Mechanical streamlining of staff occurs in many localities.

Officials of Chi Khe commune, Con Cuong district (Nghe An) handle administrative procedures for citizens. Photo: Thanh Duy

According to statistics from the Ministry of Home Affairs, by the end of 2021, for the first time, the number of civil servants decreased by 10.01%; the number of public employees decreased by 11.67%. According to the Ministry of Finance, through the restructuring of the apparatus and streamlining of the payroll in the 2017-2021 period, the State budget expenditure was reduced by VND 25,000 billion. Streamlining the payroll has created an important breakthrough, helping to reduce the cumbersome apparatus and reduce the burden on the budget.

But the results achieved are still considered quite modest when the recent streamlining implementation in many ministries, branches, localities and units is still mechanical, even formal.

The entire political system has now reduced 262,000 positions, equivalent to more than 20% compared to 2015. For the first time, the apparatus has not been bloated after the streamlining process, but frankly speaking, there are still many things that cannot be satisfied. There is still a lack of determination, fear of collision, and avoidance, so the development of a plan to streamline the payroll is slow, some ministries and local branches only focus on streamlining the payroll without paying attention to restructuring the team of civil servants and public employees according to job positions. This situation leads to the situation that the apparatus of many units is still cumbersome, not achieving the set goals and requirements.

Mechanical reduction can be understood as mainly streamlining those who have reached retirement age and have applied for early retirement, but not streamlining those who need to be removed from the system. This story happens in many localities, departments, and sectors.

Mr. Vu Hai Nam - Director of the Department of Organization and Personnel, Ministry of Home Affairs admitted that the streamlining was carried out in the context of both working and perfecting the institution. Even the issue of job positions, although we have been implementing it for a relatively long time, but due to the not really correct and scientific approach to arranging people according to job positions, evaluating cadres, civil servants and public employees according to job positions, we have not had the conditions to implement it, therefore, saying that streamlining the payroll is just a mechanical reduction is also consistent with practical results.

From another perspective, according to Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Thanh Can (National Academy of Public Administration), there is still a situation of equalization between localities and units in the target of streamlining the payroll, leading to some units with large workloads but still having to cut according to the general ratio.

“Our efforts to streamline the payroll by 10% and the results achieved are remarkable, but for the limitations and shortcomings such as the same ratio, equalization between industries, regions, etc., it is necessary to study to ensure specificity. Another issue is that streamlining the payroll must be associated with the organizational apparatus, however, the organizations still overlap and duplicate in terms of functions and tasks,” Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Thanh Can analyzed.

And according to Mr. Le Nhu Tien - former Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children, this mechanical leveling leads to streamlining the payroll but not yet streamlining it. Because many times, the number of focal points is reduced but the streamlining is not clear, it is still a mechanical addition, therefore, there are agencies, ministries, branches, provinces and cities where the total payroll remains unchanged, even though the number of focal points is reduced.

Mr. Le Nhu Tien said that he had recommended that the Central Organizing Committee request the Ministry of Home Affairs and internal affairs agencies at all levels to summarize the process of streamlining the apparatus and reducing staff to consider how effective it is, whether it really helps to reduce focal points and streamline staff.

Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra affirmed that streamlining the payroll while still meeting the number of people working in the current administrative system in public service units, especially in the fields of education and health, is difficult and takes a lot of time.

Because according to the female Minister of Home Affairs, we have to solve two problems at the same time, both achieving the goal of reducing payroll and reducing civil servants receiving salaries from the State budget, and meeting the requirements of improving the quality and efficiency of streamlining to meet the operations of the political system in general and public service units in particular, which is still a difficult problem. The construction of the list of job positions, descriptions, competency frameworks, and job positions of civil servants and public employees is still very slow, and the discipline of some localities and units in managing civil servants and public employees is still not good.

Dr. Dinh Duy Hoa - former Director of Administrative Reform Department, Ministry of Home Affairs.

Thus, streamlining the payroll and restructuring the team while ensuring regular work as well as continuing to improve the quality of civil servants and public employees according to job positions with a synchronous system of standards is a huge challenge.

To streamline the payroll without being mechanical, ensuring both quantity and quality, so that the administrative apparatus can promote higher efficiency, better serving the development of the country, according to Dr. Dinh Duy Hoa - former Director of the Department of Administrative Reform, Ministry of Home Affairs, the first solution is to determine the payroll standards that each administrative agency needs to have. To do so, it is necessary to review the related functions and tasks. Second, the recruitment work must also be standardized again and third, once standardized, continue to use the standards to evaluate cadres and civil servants. On that basis, determine who deserves to stay and work, who needs to be removed from the apparatus. This is a long-term story that needs to be implemented./.