Controlling power in personnel work, pushing back the "patriarchal public authority" problem

A new point, highlighted in Regulation 114/2023 of the Politburo on "Controlling power and preventing corruption and negativity in personnel work" is more strictness with manifestations of abuse of power and arbitrary decisions based on family relationships.

According to the definition of Regulation 114, spouse; parent; person directly raising or parent of person directly raising spouse; biological children, adopted children, daughter-in-law, son-in-law; siblings of oneself or spouse are identified as people with family relationships.

The above definition shows a broader scope of determining “relatives” compared to Regulation 205/2019, which only defines people with family relationships including spouse, spouse's parents, biological children, adopted children, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, and siblings.

Family relations, according to Regulation 114, are not only limited to direct relations with the official, but also extend to those who have close relations with the spouse of the official.

Not only warning those in positions not to let relatives influence personnel work, not to arrange people with family relationships to participate in the unit's leadership, another new point is that Regulation 114 also sets out the principle of not allowing relatives to hold leadership and management positions in 13 specific fields, including: Internal affairs, inspection, finance, banking, tax, customs, industry and trade, investment planning, natural resources and environment, military, police, court and procuracy at the central level or at the same level in a locality.

The phenomenon of cadre work in our country being dominated by the factors of "first family, second acquaintance", especially the factor of family relationships, has long been recognized by the Party, warned about and strictly prohibited through a series of regulations, recently amended and supplemented, typically Regulation No. 08/2018 on setting an example; Regulation No. 205/2019 on combating the abuse of positions and power; Regulation No. 37/2021 on things that Party members are not allowed to do...

It can be seen that, with the detailing and expansion of the scope of subjects and regulated relationships, Regulation 114 is a step forward in the effort to push back the problem of personnel work being dominated by friendly relationships based on family and clan factors at agencies.

Patriarchal authority

The situation of the workplace being "credentialized" based on personal, family, and clan relationships is a phenomenon that can appear in every country, including Western countries and the US in the early stages of transition from feudal society to industrial society.

In countries in the East Asian cultural region, with a tradition of valuing the family institution, the popular concept from ancient times still considers the nation as an extended family, the phenomenon of the workplace being distorted by family relationships is more likely to occur and more difficult to eliminate when the socio-economic and public apparatus are still in the process of modernization in a rational direction.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the phenomenon of public officials not distinguishing clearly between "public" and "private", between office and family, between work relationships and personal relationships, between the private interests of individuals and the public interests that state agencies must serve, has been named "patrimonial bureaucracy" by German sociologist Max Weber.

The most obvious risks of a patriarchal administration are the opportunities for authoritarianism and arbitrariness of those in positions; followed by the possibility of those in authority taking advantage of their positions for personal gain.

The most serious consequence of the above risks is that heads of agencies and units can easily pursue the maximization of personal interests, causing negative situations and corruption to become serious and very difficult to prevent.

As a developing East Asian country, the situation of workplaces being dominated by personal concepts and interests is still quite common in our country until now. When applying for a job, workers often mobilize all acquaintances and close relationships to be able to rely on. When entering state agencies, cadres, civil servants, and public employees are still influenced by family relationships, expressed through the way of addressing each other as "uncle/aunt/uncle/niece".

Many leaders, when newly assigned to leadership and management positions, can comfortably declare the goal of building the agency or unit into a second family, a place where everyone can live and work with affection and intimacy like blood relatives in a family.

It is in this context that the situation of personnel work being dominated by family relationships has the opportunity to arise, leading to the phenomenon of "son of the boss, nephew of the father". Parents who are leaders take advantage of planning and appointing their children and grandchildren; or I help your children and grandchildren, then you help my children and grandchildren.

At that time, the office was transformed into a family space, where friendly relationships became the most important condition for decisions on personnel work, ranked above requirements on qualities, abilities, or working awareness and attitude.

According to statistics from competent authorities, during the implementation of Regulation 205, there were 50 cases of cadres with family relationships being assigned other jobs, 5 cases of being suspended from work and position, and 190 cases of having to temporarily suspend planning, transfer, and appointment.

Some cases of "lightning-speed appointments" were reported by the press, causing public outrage.

Push back the problem

It is not difficult to point out the serious consequences of the situation where the office is transformed into a family space, and work relationships, especially personnel work, are dominated by close relationships and acquaintances. The most worrying thing, if not resolutely prevented, is that the blood factor (family, lineage) can overwhelm the factors of quality, capacity, awareness and working attitude.

In addition to the frustrations and discontent that can lead to disunity within the unit, in the long run, the situation of prioritizing family relationships will cause the quality of the staff in general to decline, along with the risk of degeneration of each agency and unit.

However, we also need to be aware that eliminating the influence of family relationships in state agencies in our country is not an easy task.

The firstVietnamese society is still in the process of modernization, so traditional thinking and the mentality of "first family, second acquaintance" still have a very lasting influence on the perception and behavior of each individual.

MondayWith the ability to transform in many ways, familiar relationships will be able to flexibly adapt to Party regulations, administrative regulations, and even legal regulations.

Tuesday, the unified power characteristic of the entire national governance structure allows the head of each agency and unit a very large scope of power, both political and administrative, if they still want to prioritize family relations in personnel work.

The three key reasons mentioned above make the implementation of Regulation 114 highly dependent on the awareness and responsibility of the leadership of agencies and units, especially the role of the head.

In other words, the problem of "first family, second acquaintance", prioritizing children/grandchildren can only be pushed back if each leader and manager upholds rationality, puts the interests of the agency and unit above their own feelings and interests, and makes decisions on personnel work based on the true qualities and abilities of each individual, which are demonstrated in specific work results.

According to Vietnamnet