Creating consensus in the arrangement of administrative units at district and commune levels in Nghe An

Reduce 1 district-level unit and 49 communes

According to the draft Project on reorganizing district and commune-level administrative units in the province, period 2023 - 2025; Nghe An has 3 district-level administrative units to be reorganized and merged, including Cua Lo town, Vinh city and Nghi Loc district. In which, the entire area and population of Cua Lo town and 4 communes: Nghi Xuan, Phuc Tho, Nghi Thai, Nghi Phong (Nghi Loc) will be merged into Vinh city to expand the city.

As a result of the merger, Vinh city, from a natural area of ​​104.99 km2, increased to 166.25 km2 (reaching 110.83%) and the population from 404,110 people to 509,713 people (reaching 339.81%).

Regarding commune-level administrative units, through reviewing and comparing regulations, the whole province has 89 units that do not meet the standards of natural area and population size and must be reorganized. However, based on the study of specific factors, the province proposed and received approval from the Central Government not to reorganize 22 units in the 2023-2025 period.

Thus, with 67 units remaining to be reorganized and other factors to be studied, the province has built and brought 27 adjacent units that meet the standards of natural area and population size to be reorganized and merged with unqualified units. Nghe An has a total of 94 commune-level administrative units, belonging to 13 districts and cities, to be reorganized into 45 units, reducing 49 administrative units after the reorganization.

The most is Quynh Luu district with 17 units merged into 8, a decrease of 9 units. Thanh Chuong district has 16 units merged into 7, a decrease of 9 units; Yen Thanh district has 14 units merged into 7, a decrease of 7 units after the merger; Dien Chau district has 10 units merged into 5, a decrease of 5 units; Hung Nguyen district has 6 units merged into 3, a decrease of 3 units.

There are 2 units: Vinh city and Nghia Dan district; each unit has 5 units merged into 2, reducing 3 units. There are 4 units including Nghi Loc, Nam Dan, Anh Son, Tan Ky, each unit has 4 units merged into 2, reducing 2 units. Con Cuong district has 3 units merged into 2, reducing 1 unit; Do Luong district has 2 units merged into 1, reducing 1 unit.

It is expected that after the merger, Nghe An will reduce 1 district-level unit, from 21 units to 20 districts, cities and towns; commune-level unit, from 460 units, to 411 communes, wards and towns.

Take the initiative to do good ideological work

One of the issues of concern after the merger of administrative units is the arrangement of the right people and civil servants for the right jobs and the resolution of redundancies to create high consensus and unity. This is considered a difficult and sensitive issue because it is related to the work and regime and policies of civil servants.

Drawing on experience from the 2019-2021 arrangement and merger period, in this draft Project, the province has proactively developed a plan to arrange the organizational apparatus and arrange cadres, civil servants, public employees, workers and resolve redundancies due to the arrangement of administrative units in each locality in a very specific and detailed manner within 5 years, counting from the merger date to 2025.

According to the reviewed data, the total number of commune-level cadres and civil servants subject to the current merger is 1,748 people (excluding Chi Khe commune, Con Cuong district, which only adjusted part of the area, not affecting the apparatus); of which, 905 cadres and 843 civil servants. It is expected that 935 cadres and civil servants (525 cadres and 410 civil servants) will be arranged in 44 communes after the arrangement; after the arrangement, there will be a surplus of 813 cadres and civil servants.

Along with developing plans to arrange work for cadres and civil servants and resolve redundancies, propaganda and mobilization work has been proactively deployed by localities to create high consensus among cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers.

Comrade Ho Xuan Sau - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Minh Thanh Commune (Yen Thanh), shared: "Although I still have 5 years to reach the retirement age according to regulations, however, in the conditions of arranging administrative units with surplus cadres and civil servants, I am willing to retire early with the hope that the younger generation with greater resilience and breakthrough will lead the locality well after the merger."

In Minh Thanh commune, comrade Phan Phuc Hao - Secretary of the Commune Party Committee also expressed his comfort and readiness to retire early when we asked about his thoughts and wishes.

In Cong Thanh commune (Yen Thanh), comrade Hoang Van Tuan - Secretary of Cong Thanh commune Party Committee affirmed: Local officials and civil servants highly agree with the policy of rearranging administrative units; among them, there are a number of officials who are very comfortable and happy that if after the merger, the organization cannot arrange work, they will retire under the surplus regime even though they still have approximately 10 years to reach the retirement age according to regulations.

Besides the consensus, there are still many concerns related to the arrangement and resolution of surplus cadres and civil servants. Because currently, besides the basic standardization of qualifications, the cadres and civil servants, the older ones are more mature and have more contributions; the younger ones have better resilience, creativity and dynamism.

That requires localities to research and consider carefully to ensure a systematic and scientific approach, especially in selecting and arranging key cadres, ensuring the right people are assigned to the right jobs, meeting the requirements for performing tasks well in new units with increased area and population; avoiding the situation where localities have good movements but after the merger cannot maintain the movement as voters and people in some localities are currently concerned about.

Regarding the solution to the surplus of cadres and civil servants, currently all localities have specific plans. For example, in Hung Nguyen district, comrade Hoang Nghia An - Head of the district's Internal Affairs Department, said: Localities focus on propaganda, ideological work, and mobilizing those who meet the standards and conditions within the framework to implement the regime to retire early.

Along with that, it is necessary to strengthen the implementation of public duties, seriously evaluate and classify cadres and civil servants, as a basis for removing from the apparatus those who are not qualified, have low awareness and responsibility; at the same time, prioritize the transfer and rotation of cadres and civil servants from merged units to units with insufficient staff and recruit them to become district-level civil servants, transfer them to public employees...

According to many localities, the most prioritized solution to resolve the surplus is to propagate and mobilize those who meet the standards and conditions to retire early and those who wish to switch to other jobs to quickly resolve the surplus, without having to wait for the prescribed 5-year roadmap.

However, to facilitate the grassroots in mobilizing cadres and civil servants, many grassroots also believe that the province should soon have a clear and strong enough policy to encourage and adequately support redundant cadres, civil servants and public employees due to the arrangement of administrative units to voluntarily streamline the payroll right after the resolution of the National Assembly Standing Committee approving the Project on arranging administrative units at district and commune levels for the period 2023 - 2025 of Nghe An province.

Besides the issue of arranging and organizing cadres and civil servants after the merger and resolving redundancies in merged units, an issue of concern for the base at present is perfecting the organizational structure in non-merged units.

Comrade Nguyen Danh Tue - Head of the Organizing Committee of Yen Thanh District Party Committee reflected: Currently, in Yen Thanh district, there are a number of communes lacking heads of mass organizations, including 7 Secretaries of the Commune Youth Union (3 communes are not subject to merger); 5 Chairmen of the Farmers' Association (1 unit is not subject to merger); 1 Chairwoman of the Commune Women's Association is not subject to merger. According to the regulations of the mass organizations, the positions of heads of mass organizations are first of all union members, members of the local organization and are elected by the members; therefore, these positions cannot be transferred from one commune to another.

Therefore, the locality proposed the province to elect a number of heads of some organizations in communes not subject to merger to ensure the operation of the apparatus at the grassroots level.