New regulations directly impact commune-level civil servants

Checking compliance with working hours of staff and civil servants of Anh Son District People's Committee. Photo courtesy of Chau Tuan

Accordingly, commune-level civil servants must have a university degree or higher. This is one of the most notable new points of Circular 13/2019 compared to previous regulations. If in Article 2 - Circular 06/2012/TT-BNV, the requirement for professional qualifications for commune-level civil servants is only to graduate from a vocational secondary school or higher in a field of training appropriate to the position held. Starting from December 25, 2019, commune-level civil servants must have a university degree or higher.

Thus, it can be seen that determining the professional level of university degree or higher is an important turning point in improving the qualifications of the communal civil servants as well as ensuring the selection of competent and qualified people for the job position. The new Circular also requires that the IT level of communal civil servants must meet the basic IT skills standards in Circular 03/2014/TT-BTTTT of the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Circular 13 of the Ministry of Home Affairs also stipulates that commune-level civil servants must meet the following conditions: Be 18 years of age or older; Graduated from high school; Understand political theory, grasp the viewpoints, policies, and guidelines of the Party, policies and laws of the State... Provincial People's Committees will base on the actual conditions of the locality to decide on the training major in each recruitment period, require ethnic minority languages, foreign languages... These standards will be applied from December 25, 2019. Commune-level civil servants recruited before this date may not meet the above conditions.

To resolve the arising problems, Article 2 of the Circular stipulates: For civil servants recruited before December 25, 2019 who have not met the standards, within 5 years (ie until December 25, 2024), they must meet the above standards. If after 5 years they still do not meet the requirements, they will be forced to downsize, forced to quit, retire early or transfer.

Another new point of Circular 13 of the Ministry of Home Affairs is that 3/5 commune-level civil servant positions are assigned to 2 people. Accordingly, Article 9 of this Circular stipulates that each commune-level civil servant position is assigned at least 1 person. However, the Provincial People's Committee can arrange to increase the number of people in some commune-level civil servant positions in accordance with the requirements and tasks of each commune, ward, and town (not applicable to the positions of Commune Police Chief and Commune-level Military Command Commander).

Officials of Nghi Long commune (Nghi Loc) handle administrative procedures for people. Photo courtesy of Thanh Le

At the same time, the arrangement of communal civil servants must still meet the requirements on the number of commune-level cadres and civil servants (stipulated in Article 4, Decree 29/2009/ND-CP amended in 2019). That is, for communes of type 1, the maximum number is no more than 23 people; communes of type 2, the maximum number is no more than 21 people; communes of type 3, the maximum number is no more than 19 people. And according to the new regulations of Circular 13, there are up to 5 communal civil servant positions that can be arranged with 1 person or more, including: Office - Statistics; Finance - Accounting; Justice - Civil Status; Culture - Society; Land - Construction - Urban and Environment (for wards and towns) or land - agriculture - construction and environment civil servants (for communes). For positions with 2 or more people, when recruiting, recording personal records and social insurance books, the correct name of that position must be consistent.

Solutions for surplus commune-level cadres and civil servants exceeding the prescribed number (Decree 34/2019/ND-CP) will be to streamline the payroll according to current regulations; resolve the termination regime according to the Law on Cadres and Civil Servants; resolve early retirement, leave of absence waiting for retirement age; transfer and supplement to communes, wards and towns in the district level or other districts in the province...