Arranging administrative units at district and commune levels is not a mechanical 'addition'

Streamlining district and commune administrative units to ensure effective and efficient operations is a correct policy of the Party and the State, an inevitable trend that cannot be delayed and cannot be reversed. However, this is a difficult and sensitive issue that affects many subjects, so if not carefully calculated and synchronously resolved, it will affect the psychology of officials and people, easily causing public outrage.

The 2019-2021 period of administrative unit rearrangement has ended with the reduction of 8 districts and 561 communes, 3,437 agencies and organizations at the commune level and 429 agencies and organizations at the district level. In the rearranged places, the apparatus is more streamlined, the payroll is also streamlined, and people's lives are stable. The State budget has reduced spending by over 2,000 billion VND due to this rearrangement.

According to Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra, the arrangement of administrative units at the district and commune levels in particular, the organization of the apparatus, and the streamlining of the payroll in general not only help to streamline the state administrative apparatus, but also have a very clear impact on creating a financial resource and implementing salary policy reform.

The Minister of Home Affairs emphasized that by reorganizing the apparatus, reducing administrative units at the district and commune levels, reducing administrative organizations and public service units, we will restructure, streamline the payroll, and reduce the number of people receiving salaries from the state budget, which will have a huge impact and create resources for salary reform. In the future, we will continue to do this to have more resources, restructure the team to be more compact, and make the focal points of agencies, public service units as well as the district and commune levels more compact.

Although the number of administrative units has been reduced, helping to save the budget, expand resources in terms of land, human resources, etc., the arrangement of administrative units at the district and commune levels in the period of 2019 - 2021 also encountered some difficulties and problems. A series of issues have been raised after the merger such as arranging redundant staff; handling public assets; districts and communes after the merger are too large, with difficult traffic...

From this reality, Conclusion No. 48 of the Politburo on continuing to implement Resolution No. 37/2018 of the Politburo on the arrangement of district and commune-level administrative units, encourages localities to proactively propose the arrangement of streamlined administrative units, in accordance with local realities (including administrative units that have met standards). Accordingly, it will be implemented in 2 phases, 2023-2025 and 2026-2030. Phase 1 is proposed to be completed in 2024, so that in early 2025, localities can hold Party Congresses at all levels.

According to Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Administrative Sciences, former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, the arrangement of administrative units at district and commune levels is a big issue, affecting many subjects. It is not only a matter of organizational structure but also related to security and order, life, rights and obligations of the people. Therefore, the implementation process needs to be calculated systematically, scientifically, objectively, publicly, especially with the participation of the entire political system.

To achieve the goals set out in Conclusion 48 of the Politburo as well as the Project of the Ministry of Home Affairs that has been submitted and approved, Mr. Tran Anh Tuan emphasized 3 issues. Firstly, whether it is the central agency or local agencies, there must be determination. Because only when civil servants are in agreement can they be implemented well. Secondly, it is necessary to ensure that they work together, from the National Assembly, the Government, the Ministry of Home Affairs and localities to work together from the beginning. Thirdly, it is necessary to apply information technology as well as digital transformation to this merger.

The rearrangement of administrative units affects many aspects, both the thoughts and feelings of the staff, civil servants and people in the area; it affects many aspects, including economy, culture, society, politics, national security and defense. Therefore, the actual effectiveness of the rearrangement cannot be the mechanical sum of the numbers of how many units and how many staff have been cut, but needs to be assessed substantially from the effectiveness of the government apparatus and the quality of benefits for the people as well as the economic and social development in these areas. That is also a solid foundation for the rearrangement of administrative units at all levels in the next phase to achieve success.