There needs to be unification of the organizational structure of the People's Council at the district level and the part-time regime at the commune level.
(Baonghean.vn) - Currently, the functions and tasks of People's Councils at all levels are being strengthened and the requirements for quality are increasingly high. However, the organization of the district-level People's Council and the regime and policies for commune-level People's Council delegates are facing some shortcomings, which need to be studied for more appropriate amendments.
Inadequacies in the concurrent tenure system
According to Decree No. 33, dated June 10, 2023 of the Government, stipulating allowances for commune-level cadres and civil servants when holding concurrent positions or titles of commune-level cadres and civil servants other than the current positions or titles, they are entitled to a concurrent allowance equal to 50% of the salary (level 1), plus the leadership position allowance (if any) of the concurrent position or title in the case that the locality reduces 1 staff according to the assigned staffing regulations. This regulation is causing concern for the cadres performing concurrent duties at the grassroots level, including the position of Party Committee Secretary (or Deputy Party Committee Secretary) and Chairman of the People's Council of the commune.
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Tu Anh - Party Committee Secretary and Chairman of the People's Council of Tan Huong Commune (Tan Ky): The commune-level authority does not have the right to decide to increase or reduce the payroll. On the other hand, in reality, the person holding the position of Party Committee Secretary (or Deputy Party Committee Secretary) and Chairman of the People's Council of the commune still "shoulders" two different jobs, tasks and responsibilities. In particular, for the role of Chairman of the People's Council of the commune with a very high sense of responsibility in deciding the policies and decisions of the People's Council of the commune; while the concurrent position regime is not enjoyed, this is an inadequacy that needs to be considered for amendment: The person holding a concurrent position is entitled to the allowance for that position.
Also reflecting this situation, Mr. Nguyen Thuc Thanh - Party Secretary and Chairman of the People's Council of Dai Son Commune (Do Luong) said: The position of Chairman of the People's Council of the commune is elected and is a leadership position, but whether or not to enjoy the allowance regime depends on the number of civil servants. In fact, whether the number of civil servants in the commune increases or decreases, the task of Chairman of the People's Council of the commune must be performed by the Party Secretary, not when there are enough cadres and civil servants according to the staffing level, the task of Chairman of the People's Council of the commune is assigned to another person; on the contrary, when there is a shortage of staff, it is transferred to the Party Secretary of the commune to perform the task concurrently.
Inadequacies in the allowance regime for the position of Party Committee Secretary (or Deputy Party Committee Secretary) concurrently Chairman of the Commune People's Council are occurring in many localities. In localities that arrange enough commune-level cadres and civil servants according to administrative unit regulations, the position of Party Committee Secretary concurrently Chairman of the Commune People's Council is not entitled to a concurrent allowance; in localities with fewer cadres and civil servants than prescribed, the position of Party Committee Secretary concurrently Chairman of the Commune People's Council is entitled to a concurrent allowance. Although all Party Committee Secretaries concurrently Chairman of the Commune People's Council perform the same duties and responsibilities, in terms of the regime, some are entitled to it and some are not.
Expressing his opinion on this issue, Mr. Ngo Van Thanh - Vice Chairman of the People's Council of Nghia Dan district said: Obligations and responsibilities must be linked to benefits. Currently, many "semi-professional" positions at the commune and hamlet levels are concurrently entitled to concurrent allowances, in which the person holding two positions of Party Secretary and Chairman of the People's Council of the commune with two independent and different jobs is not entitled to concurrent allowances.
This inadequacy has been reported by many agencies and proposed and recommended by the District People's Council at all levels many times, but has not yet changed. Therefore, the province is requested to continue recommending the Central Government to remove current difficulties and inadequacies, creating conditions for the activities of the Commune People's Council to operate with quality and efficiency.
Need to unify the organization of the district-level People's Council apparatus
The organizational structure of the standing committee of the district-level People's Council, according to regulations, is composed of 4-5 people, including: Chairman, Vice Chairman and heads of the People's Council committees (including the socio-economic committee, the legal committee, and the ethnic committee for localities with many ethnic minorities). From that structure, each locality in the province is currently applying two different arrangements; some localities arrange members of the standing committee, heads of the Party committee to concurrently hold the position of heads of the People's Council committees; some localities arrange full-time heads of the district-level People's Council committees.
From the practice in Thanh Chuong district, Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh Nga - Vice Chairwoman of the District People's Council said: The Standing Committee of the District People's Council plays a leading role, deciding the quality of the People's Council's activities; because the Standing Committee of the People's Council decides to submit the contents to the People's Council session for approval, directly examines the contents submitted to the session or assigns the People's Council committees to examine; at the same time, urges, inspects and supervises the implementation of issued policies and guidelines...
Currently, the Standing Committee of Thanh Chuong District People's Council is structured with 4 positions, including the Chairman, 2 heads of committees are arranged to hold concurrent positions and the full-time Vice Chairman of the People's Council. The advantage is that all 4 positions are members of the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee, so when considering issues to include in the program of activities or decisions, there is early and complete access to policies.
However, in terms of difficulties, the two heads of the district People's Council currently hold two positions at the same time; one is the head of the district Party Committee's mass mobilization committee and chairman of the district Fatherland Front Committee and the other is the head of the district Party Committee's propaganda committee and director of the district political center; that is, the title of head of the district People's Council is a third position. This places greater responsibility on the deputy heads of the district People's Council in charge of advising and organizing the activities of the People's Council. Although the deputy heads of the district People's Council are invited to participate in the regular meetings of the People's Council in an advisory role, they do not have the authority to make decisions.
Vice Chairwoman of Thanh Chuong District People's Council Nguyen Thi Quynh Nga also expressed her opinion: The activities of the district-level People's Council need to be as specialized as the National Assembly and the Provincial People's Council; to do so, there must be specialized agencies and specialized, specialized people. Although the operating mechanism of the People's Council is democratically open through the activities of delegation groups, People's Council delegates and decisions by the majority of People's Council delegates, currently the delegates are basically concurrently holding many professional positions (35/38 delegates) in many specialized fields; therefore, in the activities, many specialized contents need to be researched, fully referenced with regulations and legal bases in a certain way to decide or draw correct and accurate conclusions, requiring specialized agencies and people. Therefore, in the context of streamlining the payroll, it is recommended that competent authorities study and have unified regulations on arranging heads of district-level People's Council committees in a specialized direction to increase professionalism in the activities of the People's Council, avoiding each locality doing it differently as it is currently doing.
Also concerned about the organizational structure of the district-level People's Council, Ms. Le Thi Theu - Vice Chairman of the Tan Ky District People's Council, presented the practical activities of the Tan Ky District People's Council: In the process of implementing the supervision activities of the committees, not all contents are participated in by the committee heads, but many delegations are made to the deputy heads of the district People's Council committees. Meanwhile, the titles of the deputy heads of the district People's Council committees are equivalent to the deputy heads of specialized departments of the district People's Committee. When serving as the head of the supervision delegation, the authority and position will be different from the position of the head of the committee, especially at the grassroots level - the subject of supervision, the Party Secretary, the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee is a member of the district Party Executive Committee. Therefore, along with the concern for arranging a full-time district-level People's Council committee head to ensure professionalism in the activities of the district-level People's Council, the province needs to study and have a policy of arranging the Party Committee for the leaders of the People's Council committees.
Referring to another perspective, Mr. Luu Van Hung - Vice Chairman of the People's Council of Que Phong district said that currently, the total number of People's Council delegates at all levels is large, but the quality of activities is somewhat limited, even some delegates have not once spoken, discussed, questioned, or contributed opinions to the contents of the meeting since their election. In addition, some delegates are limited in contacting and grasping information, thoughts, and aspirations of voters, urging the resolution of voters' petitions, and have not fulfilled their function of representing the will and legitimate aspirations of voters and people.
Therefore, the Vice Chairman of the People's Council of Que Phong district proposed that the competent authority should study to increase the number of full-time delegates and reduce the number of part-time delegates in the next election. On the other hand, to increase the number of full-time delegates, it is necessary to have unified regulations on the arrangement of heads of full-time People's Council committees in association with the structure of Party Committee members; if the heads of People's Council committees are arranged to be part-time members of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee, it is necessary to increase the number of deputy heads or full-time members of People's Council committees.
In addition to the shortcomings in the arrangement and structure of the standing committee of the district-level People's Council, we have noted from the grassroots that the current activities of the district-level People's Council are sharing the office of the People's Committee. Therefore, the competent authority needs to arrange a full-time civil servant to serve the work of the People's Council.
Another issue that localities are also interested in proposing to the Central Government is to study increasing the number of full-time People's Council delegates associated with having unified regulations on the structure and personnel of full-time People's Council delegates to ensure standards on qualifications, capacity, moral qualities and working skills; contributing to improving the quality of district-level People's Councils in particular and People's Councils at all levels in general in the direction of professionalism and specialization.