How is the general department level organized and streamlined?

One of the notable contents in the Government's plan to streamline the apparatus is the arrangement and streamlining of general departments.

According to the orientation plan, the Government Steering Committee requested ministries and ministerial-level agencies to develop plans for arrangement and reorganization, ensuring streamlining, and basically not maintaining the model of general departments under ministries.

In case it is necessary to maintain the general department model, ministries and branches shall report to the Government Steering Committee to ask for the Central Steering Committee's opinion for consideration and comment.

According to Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra, up to now, the Government has agreed to “basically abolish general departments and equivalents”. Specifically, the Government has proposed a plan to reduce 12/13 general departments and equivalents.

"Today I am the general director, but tomorrow I will be happy to be the director."

Looking back at the implementation of the policy of streamlining the apparatus according to Resolution 18/2017 of the 12th Central Committee on "Some issues on continuing to innovate and reorganize the apparatus of the political system to be streamlined and operate effectively and efficiently", this is not the first time the Government has reorganized and streamlined the general departments.

Previously, the Government had gone through two rounds of streamlining and streamlining the general departments and had reduced 25 general departments.

The pioneer in the revolution to abolish the general department level is the Ministry of Public Security. In August 2018, under the strong direction of Minister of Public Security To Lam, the Ministry of Public Security announced the abolition of 6 general departments including: General Department of Security (General Department 1), General Department of Police (General Department 2), General Department of Politics (General Department 3), General Department of Logistics and Technology (General Department 4), General Department of Intelligence (General Department 5), General Department of Criminal Enforcement and Judicial Support (General Department 8).

After that, the Ministry of Public Security arranged for the Guard Command and the Mobile Police Command to be converted into units equivalent to the department level. Since then, the Ministry of Public Security has completely abolished the general department level with 6 general departments and 2 units equivalent to general departments.

General Secretary To Lam (when he was Minister of Public Security) said: "There are comrades who are today the general director, but because of changes in the apparatus, the organization assigned them to be the director, or even the deputy director, they are very happy."

Because at that time, the Ministry of Public Security organized "Dien Hong conferences" to solicit opinions, contributions, analysis, and at the same time explain and clarify viewpoints and policies to create consensus. The Ministry of Public Security also proposed to maintain policies and regimes for officers and soldiers who dared to "sacrifice" for the greater cause.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh once assessed that the Ministry of Public Security had general departments that had been established for 35 years, but it had boldly cut 8 general departments and equivalents at once. After the cuts, everything went smoothly and political tasks were still completed.

Days of "losing sleep and appetite" cutting 17 general departments

After the Ministry of Public Security abolished the general department level, except for the Ministry of National Defense, which has its own regulations, other ministries and branches still have 30 general departments that need to be reorganized. However, in the 4 years from 2018 to 2022, other ministries and branches remained "inactive". Until early 2022, under the strong direction of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the Ministry of Home Affairs began urging ministries and branches to "cut down on general departments and reduce intermediate levels".

The reason for the prolonged reduction of the General Department, as Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra once shared, is that “there are still opinions saying it is difficult and entangled”. The Commander of the Home Affairs sector also acknowledged that “this is a very difficult task, the most difficult of all, but it is inevitable”.

During the second reorganization of the general departments, Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra shared: “There were many days when my colleagues and I “lost sleep and appetite”. In reality, there are general departments with historical significance, which were formerly ministries, and now being reorganized into departments is not a simple matter at all.”

After a year and a half of hard work cutting down on general departments, by June 2023, the Government completed the arrangement of organizations within ministries and branches and cut 17/30 more general departments, but there are still 13 general departments and equivalents so far.

Of the 17 general departments cut, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment cut 4 general departments including: General Department of Environment, General Department of Geology and Minerals, General Department of Land Management, General Department of Sea and Islands.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has two agencies equivalent to general departments: the Government Committee for Religious Affairs and the Central Emulation and Reward Committee, which have been rearranged to be equivalent to department level.

The Ministry of Transport also abolished the Vietnam Road Administration, separating it into the Vietnam Road Administration and the Vietnam Expressway Administration.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also converted four General Departments: Forestry, Irrigation, Fisheries and Disaster Prevention into department level.

The Ministry of Science and Technology also transformed the General Department of Standards, Metrology and Quality into the National Committee for Standards, Metrology and Quality and no longer has the Hoa Lac High-Tech Park Management Board (equivalent to the general department level).

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also transferred the two General Departments of Sports and Tourism into the Department of Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam National Tourism Administration; the Management Board of the Vietnam Ethnic Culture and Tourism Village was previously equivalent to the General Department level but was rearranged and no longer the same as the General Department.

The General Department of Population of the Ministry of Health was also arranged into the Department of Population.

How are the 13 general departments organized today?

Of the 13 general departments and equivalents still retained to date, the Ministry of Finance has 5 units: General Department of Taxation, General Department of Customs, General Department of State Reserves, State Treasury, and State Securities Commission.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has two agencies equivalent to general departments: the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese and the National Border Committee.

Ministries and branches have 1 general department including: General Department of Vocational Education of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs; General Department of Market Management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade; General Department of Statistics of the Ministry of Planning and Investment; Ministry of Justice has General Department of Civil Judgment Enforcement; State Bank of Vietnam has Banking Inspection and Supervision Agency equivalent to a general department.

In addition, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment after cutting the remaining 4 general departments is the General Department of Hydrometeorology.

According to the Law on Government Organization, a general department is a level in the organizational structure of a ministry or branch with no more than four deputy heads. However, the 13 general departments currently have 396 departments, while the ministries or branches have only 141 departments.

In addition, the general departments also have 100 departments and equivalents, especially currently there are up to 2,595 branches under the general departments, 2,328 offices under the general departments.

These figures show that although the legal status of the general department level is not clearly defined, the number of units under the general department is extremely large and has an organizational structure no different from a "ministry within a ministry".

Therefore, reducing the number of general departments and moving towards eliminating the general department level is not only eliminating the intermediate level but is also one of the very important contents in implementing the streamlining of the political system's apparatus, helping the apparatus to be "light enough to take off" as General Secretary To Lam said.

And according to the Government's plan to streamline the organization, in the future, only one special general department will be retained and the general department level will be basically abolished.