Why did the Ministry of Home Affairs propose to abolish civil servant promotion exams?

The Ministry of Home Affairs proposed to remove the regulation on exams for promotion of professional titles of civil servants (maintaining promotion consideration) and continue to decentralize the authority on exams for promotion of civil servants and consideration for promotion of professional titles of civil servants.

Reduce the burden of exams

According to the explanation of the Ministry of Home Affairs, this is to continue to implement civil service reform, innovate staff management methods, reform administrative procedures in accordance with the policy of ensuring "strong and reasonable decentralization and delegation of power between the Central and local levels, between superiors and subordinates, linking authority with responsibility" and reducing "exam burden" for cadres, civil servants and public employees.

The proposal to abolish the civil servant promotion exam has received high approval from many civil servants, including teachers. Photo: Hoang Ha

In the process of receiving comments from ministries, branches and localities, it is shown that these are contents that receive high attention and agreement from a large number of civil servants, public employees and ministries, branches and localities.

At the same time, it is also a content with a large scope of impact, related to innovation in management methods and authority of all ministries, branches and localities.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said that, according to the provisions of Article 33 of Decree No. 115/2020 (regulations on recruitment, use and management of civil servants), the organization of exams and consideration of promotion of professional titles is under the authority of specialized management ministries (for professional titles of grade I) and civil servant management agencies (for professional titles of grade II or lower).

Regulations on organizing professional title promotion exams in recent times have encountered a number of difficulties and problems.

Specifically, the ministries managing specialized professional titles are slow to issue circulars regulating the content and form of exams and promotion, leading to untimely organization of exams and promotion of professional titles, affecting the rights of civil servants.

From 2012 to 2018, for the block of ministries managing specialized professional titles, only the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Information and Communications, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment organized exams or considered promotions for specialized civil servants.

For the local sector, it is mainly recommended to send officials to participate in exams organized by specialized management ministries to organize combined exams (only Hanoi city organizes promotion exams for medical professional officials).

In addition, the criteria and conditions for taking the exam must include a certificate of professional title training corresponding to the professional title rank.

Meanwhile, many professional titles have not developed training programs, have not organized training courses, so promotion exams for specialized officials have not been organized, which has directly affected the interests of the staff.

There are professional titles that have never had an exam, such as: architect, accountant, surveyor, land surveyor, director, etc.

Promotion is mainly to solve salary and income regime.

The Ministry of Home Affairs stated that the organization of professional title promotion exams is not really linked to the requirements of improving the quality of civil servants; the content of the promotion exams is still formal, not close to the job position and the specific work of each professional title, leading to failure to achieve the goal of improving the quality of the promotion team.

In addition, the system of job positions, the structure of civil servants according to professional titles, the description and competency framework of job positions of civil servants have not been completed, leading to the situation that civil servants before and after being promoted do not have changes in work and quality of performing tasks. Current promotions are mainly to resolve salary and income regimes.

Transaction at the one-stop shop at the People's Committee of Tien Phong commune, Que Phong district. Photo: HT

The Ministry of Home Affairs stated that with a very large number of civil servants (about 1.8 million people) working in many fields, sectors, and professions in ministries, sectors, and localities nationwide, organizing annual promotion exams is costly; in some places, violations and negativity occur during the exam organization process.

Therefore, the Ministry of Home Affairs proposed to amend the provisions of Decree No. 115/2020 in the direction of removing the regulation on the form of professional title promotion exam and only keeping the form of professional title promotion consideration.

The abolition of the form of professional title promotion exam does not affect the provisions of the 2010 Law on Civil Servants because "professional title rank" is not regulated in the Law on Civil Servants but is only regulated in specialized decrees and circulars.

When the Government issues a new Decree on cadres, civil servants and public employees, there will be sufficient legal basis to replace decrees and circulars with regulations on this content.