Downsizing the workforce: Why does the desire to reduce it actually lead to an increase?

According to many experts, the failure to achieve the set targets for downsizing the workforce is due to several reasons.

Resolution 39 of the Politburo on downsizing the workforce and restructuring the civil servant workforce has been in effect for over two years. However, in just over a year of implementation, the total number of civil servants nationwide has increased by more than 11,000 people. This means that the policy of downsizing the workforce has not been effective.

The downsizing of the workforce has not met the requirements.

When it was established in 2002, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment had 16 departments and 4 bureaus, but no general departments. By 2013, the structure had been expanded to include 18 departments, 4 general departments, and 5 bureaus. However, the number of departments within the 4 general departments increased from 34 in 2011 to 40 in 2016.

Illustrative image.

In implementing Resolution 39 of the Politburo on downsizing the workforce, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has so far reduced its staff by 468 people. This includes 2 civil servants and 466 public employees. Meanwhile, the plan for determining job positions in some units has not been implemented according to regulations and has not been streamlined.

Mr. Ta Dinh Thi, Director of the Personnel and Organization Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, stated: “The reduction of civil servants and public employees from now until 2021 has not met the requirements. The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment approved the personnel streamlining plan for units, reducing 2 positions while only recruiting 1. However, the current number of civil servants and public employees does not meet the job requirements. The plan for defining job positions faces many difficulties and obstacles, especially regarding the limited awareness and decisive implementation of the plan.”

Resolution 39 clearly states that each agency, organization, and unit of the Party, State, socio-political organizations, and public service units must develop a plan for downsizing the workforce over a 7-year period (2015-2021) and submit it annually to the competent authority for approval and implementation.

Specifically, the target for downsizing the workforce by 2021 must be at least 10% of the total staff in ministries, departments, political and social organizations, provinces, and centrally-administered cities. However, according to the latest figures, in 2015 and the past six months, the number of people subject to workforce reduction nationwide was 28,230. According to the Ministry of Interior's assessment, this figure is clearly too low compared to the target of reducing the workforce by 1.5-2% annually by 2021 as stipulated in the Politburo's resolution, equivalent to approximately 35,000-40,000 people per year.

Meanwhile, downsizing the workforce has mainly applied to those retiring early (accounting for 86.25%) and has not yet focused on restructuring the civil servant and public employee workforce according to the job position scheme.

Dr. Dinh Duy Hoa, an expert from the Ministry of Interior, commented that the slow pace of downsizing the workforce is due to unrealistic criteria for evaluating officials, especially the difficulty in identifying who has "failed to complete their duties for two consecutive years" as stipulated by regulations.

“The takeaway here is that the evaluation is not based on actual results. When evaluating civil servants and public employees, what are the work results? The Ministry of Interior and other ministries evaluate the results of organizational reform of each ministry. According to the 2015 results, the maximum total score is 12.5 points, and the whole country evaluated 19 ministries with a score of 11.89 points, or 95.12%. This is a very high score, proving that the system is very good. But society still considers the system to be cumbersome," said Mr. Dinh Duy Hoa.

"Re-distilling" the quality of the system.

Currently, 20 out of 22 ministries and agencies have submitted proposals to the Ministry of Interior for approval to increase staffing levels. Only two ministries have requested a reduction in staffing: the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Interior, with the Ministry of Industry and Trade requesting the complete reduction of an entire General Department to a Department. Meanwhile, in 63 provinces and cities, 11 localities have not only failed to streamline but have also exceeded the allocated staffing quota by 7,951 civil servants, notably in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Duong, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Binh Thuan, and Binh Duong…

According to Mr. Le Thanh Van, a member of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee, the fundamental reason why the state apparatus is becoming increasingly cumbersome and inefficient is the ease of recruiting officials and civil servants at the input stage, while the output stage faces many obstacles.

Mr. Le Thanh Van.

Meanwhile, quantifying the quality of civil servants is very difficult; there was once a figure that said, "30% of civil servants just go to work with their umbrellas in the morning and leave with them in the evening"; with such a quality of officials, it is difficult to formulate policies that are in line with reality.

“Resolution 39 of the Politburo and Decree 108 of the Government on streamlining the administrative apparatus have not brought about qualitative changes, mainly quantitative ones. Reducing the number of departments at the top has led to expansion at the bottom. The reduction in the number of people in the apparatus is mainly due to retirement, transfers to other sectors, and job changes. It is not a true purification. Evaluating the quality of cadres to remove those who do not meet the standards from the apparatus is what truly constitutes a genuine streamlining. A 10% reduction is about ‘refining’ the quality of the apparatus, not simply reducing the number of people,” Mr. Le Thanh Van emphasized.

In line with this view, Minister of Home Affairs Le Vinh Tan affirmed that downsizing the workforce must be combined with a rational restructuring of the civil servant and public employee workforce. However, currently, most agencies and units are mechanically reducing their staff by 10% without paying attention to restructuring the civil servant and public employee workforce.

“We are recalculating the structure to change the system, to reorganize the civil servant workforce to improve quality. This is a crucial issue. Without restructuring the organization and the civil servant workforce, downsizing the workforce cannot be implemented. Describing positions according to the structure of civil servants is the most important issue,” Minister Le Vinh Tan stated.

Thus, after two years of implementing Resolution 39 of the Politburo on streamlining the workforce in central and local ministries and agencies, the implementation has not been effective. According to many experts, the failure to meet the set requirements for workforce reduction is due to several reasons. However, the primary reason is the weak performance evaluation process, making it difficult to identify civil servants who fail to fulfill their duties and include them in the workforce reduction program; meanwhile, the recruitment of officials, civil servants, and public employees is too easy.