial People's Council also acknowledged that this is a difficult and complicated issue, due to its impact on the ideology and interests of the people, cadres, and party members; some tasks take up to 5 years to complete the project; and the arrangement is not just a mechanical re-merger of localities, but also involves the organization, human resources, facilities; management and operation after the merger...

After the arrangement, there are also changes in documents and locations for people and the business community to carry out administrative procedures; arrange workplaces, arrange redundant staff, etc.

Clearly assign responsibility for implementation

Based on that analysis and overall assessment of the past time, comrade Thai Thanh Quy said that although there were certain difficulties in the implementation process, with the early and active participation of the provincial political system and the basic consensus of the people, Nghe An is one of the provinces that early submitted the Project on rearranging commune-level administrative units in the province, period 2023 - 2025 and the Project on adjusting administrative boundaries of Vinh city, establishing wards and rearranging commune-level administrative units in Vinh city to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Up to now, the Conference on appraising the dossiers of the above two projects chaired by the Ministry of Home Affairs has unanimously approved them for submission to the Government.

However, the leader of the Provincial People's Council emphasized that the above results are only the first step, the important issue is the implementation after the projects are approved. With that in mind, the Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the Provincial People's Council of Nghe An requested the Provincial People's Committee and sectors and localities to pay attention to implementing a number of contents.

First of all, continue to actively carry out propaganda work with appropriate content, forms, methods, means and forces, promote the spirit of setting an example in propaganda so that cadres, party members and people of all walks of life understand, unify and support the policy of rearranging administrative units.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy also requested that the Provincial People's Committee and relevant agencies of the province closely follow the work so that the province's dossier will soon be submitted to the Government for consideration and approval; strive to submit the Resolution to the National Assembly Standing Committee for promulgation in October 2024. From now until then, the spirit is to be proactive, ready to work side by side with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Government Office, and the National Assembly agencies to serve to fully explain information when requested.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Council requested to promptly complete the draft Resolution on support policies for cadres, civil servants, public employees, workers, part-time workers and other redundant subjects due to the arrangement of administrative units at district and commune levels in Nghe An province to submit to the Provincial People's Council, in a spirit of transparency, publicity, clarity in accordance with Central regulations, and at the same time in accordance with the province's resource conditions.

On the other hand, after the National Assembly Standing Committee issues the Resolution, the Provincial People's Committee needs to issue a plan, clearly assigning responsibilities to agencies, units in the province, localities, and leaders in the process of implementing the two projects.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Council also requested localities, especially newly established localities after the reorganization, to focus on applying information technology in operations, building e-government, and implementing Project 06 well to be able to handle more work, faster, more effectively, and serve people and businesses better and better in the context of increasing population size.

After the question and answer session, comrade Thai Thanh Quy emphasized: The Provincial People's Council assigned the Provincial People's Committee to direct relevant departments, branches and localities to effectively implement the conclusions and contents stated and committed by the leaders of relevant departments; assigned the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council, the Committees of the Provincial People's Council, the Provincial People's Council Delegation Groups and the Provincial People's Council delegates to strengthen supervision of the implementation of these contents, so that the arrangement of commune-level main units and the expansion of Vinh city's administrative boundaries are carried out according to plan, with quality, with the people's consensus and after the merger, quickly develop a socio-economic development plan to meet development needs.