4 solutions to fight waste: Correct perception leads to correct action

Recalling President Ho Chi Minh's teaching - "corruption, waste, and bureaucracy are the "enemies within," in the article "Fighting waste" (October 2024), General Secretary To Lam proposed four key solutions to achieve the best results in practicing thrift related to awareness, institutions, overcoming causes, and culture.

If we do not consider waste to be as harmful as corruption, we have not fully understood the importance of practicing thrift.

In his article, General Secretary To Lam emphasized: "In response to the need to increase resources and mobilize people's strength to bring the country into a new era under the leadership of the Party, the work of preventing and combating waste is facing new, urgent and pressing requirements and tasks."

Waste is not just losing money and resources.

Since the implementation of the renovation process, many directives and resolutions have been issued by the Central Executive Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat of all terms.

However, as the 13th Party Congress Documents have pointed out, the work of preventing and combating corruption and waste has not seen any significant changes. The detection and handling of corruption and waste are still limited. Corruption and waste are still serious, complicated, increasingly sophisticated, causing frustration in society.

One of the main reasons leading to the above situation is perception. Once perception is incorrect, actions cannot achieve the desired results.

It is no coincidence that the first solution proposed by General Secretary To Lam is the need to unify the perception that the fight against waste is a arduous and complicated fight against "internal invaders"; is part of the class struggle; has an equivalent position to the fight against corruption and negativity to build our Party strong, "ethical and civilized."

To have a correct understanding of anti-waste, one must thoroughly understand the Law on Practicing Thrift and Combating Wastefulness 2013.

Saving is reducing waste in the use of capital, assets, labor, working time and resources but still achieving the set goals, while waste is the ineffective management and use of capital, assets, labor, working time and resources.

In principle, practicing thrift and combating waste is a regular task from policies, guidelines, mechanisms and policies to implementation associated with inspection and supervision; must be based on norms, standards, regimes and other provisions of law; must be associated with administrative reform and ensure the completion of assigned tasks, without affecting the normal operations of agencies and organizations; must implement decentralization of management, close coordination between levels, sectors, agencies and organizations in performing assigned tasks associated with the responsibilities of leaders, cadres, civil servants and public employees; ensure democracy, publicity and transparency; ensure the supervisory role of the National Assembly, People's Councils at all levels, the Vietnam Fatherland Front, member organizations of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and the people.

Among the principles of practicing thrift and fighting waste, awareness of compliance with the law is the most important. Because strictly following the norms, standards, and regimes according to the law is the foundation for fighting waste.

We need to be aware that there is a subtle form of waste, which is waste due to corruption. That is when people in authority, even though they know that an investment will not be effective, still decide to proceed because this brings money to themselves or to interest groups.

Fighting waste is not simply about preventing the loss of money and resources. However, many people do not realize this. Wasting time is even more dangerous because sometimes even with money, we cannot recover missed opportunities. The inability to disburse funds and delays in implementing major transportation and infrastructure projects are examples.

In a broader view, the fact that units and organizations issue unrealistic decisions and directives that must be revoked is also a form of wasting the time of officials and people. The waste of labor is reflected in the unreasonable and ineffective use of human resources, leading to a cumbersome organizational apparatus, causing loss of state budget.

Reforming administrative procedures to save time and create good opportunities for businesses is also a form of fighting waste, contributing to increasing labor productivity.

We also need to be aware of “reverse waste” – spending less than necessary but the end result is that the “intended goal” is not achieved, requiring more work, or even starting over.

Thus, spending less is not always saving, in some cases it is "stingy", "seeing money as the size of a pot", "not doing what should be done, not spending what should be spent" as Uncle Ho taught.

The higher the position, the clearer the awareness must be.

To practice thrift, in the first group of solutions, General Secretary To Lam requested to focus on widespread propaganda, raising awareness and responsibility among cadres, party members and workers, first of all, setting an example for leaders at each agency, organization and individual in the public and private sectors on the meaning, importance and responsibility of practicing thrift and fighting waste.

The higher the position, the more clearly one must be aware of the responsibility to practice thrift. Reality shows that the important cause of waste is that many organizations and individuals with authority have issued incorrect decisions, causing great loss of resources, financial resources, and human resources. Waste due to corruption is also mainly caused by people with positions and power.

In that context, highlighting the responsibility of heads of agencies and units, on June 26, 2024, the Government issued an Action Program to implement Directive No. 27-CT/TW (dated December 25, 2023) of the Politburo on strengthening the Party's leadership in practicing thrift and combating waste.

The program requires clearly defining the tasks and responsibilities of each agency and unit, especially the responsibilities of the head, in order to propose solutions for ministries, branches, agencies and localities to develop action plans, organize implementation, inspect, monitor and evaluate the implementation of Directive No. 27-CT/TW to achieve the highest efficiency; thereby creating strong and positive changes in awareness of thrift practice and anti-waste at all levels, branches, agencies, organizations and units, contributing to improving the efficiency of mobilizing, allocating and using socio-economic resources for national development and improving people's lives.

One of the key tasks of the program is to focus on developing specific plans and programs to implement thrift practice and waste prevention, in which it is necessary to assign and decentralize specific and clear responsibilities of each agency, organization, affiliated unit, each cadre, civil servant and public employee, associated with regular inspection and evaluation work, ensuring effective and quality implementation of plans and programs; promoting the responsibility of leaders in leading and directing thrift practice and waste prevention associated with performing assigned duties and tasks.

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