Streamlining the payroll: Some places reduce gradually, some places increase beyond the limit by 45-50%

The National Assembly's monitoring delegation pointed out the paradox that although the apparatus is very cumbersome and the requirement to streamline the payroll has been determined, some places continue to propose additional payroll, especially at departments, general departments of ministries, some ministries use payroll exceeding the framework by up to half of the assigned payroll.

The draft report on the results of monitoring the implementation of legal policies on reforming the State administrative apparatus in the 2011-2016 period, conducted by the National Assembly's Monitoring Delegation, devotes a large part of its content to the issue of management and streamlining of staff.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Uong Chu Luu - Head of the Supervisory Delegation chaired the meeting of the Supervisory Delegation on July 28 (photo: Quochoi.vn)

Nparadox of continuing to request additional staff

Monitoring results show that not only at the local level but also at the central level, regulations on payroll management are not strictly implemented. Accordingly, by the end of 2016, the total number of employees working beyond the payroll in general departments under ministries and ministerial-level agencies was 3,137 people (exceeding 3.5%), and in departments under ministries and ministerial-level agencies was 1,234 people (exceeding 8.6%).

In particular, by agency, there are still 7 ministries using more than the assigned staff in the general departments. 14 ministries and ministerial-level agencies use more than the assigned staff in the departments and bureaus. In particular, there are ministries using more than the assigned staff at a very high rate, from 1/3 to 1/2 of the assigned staff.

The evidence given is that the Ministry of Planning and Investment used 1,936/5,998 more staff (32.28% more); the general departments under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development used 141/309 more staff (45.63% more).

According to the Government's report, this situation also occurs in many localities. Up to 31/63 provinces and cities have used more than the total of 6,376 positions in administrative units under specialized agencies under the provincial People's Committee.

Many provinces and cities exceeded with very high rates such as Ho Chi Minh City exceeded 1,434/4,822, equal to 29.74%; Hai Phong and Quang Ninh both exceeded over 19%, Khanh Hoa by 45.68% and Bac Lieu by 51.46%.

The monitoring results also showed that from 2015 to December 31, 2016, despite streamlining the payroll according to Resolution No. 39 of the Politburo, the number of public employees still increased by 5,401 people. The total number of actual civil servants exceeding the payroll was 9,164 people.

In addition, according to the summary data of 2 years of implementing Resolution 39 of the Politburo, the number of people working under labor contracts signed according to Decree No. 68/2000/ND-CP in ministries, branches and localities exceeded the assigned target by 45,152 people (an increase of 56.75% compared to 2015).

“While Party and State documents have clearly identified the requirement to persistently implement the policy of streamlining the payroll, ensuring that the payroll of the entire political system is not increased, a number of ministries, branches and localities continue to propose additional payroll” – the monitoring report lists many ministries such as Justice, Agriculture and Rural Development, and Vietnam Social Security...

Respect and equalization in evaluating staff capacity when streamlining

More importantly, according to the Supervisory Delegation, the implementation of the policy of streamlining the payroll has not been substantive, not in accordance with regulations and has not achieved the set goals.

Continuing the "telling" figures cited. Since the implementation of the staff streamlining policy under Decree No. 108/2014/ND-CP until the end of 2016, the majority of ministries, branches and localities have not yet approved their staff streamlining plans from 2015 - 2021 and each year, leading to the situation of proposing staff streamlining not according to regulations (periodically twice a year). Even as of June 1, 2017, there were still 3 ministries, branches and 22 localities that had not approved staff streamlining plans from 2015 - 2021 and each year.

The total number of subjects who were resolved to streamline the payroll in the 2 years of implementing Resolution 39 (2015 and 2016) was 17,694 people. Of which, the number of people in Party and mass organizations was 731 people; the number of people in administrative agencies was 2,253 people/total of 272,952 payrolls (reaching 0.83%); the number of people in public service units was 11,206 people/total of 2,093,313 payrolls (reaching 0.54%).

In some ministries, the highest number of staff reductions in the year only reached 41.51% of the target for streamlining civil servant staff and 17.24% of the target for streamlining public employee staff.

With this result, the implementation of streamlining the payroll is still very limited and has not achieved the set target, the monitoring team recognized.

The newly re-counted streamlining subjects focus on the group of people who retire early (accounting for 90%), people who enjoy the policy of immediate job termination or the policy of transferring to organizations that do not receive regular salaries from the State budget, and people who enjoy the policy of job termination after studying. The streamlining has not yet been able to target the right subjects, which are people with poor public ethics and capacity.

The reason emphasized by the monitoring team is that there is no mechanism to ensure the connection between authority and responsibility, and no corresponding sanctions so that leaders can strongly implement the reform of the organizational apparatus and streamlining of the payroll. Therefore, many cases are still not determined, there is a mentality of respect, avoidance, and fear of collision in perfecting the organizational apparatus and implementing the streamlining of the payroll.

The mechanism for recruitment, appointment, use, training and treatment of cadres, civil servants and public employees is not reasonable, the right people have not been selected and used for the right job, and the conditions for cadres, civil servants and public employees to fully develop their abilities have not been created. The work of evaluating cadres, civil servants and public employees is still formalistic, lacking substance, and does not ensure correct, objective and honest assessment of the results of the performance of cadres and civil servants.

The monitoring delegation believes that there is still a situation of favoritism and equalization in evaluation, therefore, the evaluation of cadres and civil servants is not the basis for considering the capacity of cadres, civil servants and public employees when implementing staff streamlining.

According to Dan Tri