"The Prime Minister is involved, the Minister cannot stay out of the game"

Speaking from the position that receives the most direct pressure and requires the most movement and change, Minister - Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung shared that he can only try because being slow and standing on the sidelines means... going astray.

Prime Minister is in trouble, can Minister stay out of the game?

PV:The year 2018 has come to an end, which means that more than half of the Government’s 2016-2021 term has passed, leaving behind many marks and many miracles in many fields. As a member of the Government, leader of a “super ministry”, and spokesperson of the Government, what words can the Minister use to describe the Government of this term?

Minister Mai Tien Dung:The first point worth mentioning in this term of the Government is the consistent spirit of creation that the Prime Minister is determined to direct to achieve. Since the beginning of the term, the Government has always strived to act with integrity, speak and do, aiming to serve the people and businesses. In particular, this term of the Government also aims to improve discipline.

Minister, Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung.

Over the past 3 years, those goals have been persistently pursued in the Government's operations, especially by the leader (Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc - PV).

To become a creative and serving Government, executive decisions must be based on consideration and reasonable resolution of pressing social and people issues, which are bottlenecks to development.

As a result of those efforts, we are happy that this year, the socio-economic and anti-corruption indicators are all very positive. Accordingly, "fighting" is also contributing to building and creating. In many discussion sessions at the Central Conferences, I have spoken, doing a good job of anti-corruption, strictly handling serious cases, and providing transparent information when handling officials, including retired officials... is not something that hinders or affects growth because only by doing those things can we create transparency, better fairness, and better competitiveness for the country.

I saw that participating in the discussion, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan also expressed the same opinion. From that consensus, a lot of pressure to act was created from the leader.

In that spirit, the orders and tasks assigned by the Government and the Prime Minister to the Ministries, branches and localities are always strict. The performance of public duties by civil servants has changed dramatically. At the edge of the forest and the corner of the sea, we still say that there cannot be no more work, it cannot be done immediately, but the change in thinking and action will be proven over time.

PV:As the Minister said, the pressure from the Government leaders to the industry commanders is certainly the most direct, the demands for changes in thinking and action can be understood as the greatest. Managing the staff agency, assisting the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers, is there a time when the Minister is overloaded and pressured?

Minister Mai Tien Dung:It is indeed stressful. To say there is no pressure, no hardship, no struggle is a lie. My job is really stressful. From the scope of activities in a locality to the Central level, working as an advisor, assisting the Government, directly the Prime Minister, the scale of work is much larger while my capacity is limited. Therefore, I, as well as all staff of the Government Office, must thoroughly understand the open-mindedness, be willing to listen, learn and be determined to properly implement the instructions of the Government leaders.

Not just me, I think all the Ministers have such pressure. With the Prime Minister's hard work, enthusiasm, and determination, it is impossible for the Ministers and industry commanders to stay out of the game. You create your own path, if you hesitate or slow down, you will immediately deviate from the path.

A government office that is just a postman is… useless.

PV:It is true that since the beginning of this term, the message that the Prime Minister and the Government Spokesperson have been most vocal about is reform and innovation. But the barriers to reform are actually many and many. Does the Minister feel discouraged?

Minister Mai Tien Dung:No! I don't think it's discouraging because there are many social and business issues that need to be addressed, and they are difficult to do, and cannot be completed in a day or two. In the past, we also made efforts to reform, but we only dealt with external issues, not fundamentally changing them. Recently, we have been very determined to cut more than 6,000 specialized inspection procedures, saving more than 11.6 million working days, equivalent to more than 5,400 billion VND; cutting more than 3,000 business conditions, saving society about 1,000 billion VND/year...

That said, no matter how hard the work is, we still have to persevere, try hard, and throw ourselves into it. If the head of the Government is so determined, then the Government Office must also be the leading agency in reform. If the Office is just a clerk, the documents are sent out as they are, the documents are issued without clear opinions, without specific advice, just a roundabout way of "need to comply with the provisions of the law", then... it is useless. Any official who still does that, we will immediately review.

PV:The Minister once said that reformers must be passionate and concerned to succeed. Reformers must dare to face and confront vested interests. Has the Minister himself had to face this problem?

Minister Mai Tien Dung:I have discussed with Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung and Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung about hot issues such as fee collection. I am determined that many fees must be reviewed, adjusted, and abolished because this is what forces people and businesses to go to the "customs gate" and when they do, the official fees are few, and the unofficial fees that must be "paid" are many.

So the work we do has the participation of the press to be public and transparent. If I say something wrong, I will accept it, I will admit my mistake, but if I say something right, I am not afraid, I just do it because I do it to bring benefits to my family. If you ask me to cut this or that and bring it to my family, I am afraid. Most importantly, if businesses and people support, we have to do it, there is no other way. The leaders of the Party, the State, and the Government have been so strong, but if the Head of the Government Office does not do it, it is a crime. We cannot see things that are offensive and just ignore them.

I myself grew up in the locality and have also participated in business activities, so we understand the suffering of the people and businesses. If people have a chance in a split second, they will become successful, but if they lose that opportunity, it is gone forever.

PV:What is the motivation for accepting such confrontation and collision, Minister?

Minister Mai Tien Dung:Businesses and people are currently in dire need of and looking forward to reform. In reality, there are paradoxes such as people dying in traffic accidents but not being able to register their deaths, people who have died for 4 years but have not received funeral expenses… People are frustrated because of harassment, businesses are discouraged because of many terrible barriers. There are many practical requirements, the problem is how to make reform become substantive.

We have made initial progress, but I know that many reforms are still mechanical, cutting this condition but creating other standards. So we need to reform more strongly, continuously, resolutely, and “solidly”, in the sense of going into details. Now, making chocolate candy requires 13 licenses, and eating that kind of candy is really “toothache-inducing”.

Reform is identified as a great room for growth. If reform arrives and businesses face difficulties with their own eyes but do not dare to speak up or make a final conclusion, how can it change anything?

I "deposed" the Deputy Department Heads

PV:The issue of reform and innovation should be raised from each individual, from the way of working to the working style. What kind of style does a Minister build for himself, how does he want to be "identified", as a "Minister close to the people", "Minister of action", "Minister not afraid of collision", "Minister who shouts fire"...?

Minister Mai Tien Dung:I believe that no matter how we reform, the most important thing is still people. If we do not change the way we do things and remain conservative, it will be very difficult, but if we leave it to ourselves, it will never happen, so we have to impose it.
When the leader makes a request, we must try to make the reform practical and not superficial, to see the satisfaction of the people and businesses. In assisting the Prime Minister, we must be exemplary, not allowing the Government Office staff to "play around" haphazardly.

I have already “deposed” the Deputy Department heads, I said “if you can go up, you can go down”, if you don’t do it, someone else will. In short, all that needs to be done is to replace the “person”, because replacing the person is not good, someone else will come in, the responsibility will be better. Of course, first of all, we must work together with our colleagues to resolve the problems, but if there is no change, we must… replace them. The attitude must be resolute like that.

PV:Specifically, in the past 3 years, how many officials under his management who refused to change have the Minister "taken down"?

Minister Mai Tien Dung:To be exact, I have had to change positions in some cases of cadres. For example, those who are too “greedy” for the project are not allowed to contact the project anymore. In general, whatever you do, you must have a solid basis, you must “catch them red-handed, and show them right in front of you”. All matters are assigned to the inspectors, carefully checked first, and documents are drawn up before they are dealt with.

At the Government Office, I make sure everything is told. I have a lot of information and when I have it, I act on it.

PV:Thank you, Minister!