Streamlining the payroll: Why is it that the more we want to reduce, the more we increase?

According to many experts, the lack of staff streamlining requirements is due to many reasons.

Resolution 39 of the Politburo on streamlining the payroll and restructuring the staff of cadres and civil servants has been in place for more than 2 years. However, in more than 1 year of implementation, the total payroll nationwide has increased by more than 11,000 people. This means that the policy of streamlining the payroll is ineffective.

Streamlining staffing has not met requirements

In 2002, when it was established, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment had 16 focal points and 4 Departments, but no General Department. By 2013, the apparatus was upgraded to include 18 focal points, 4 General Departments and 5 Departments. However, the number of focal points within the 4 General Departments increased from 34 focal points in 2011 to 40 focal points in 2016.

Illustration photo.

Implementing Resolution 39 of the Politburo on streamlining the payroll, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has so far streamlined 468 people. Of which, there are 2 civil servants and 466 public employees. Meanwhile, the Project to determine job positions of some units has not been implemented in accordance with regulations and has not been streamlined.

Mr. Ta Dinh Thi, Director of the Department of Organization and Personnel, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said: “The reduction of civil servants and public employees compared from now until 2021 does not meet the requirements. The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment approved the project to streamline the payroll for units, reducing 2 and accepting 1. Meanwhile, in reality, the current number of civil servants and public employees does not meet the requirements of the job. The project to determine job positions has many difficulties and obstacles, especially the awareness and drastic implementation of the project to determine job positions is still limited”.

Resolution 39 clearly states that each agency, organization, unit of the Party, State, socio-political organization, and public service unit must develop a plan to streamline the payroll for 7 years (2015 - 2021) and submit it annually to the competent authority for approval and implementation.

In particular, it is necessary to determine the rate of staff reduction by 2021 to be at least 10% of the staff of ministries, departments, branches, socio-political organizations, provinces and centrally-run cities. However, according to the latest data, in 2015 and the past 6 months, the number of people to be reduced nationwide was 28,230. According to the assessment of the Ministry of Home Affairs, this number, if compared with the target of reducing 1.5 - 2% of the staff each year by 2021 according to the resolution of the Politburo, equivalent to about 35,000 - 40,000 people/year, is clearly too small.

Meanwhile, streamlining the payroll mainly applies to those who retire early (accounting for 86.25%) and has not focused on restructuring the civil servant and public employee team according to the job position project.

Dr. Dinh Duy Hoa, an expert from the Ministry of Home Affairs, commented: the slow streamlining of staff is due to the fact that the criteria for evaluating officials are not close to reality, especially how to evaluate civil servants to indicate who has "not completed their tasks for 2 consecutive years" according to regulations is very difficult.

“The conclusion here is that the assessment is not based on actual results. What are the results of the work of civil servants and public employees? The Ministry of Home Affairs and other ministries assessed the results of the organizational reform of each ministry. According to the results of 2015, the total maximum score was 12.5 points, the whole country assessed 19 ministries with a total score of 11.89 points, equal to 95.12%. Thus, the score is very high, proving that the apparatus is very good. But society still assesses that the apparatus is still cumbersome" - Mr. Dinh Duy Hoa said.

“Distilling” the quality of the machine

Currently, 20/22 ministries and sectors have sent documents to the Ministry of Home Affairs for appraisal of proposals to increase staffing. Only 2 ministries have requested to reduce staffing, namely the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Home Affairs, in which the Ministry of Industry and Trade has requested to reduce a General Department to a Department. Meanwhile, in 63 provinces and cities, there are 11 localities that not only do not streamline but also use 7,951 more staff than the number of civil servants assigned by the Ministry of Home Affairs, typically in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Duong, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Binh Thuan, Binh Duong...

According to Mr. Le Thanh Van, member of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee, the fundamental reason why the state apparatus is increasingly cumbersome and cumbersome is due to the input, that is, the recruitment of cadres, civil servants, and public employees is easy while the output is hindered by many obstacles.

Mr. Le Thanh Van.

Meanwhile, it is very difficult to quantify the quality of civil servants. There used to be a figure of "30% of civil servants go to work with an umbrella in the morning and come home with an umbrella in the evening"; with such quality of civil servants, it is difficult to issue policies that are close to reality.

“Resolution 39 of the Politburo and Decree 108 of the Government on streamlining the apparatus have not changed in quality, but mainly in quantity. Reducing the number of focal points at the top will cause swelling at the bottom. Reducing the number of people in the apparatus is mainly due to retirement, changing sectors, and changing jobs. This is not a real purification. Through assessing the quality of cadres to remove those who do not meet the standards from the apparatus, that is the reality. Streamlining by 10% is "distilling" the quality of the apparatus, not simply reducing the quantity" - Mr. Le Thanh Van emphasized.

In line with this view, Minister of Home Affairs Le Vinh Tan affirmed: streamlining the payroll must be combined with a reasonable restructuring of the civil servant and public employee team. However, currently, most agencies and units mechanically reduce the payroll by 10% without paying attention to restructuring the civil servant and public employee team.

“We recalculate the structure to change the apparatus, change the team of civil servants and public employees to improve quality. This is an important issue. Without restructuring the organization and the team of civil servants and public employees, we will not be able to streamline the payroll. Describing positions according to the structure of civil servants and public employees, that issue is the most important” – Minister Le Vinh Tan clearly stated.

Thus, after 2 years of implementing Resolution 39 of the Politburo on streamlining the payroll of central and local ministries, sectors, it has not been effectively implemented. According to the assessment of many experts, the staff streamlining has not met the requirements due to many reasons. But the first reason is that the staff evaluation process is still weak, making it difficult to find civil servants who have not fulfilled their duties to be included in the staff streamlining plan; meanwhile, the recruitment of cadres, civil servants and public employees is too easy./.