Streamlining the commune-level apparatus: Many localities have not "communicated"

(Baonghean) - With the aim of reducing the number of non-professional cadres at the commune, ward and town levels, at the 10th Session, the Provincial People's Council, term XVI, 2011 - 2016, decided to issue Resolution No. 117/2013/NQ-HDND, dated December 13, 2013, regulating the number, titles and allowances for non-professional workers at communes, wards, towns and hamlets, blocks and villages in the province. After a short time of implementation, besides the positive impacts, there are mixed reactions....

Reflection from the grassroots

After Resolution No. 117, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 14/2014/QD-UBND, dated January 27, 2014 of the Provincial People's Committee regulating the number, titles and allowances for non-professional workers in communes, wards, towns and hamlets, blocks and villages in the province. According to some localities, some regulations in the above Decision are not suitable, causing difficulties in the implementation of political tasks at the grassroots level. For example, Nghi Thai commune (Nghi Loc district), a craft commune with 10 recognized craft villages, about 30% of the labor force participates in craft village activities and income from craft villages accounts for 40% of the local economic proportion.

However, according to the new regulations, the province does not arrange the position of industrial and agricultural extension, which is unreasonable. In Van Dien (Nam Dan), Mr. Tran Ba ​​Minh - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee shared: Van Dien Commune has 696 hectares of agricultural production area. Currently, Nam Dan is implementing the reform of cooperatives. The role and tasks of cooperatives are only responsible for two stages in agriculture, which are water services and field protection; while directing production, converting crop planting, building and replicating models, applying scientific and technical advances in each crop and each year are all the responsibility of the commune. The work is being "concentrated" on the commune more than before, while the position of commune agricultural extension is not included in the staff, which is really causing difficulties for the locality.

Thanh Lien commune's staff and civil servants met to discuss local issues.

Along with the agricultural and industrial extension positions, localities also believe that not having a separate position for the treasurer - clerk - miscellaneous officer but implementing it under a part-time regime is also creating pressure for localities. According to the Chairman of the People's Committee of Van Dien Commune, Tran Ba ​​Minh, in addition to paying benefits to policy beneficiaries and social security beneficiaries of about 1 billion VND/month, the treasurer also has to collect funds according to the Ordinance, collect the source of the new rural program of about several billion VND and collect the commune budget of about 1 billion/year. Therefore, taking on part-time positions does not ensure the time to do the job well.

These are two positions that have been reduced according to Resolution 117 of the Provincial People's Council, causing many reactions at the grassroots level due to the practical shortcomings as mentioned above. In addition, some localities believe that if communes, wards, and towns do not have clerical, miscellaneous, or postal workers, who will take care of that work?! What happens when there is an urgent dispatch but it is sent late? When the clerical and miscellaneous positions no longer exist, each locality is currently applying them in a different way. Another problem is the settlement of benefits for workers who hold non-professional positions that are now reduced. According to the grassroots argument, "they were suddenly 'pushed' out into the street after 10, some over 15 years of attachment" and are having a hard time finding a job to make a living and support their families.

Comments from authorities

Resolution No. 117/2013/NQ-HDND was specified by Decision No. 14/2014/QD-UBND, dated January 27, 2014, implemented from February 7, 2014. Looking at Resolution No. 314 of the Provincial People's Council and Decision No. 58 of the Provincial People's Committee issued before, the positions of permanent police officers (for communes and towns), heads of civil protection committees and deputy heads of civil protection committees (for wards) were increased; 3 positions of agricultural extension - industrial extension, treasurer - clerk - miscellaneous, trade - industry - science and technology and environment were reduced (in particular, the position of population - family planning was transferred to the health officer category according to Resolution No. 53/2012/NQ-HDND, dated July 13, 2012 of the Provincial People's Council, so it is considered not to be reduced). Thus, according to Resolution No. 117, the number of non-professional cadres in communes, towns and wards includes 16 positions instead of the previous 18 positions. Similarly, at the hamlet level, from 7 positions reduced to 5 positions. On the other hand, among the 16 non-professional positions in the commune, only the position of permanent commune police officer (head of the civil protection committee and deputy head of the civil protection committee for ward administrative units) is arranged separately, while 15 positions are arranged concurrently.

Mr. Nguyen Thac Au - Head of the Department of Internal Affairs of Nam Dan district, said: The implementation of Resolution 117 of the Provincial People's Council and Decision 14 of the Provincial People's Committee was immediately implemented by localities in the district. In particular, the encouragement of concurrent positions in 15 non-professional positions creates conditions for the base to rearrange cadres, creating a challenging environment for training and educating cadres when 1 cadre takes on 2 tasks, while improving the income regime because the regulation stipulates that when a non-professional person concurrently holds another non-professional position, he/she is entitled to 100% of the allowance for the concurrent position (the old regulation only entitled to 50%).

Although he is concerned about the position of agricultural and industrial extension officer, Mr. Nguyen Cong Tu - Vice Chairman of Nghi Thai Commune People's Committee also said: "The promulgation policy, in addition to streamlining the apparatus and reducing budget investment by reducing the time spent attending meetings for each specific position, has created conditions for the commune to review its personnel work, allowing it to consider and select non-professional staff capable of holding two positions. In Nghi Thai commune, depending on the capacity of each person, the commune has arranged a number of concurrent positions, such as Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee concurrently in charge of the cultural house - radio station; Deputy Secretary of the Youth Union concurrently in charge of the Party Committee Office; Internal Affairs - Emulation and Commendation concurrently in charge of documents and archives; Judicial officer concurrently in charge of treasurer...". Ms. Nguyen Thi Duyen, who is in charge of internal affairs - emulation and rewards, as well as documents and archives in Nghi Thai commune, shared: "Although the work is more and more difficult than before, the doubled allowance also encourages the staff to work more actively."

From the grassroots opinion, discussing with Mr. Le Dinh Ly - Deputy Director of the Department of Home Affairs, he said: According to Decree No. 92/2009/ND-CP, dated October 22, 2009 of the Government, 2 commune-level civil servants were added in 2 positions of land administration - agriculture - construction - environment and office - statistics. Thus, each commune-level civil servant position is arranged with at least 2 people, there are positions with 3 people (depending on the criteria of commune type) such as land administration - agriculture - construction - environment; finance - accounting position. Meanwhile, the number of non-professional positions at the commune level has not decreased, leading to some non-professional positions doing the work of civil servants, causing overlap, wasting human resources, wasting budget. And Decree 92 also encourages commune-level cadres and civil servants to hold concurrent positions to reduce 1 person according to regulations and has a policy mechanism for receiving accompanying allowances.

That is the case with the documents of the Central Government, but in practice, based on the monitoring activities of the Provincial People's Council on the implementation of Resolution No. 314/NQ - HD/2010, dated July 10, 2010 of the Provincial People's Council on the number, titles and allowances for non-professional workers at the commune, hamlet, block and village levels in the province, the Provincial People's Council found that the number of non-professional positions was too large, some positions overlapped with the functions and tasks of commune civil servants, the allowance regime was low, and the concurrent regime was not suitable. From that reality, the Provincial People's Council made recommendations to the Provincial People's Committee and the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Home Affairs to preside over the research and survey of the team of commune-level civil servants; sent documents to ask for opinions from provincial and district-level departments, branches and sectors before submitting them to the Provincial People's Council for promulgation.

According to Mr. Le Dinh Ly's explanation, in the reduced positions, civil servants are assigned to perform the corresponding work, such as agricultural and industrial promotion by civil servants in charge of agriculture; documents and archives by one of two office and statistical civil servants. As for the treasurer, the localities themselves choose the person to assign, because non-professional cadres work part-time; on the other hand, the responsibility is not as high as civil servants, so assigning the management of the state budget is not appropriate. Regarding the policy regime for non-professional cadres who quit their jobs, there was none before, but now the province has a one-time support policy with the level of benefit equal to half of the current allowance for each year of non-professional work. Those who work part-time and the allowance they receive is only 0.6 of the general minimum wage, equivalent to 600,000 VND/month, cannot be said to be a source of income to support their families, but only a part of support.

Regarding this issue, the opinion of Ms. Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the Provincial People's Council's Legal Committee, said: Every new policy and guideline when put into application, especially policies related to people, cannot be without concerns. However, it is necessary to realize that the general trend is to continue to streamline the organization and staff in state agencies, aiming to build a team of multi-functional staff and civil servants, "deep in one job and know many things", streamlining but still ensuring smooth work. Therefore, the problem is to increase information on this policy and guideline to each staff, civil servant and employee to understand and share. Also according to Ms. Thai Thi An Chung, Resolution 117 was issued in accordance with current regulations, but in practice, there are still some recommendations about the inadequacies. Therefore, in the coming time, the Provincial People's Council's Legal Committee will organize a survey of the practical implementation of Resolution 117 at the grassroots level. If there are any problems or shortcomings, it will continue to make recommendations to the Provincial People's Council for resolution.

Plum Blossom