Dr. Nguyen Si Dung: We cannot let people keep making things difficult and get envelopes.

When it comes to administrative reform, the most important thing is still the reforms that change the motivation. If the motivation does not change, things will be very difficult. And, the issue that the Government needs to pay the most attention to (especially when the Government is striving to become a development-creating Government) is how the motivation to serve the people is being designed.

Dr. Nguyen Si Dung.

It seems that with the current design, this incentive is not really great. That is not to mention the phenomenon of reverse incentives (reverse incentives): making it difficult for people once will get one envelope, making it difficult for people twice will get two envelopes. The more difficult it is, the more benefits it brings, which is the most typical manifestation of the reverse incentive system. General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong calls this phenomenon petty corruption. The assets corrupted are indeed not large, but the social discontent that this type of corruption causes is very large, because it directly affects the people.

The reason why the motivation to serve the people is not great is because the administrative and public service apparatus is very little dependent on the people. From promotions and appointments to salary increases and rewards, the people have almost no say in this. Previously, our Party had a policy of piloting the direct election of commune chairmen by the people.

If this policy is implemented, the head of the administrative apparatus at the grassroots level will be completely dependent on the people. To be elected and re-elected by the people, “he”/“she”, as well as “his”/“her” apparatus, will have no other choice but to be devoted to the people. This is indeed the most effective way to create motivation to serve the people. In the upcoming reform program, if mass implementation is still difficult, we should also pilot the direct election of commune chairmen in some localities from which to learn from experience and expand when conditions permit.

In creating motivation to serve the people, measuring people's satisfaction for rewards and appointments is also very important. Measuring people's satisfaction in today's modern information and communication technology era is very easy. If we put computers with touch screens in all public service agencies, we will measure people's satisfaction every second, every minute and for each civil servant. The problem is that the Government needs to submit to the National Assembly to soon institutionalize this activity as a mandatory legal requirement for all public agencies.

The lack of professionalism in serving the people is also a big problem. According to some calculations, up to 30% of civil servants can only do one thing: "go to work in the morning and come back at night". The fact that we pay salaries easily and endlessly for just "stealing an umbrella" has not only failed to create pressure to improve qualifications, but also negatively affected the working atmosphere and public service discipline. Measuring efficiency to reward and punish fairly is very important to create pressure to improve qualifications here.

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In addition, establishing a system of responsibility to the leader is also very important. Taking a vote of confidence to promote and re-promote administrative and civil service officials as we are doing now is not careful to destroy the foundation of administrative discipline.

When superiors have to depend on the votes of their subordinates for their appointments, it is difficult for them to impose discipline and demand performance. Clearly, we are confusing the operating mechanisms of political responsibility and administrative responsibility here. Trust is a tool to impose political responsibility, not a tool to impose administrative responsibility.