Personnel for the 13th Party Congress: 'The screener must be clean'

This is a cautious step following Directive 35-CT/TW dated May 30, 2019 of the Politburo and direct direction of General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong on personnel work for the new term.

Grasp the principles of democracy, publicity and transparency

Following recent developments with both long-term and urgent measures, Mr. Le Thanh Van (National Assembly Delegate of Ca Mau province) affirmed that everywhere, from the commune to the central level, the key and most important issue is to select a team of worthy cadres.

Over the past time, the Central Executive Committee has made preparations, each session has prepared and revised the regulations for selecting cadres to follow the correct procedure, and the standards for each class of cadres have become clearer as time goes on. However, the regulations themselves do not select cadres, but are a procedural process or a tool, the important thing is how people use them.

"If a person has a bright mind and clear intelligence, then he can choose a worthy person. If his mind is dark and his intelligence is dim, then he can still bend the rules to put unqualified people into the system" - Mr. Le Thanh Van expressed his opinion.

Sharing the same opinion, Mr. Vu Quoc Hung - former Deputy Head of the Central Inspection Committee, said that in all stages of personnel work, cadre assessment is a particularly important prerequisite. Because reality has shown that only by correctly assessing the qualities and abilities of cadres can the selection, planning, training, fostering, rotation, assignment, reward, discipline... of cadres be objective and accurate. On the contrary, if cadres are not correctly assessed, it will lead to incorrect arrangement and use, leading to unpredictable consequences, especially incorrect arrangement of key cadres and leaders.

“We must firmly grasp the principles of democracy, publicity, and transparency in the implementation of personnel work. If those principles are implemented seriously and systematically, we will be able to select suitable cadres to introduce to the Party Committee. Democracy means that when introducing cadres to the Party Committee, we need to discuss, then ask for opinions from the people, socio-political organizations, and unions to select personnel. After the personnel introduction step, the organizers must verify the introduced person. From here, the selected people are required to fully declare and declare their assets... to see the honesty, qualities, and abilities of the introduced person" - Mr. Vu Quoc Hung said and emphasized that the opinions of the review and vote of confidence to select cadres must be carried out transparently and clearly.

To select the right and qualified cadres, according to the former Deputy Head of the Central Inspection Commission, those who work in personnel must be conscientious, visionary, pure, impartial, and put the interests of the Party and the people above all else. At the same time, these people must have the capacity and qualifications to evaluate people and cadres correctly and objectively.

To rectify and build a team of virtuous and talented cadres, those who work in cadre work must be truly impartial, doing everything with the goal of serving the country and the people in mind. The process of selecting cadres must be done carefully, not haphazardly or hastily, and not allowing favoritism or group interests to exist.

“For the selected cadres, the correct procedures must be followed, from planning, testing, and then introducing personnel to the congress. The training and testing process, along with the supervision of the organization and the masses, will select cadres who are truly dedicated, talented, and virtuous in serving the people,” said Mr. Vu Quoc Hung.

The nominator is responsible.

In addition to evaluating cadres, screening cadres is also not a simple task. Mr. Duong Quang Phai - former Head of the Central Inspection Committee said that the screener must be clean, especially the head of the Party Committee. If the head is not clean, it will be difficult to filter "Birds of a feather flock together", especially when it comes to transparency in personnel work.

“Let’s make it public for the people to choose. Now, if someone is said to have “smeared” someone, then investigate and verify to see if the news is true, and if the accusation is correct. We have a screening system, don’t keep it secret within the Party. To be able to screen, we need the participation of socio-political organizations and the participation of the people in the screening, then we can hope to have a good system,” said Mr. Duong Quang Phai.

In the personnel work in preparation for Party Congresses at all levels, one of the important things is to strictly bind the personal responsibility of the nominator and recommender. Who is responsible for the recommendation? A collective, not everyone raises their hands to recommend a person, but there must be someone who proposes and initiates first, then that person must be responsible for ensuring their recommendation. The recommender must be responsible, must know clearly, not recommend randomly, by friends or relatives, or even buy and sell positions to blame the collective. The problem is how to separate personal responsibility from collective responsibility.

Mr. Vu Mao, former Head of the National Assembly Office, affirmed that those who do well in personnel work and introduce the right people must be welcomed and respected. Those who introduce the wrong people or the wrong officials must be reminded and even held responsible. What is the motive for the introduction? What interest group?

“Preparing for the grassroots congresses, towards the 13th National Party Congress is an urgent matter that needs to be done immediately, but in the long term, those issues in Party building work must be studied and summarized fully to serve as lessons for future generations. In my opinion, those things need to be regulated within the Party, the highest in the Party is the Party Charter,” Mr. Vu Mao emphasized.