Inadequacies of office buildings in mountainous communes: Part 1: “Solidarity” offices

(Baonghean) -One of the criteria in building new rural areas is that the office must comply with standards. However, up to now, the office system of some communes in many localities in the province is still lacking and weak, not uniform, many offices have degraded and have not been repaired or renovated...

Rotten wooden doors, lime walls falling on the floor, that is the common scene of the offices in Nghia Hong commune, Nghia Dan district. Taking advantage of the commune meeting, Mr. Vo Van Tri - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Nghia Hong commune went to the office to complete the report. The office is only about 10 square meters but is jointly owned by 3 organizations: Farmers' Association, Youth Union and Veterans' Association. Each unit is in charge of a different field, during office hours people come and go, making it difficult to concentrate on work. Most of the work is done by Mr. Tri at home. "Because the office is seriously degraded, every morning when we come to work, the first thing we do is sweep away lime that has fallen on the floor, tables and chairs. It is hot in the summer, the worst is when it rains, the windows are termite-infested, broken, the house is leaking, we cannot sit in the office" - Mr. Tri cited when showing us their office.



The headquarters of the People's Committee of Nghia Hong commune (Nghia Dan) is cramped and degraded.

Nghia Hong Commune received the headquarters of the Red Flag Farm, built in the 1980s and transferred to the commune in 1995. These rows of level 4 houses have eroded over the years. It is worth mentioning that the office is degraded, but each room has to be "stuffed" with departments, branches and organizations: Culture - Front, Elderly, Agricultural Extension; Police - Military; People's Council, Party Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Commune Party Committee... As for the meeting room, it is "multifunctional" and is also the office of the departments and branches: Women, Population. Whenever there is a meeting of the commune, the departments and branches temporarily... stop working.

We arrived at Xa Luong commune, Tuong Duong district in the early afternoon, but the number of people coming to the commune office to do administrative procedures was already very large. Some stood in the hallway, some stood in the yard, some waited in the bustling hall. The one-stop transaction department was arranged with the Department of Justice in an area of ​​about 5 square meters, enough to arrange a chair for one person to sit and do the procedures. Mr. Luong Van Ngoc in Na Be village - Xa Luong, said: "The office is too cramped, there is no place for citizens to sit and wait to receive the results. We went in and put the documents that needed to be resolved on the table, then went out to the yard to wait. We came here from a remote border village but there was no place to sit and wait to receive the people."

The headquarters of Xa Luong commune, Tuong Duong district is a 2-storey, 5-room wooden house built in 2002. At that time, there were 26 cadres in Xa Luong commune, not spacious but considered enough for a working place compared to that time. With an area of ​​about 150m2 divided into 8 rooms, a hall arranged on the 1st floor used as a meeting place and to organize community activities of the commune, occupying 3 rooms. With the same area, from 26 people, the number of cadres has now "bloated" to 54 people. The house is still the same, more than twice as many people, everyone has to squeeze and share in the small working area above.

Due to the limited space, in 2007, with the support of superiors, the commune invested in building and expanding 2 more rooms, but they still did not meet the working conditions. In 2012, the commune had the initiative to requisition and "upgrade" the kitchen located in the commune headquarters into... an office. To arrange a workplace for agencies and organizations, Xa Luong commune organized to combine departments such as: Youth, War Veterans, Women, and the Association for the Promotion of Education to work in 1 room; Commune Team, Youth Volunteers, Agent Orange, and the Red Cross were arranged in 1 room; Justice and One-Stop Department were arranged in 1 room; Agriculture, Land Administration, Plant Protection, and Veterinary Departments were assigned in 1 room. Only the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the commune had their own rooms.

Calling them separate is “prestigious”, but the rooms of the two commune leaders are also “equal in size” like other rooms and departments. That means the area for the “collective rooms” and “private rooms” is only 5-6 square meters. Although the commune has made full use of the area, “planned” in all kinds of ways to have the best working place, in reality, because the departments have to “live together” and “work together” in a cramped room, it is very difficult and inconvenient.

Luu Kien Commune (Tuong Duong District) is in no better situation. Mr. Lo Van Quynh - Chairman of Luu Kien Commune said: "The 2-storey wooden house was built in 2003, with an area of ​​200m2 in 2011, the number of civil servants in the commune was 35 people, but now it is 44 people. This 2-storey wooden house was invested in by the 135 Program phase 1". In 2005, the commune kindergarten was newly built, and the People's Committee of Luu Kien Commune "inherited" the old wooden house of the kindergarten. The overload situation of the commune People's Committee headquarters has improved a little.

Working conditions are too cramped, the solution of Luu Kien commune as well as Xa Luong commune is to organize room partitions, combining departments together. No one wants cramped, deprived and no one wants to have to "share" with each other, but it is a common difficulty, everyone has to share a little bit...

Thanh Le