Problems in arranging for the head of the Party Committee to be a non-local person

Many positive impacts

The policy of rotating cadres combined with arranging a number of key leadership positions at district and commune levels who are not local people has been implemented by Nghe An province for a long time.

According to comrade Phan Tien Hai - Standing Deputy Secretary of Nghia Dan District Party Committee, since 2000, the locality has received 8 provincial officials to take on key leadership positions; of which 3 people take on the positions of district Party Committee Secretary; 5 people take on the positions of deputy party committee secretary and vice chairman of the district People's Committee.

In general, this has many positive impacts. In addition to the benefits of allowing individuals to rotate and have a practical environment to mature, the team of cadres and civil servants in the local political system also has the opportunity to learn and change the way of working, thereby changing their thinking, mindset, and way of operating the work and operating the apparatus more positively and effectively.

The arrangement of non-local Party committee leaders at the grassroots level in Nghia Dan district has created a positive movement in new rural construction. Photo: Mai Hoa

Similarly, in Tuong Duong district, in recent years, provincial officials have been continuously recruited to take on key leadership positions; including two people holding top positions in the Party Committee and government.Besides provincial officials returning to districts, Tuong Duong also rotates district officials to take up key positions at the commune level and rotates horizontally from one commune to another.

Currently, Tuong Duong district has 8/17 grassroots Party secretaries who are not local people and 11/17 deputy Party secretaries and Commune People's Committee Chairmen who are not local people.

Comrade Mac Van Nguyen - Head of the Organization Committee of Tuong Duong District Party Committee said: When arranging key leaders, especially the heads of Party committees who are not local people, they will not be influenced or bound by local family and friendship relationships, so in solving work, they should be democratic, objective, fair, and overcome localism, closed-mindedness, factionalism, sentimentality, and favoritism.

On the other hand, the rotating cadres also want to assert their role, so they are more determined, focused and produce clearer results in carrying out political tasks. The working style of some rotating cadres has contributed to changing the working style and manner of cadres, contributing to strengthening the political system from the district to the grassroots.

The Organizing Committee of Tuong Duong District Party Committee went to the area with people from other localities to investigate. Photo: Mai Hoa

Evaluating the specific case of transferred cadres, comrade Nguyen Ngoc Bien - Head of the Organization Committee of Nghi Loc District Party Committee said: Being transferred to take on the position of District Party Committee Secretary, comrade Pham Hong Quang, with the mentality of wanting to learn and understand, regularly followed closely to learn deeply and understand the basis correctly, so the leadership and direction process was close, focused, creating high efficiency.

In leadership and direction, comrade Pham Hong Quang highly promoted the role of setting an example, in difficult tasks, in difficult areas of site clearance, in complicated cases, he went directly to the grassroots to propagate, mobilize, persuade, and directly dialogue with the people. In evaluating, promoting, and appointing cadres, he was democratic, impartial, and objective, ensuring the right person for the right job, creating confidence and motivation for the cadres to contribute: when they have good capacity, their sense of responsibility will be recognized and vice versa.

Comrade Nguyen Dinh Hung - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Secretary of Con Cuong District Party Committee, discussed with village and hamlet officials. Photo: Mai Hoa

Or for comrade Nguyen Dinh Hung, who was transferred to hold the position of Secretary of Con Cuong District Party Committee for more than 5 years now, he has also made many impressions on his specific, focused, and decisive working style and manner; especially in solving weak, difficult, and urgent problems, creating a driving force for the common development of the district and each base; taking care of solving people's problems, taking care of people's lives, especially poor households, households with difficulties..., contributing to strengthening the people's trust in the Party Committee and the government.

In general, comrade Le Quoc Khanh - Deputy Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Organization Board affirmed: The team of cadres transferred and mobilized from the provincial level to hold key positions at the district level are mostly young cadres and leaders of provincial departments and branches.

Leaders of the Provincial Party Committee's Organizing Committee exchanged with officials in the political system in Nghi Thuan commune, Nghi Loc district. Photo: Mai Hoa

Particularly for those transferred to hold the position of district-level Party Secretary, they were already heads or deputy heads of provincial-level departments, branches and sectors, and had a lot of experience in a large working environment. Therefore, when transferred to the district, the district-level Party Secretary comrades basically promoted their qualifications, capacity and strengths; were determined in leadership and direction; had a high sense of responsibility, worked with the grassroots; dared to think, dared to do, dared to take responsibility.

In particular, each transferred cadre has made an impression through leadership and direction of local movements with many positive changes in the socio-economic fields and Party building work and the political system.

From 2011 to June 2021, 61 provincial-level officials were transferred, mobilized and arranged to hold key positions at the district level, including secretary, deputy secretary, chairman and vice chairman of the district-level People's Committee.

As of June 2021, 15 out of 21 district, city and town Party Committee Secretaries are not local people; accounting for 71.4%, an increase of 23.8% compared to 2015.

In Hoang Mai town, the leaders of the Party Committee and government always take the lead in dialogue and resolving difficulties and obstacles in site clearance for investment projects. Photo: Mai Hoa

Need flexibility in implementation

One of the orientations for Party building work in the 2020-2025 term of the Provincial Party Committee is to "basically complete the arrangement of district-level Party secretaries who are not local people". Besides agreeing with the policy of rotating and transferring cadres, during the process of learning at the grassroots level, we recorded a number of thoughts and concerns.

Some opinions say that the rotation, transfer, and arrangement of leaders who are not local people must follow the general policy. However, in order for local cadres, party members, and people to accept them with "heart and mind", the superior Party Committee must pay attention to selecting people with good professional capacity, a high sense of responsibility, and the ability to gather solidarity and consensus of the collective. Otherwise, it will be a "difficult point" for the rotated and transferred people and for the whole locality, because when choosing non-standard cadres, it will affect the general movement of the locality.

Movement to support and help the poor build houses in Con Cuong district. Photo: Mai Hoa

Besides, there are opinions that it is not too rigid to "cover" 100% of district-level Party secretaries who are not local people. Because when being rotated, mobilized, and arranged to hold the position of head of the Party Committee, if that cadre is not truly eager to learn and progress, the goal of learning, training and maturing of the next cadre team will be difficult to achieve.

On the other hand, it also affects the motivation of local officials, because in reality, some local officials have enough capacity to take on leadership positions, meaning they can do it, but are not assigned to do it.

Therefore, the Central and the province need to study to adjust, possibly arranging one of the two key positions, the Party Secretary or the People's Committee Chairman, not to be a local person; if one of these two people is impartial and objective, the other person will be "harmonized". Or it is possible to apply horizontal rotation, the Party Secretary of this district will become the Party Secretary of another district and must pay attention to choosing people who are more outstanding than the old person in the locality to create favorable conditions for the transferred person and the locality to receive.

Some other opinions say that if it is a policy, it must be implemented synchronously, and every locality must do it, avoiding districts doing it and districts not doing it, which does not ensure fairness. The province also needs to have regulations stipulating which "functions" are rotated and which positions are assigned to ensure consistency and meet the rotation goal of training cadres and helping localities develop.

At the same time, it is not advisable to rotate or arrange people who have only one term left or have not yet completed their term of office to reach retirement age, because this only achieves the goal of arranging a non-local Party Committee leader, but does not achieve the goal of training cadres.