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 the standards. However, up to now, the office system of some communes in many localities in the province is still lacking, weak, and inconsistent. 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 the office, the first job we have is to sweep 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 room" - Mr. Tri cited when showing us their office.



The headquarters of the People's Committee of Nghia Hong commune (Nghia Dan) is narrow 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 rooms are degraded, but each room must be "crammed" 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 people who came to the commune headquarters to do administrative procedures were already crowded. 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 Justice Department 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 of 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 was 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 "swelled" 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 two new rooms, but they still did not meet the working conditions. In 2012, the commune had an initiative to requisition and "upgrade" the kitchen located in the commune headquarters into... an office. To arrange a working place for agencies and organizations, Xa Luong commune organized the combination of departments such as: Youth, War Veterans, Women, and the Association for Promotion of Education to work in one room; Commune Team, Youth Volunteers, Agent Orange, and the Red Cross were arranged in one room; Justice and One-Stop Department were arranged in one room; Agriculture, Land Administration, Plant Protection, and Veterinary Departments were working in one room.... Only the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the commune had their own room.

Calling them separate is “prestigious”, but the rooms of the two commune leaders are also of the same size as 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 taken full advantage of the area and “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 shape. 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 of 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 been 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 "share" with each other, but it is a common difficulty, everyone has to share a little bit...

Thanh Le