What to do to effectively organize commune-level administrative units? Lesson 3: Solving the "problem" of public headquarters

Many abandoned buildings

In 2022, the Standing Committee of the Hai Duong Provincial People's Council supervised the use of public offices in the province. According to the monitoring results, the whole province has 31 surplus communal offices with a total land area of ​​more than 12.4 hectares and more than 2.7 hectares of housing area. At the time of monitoring in June 2022, in Hai Duong city, Ninh Giang, Gia Loc, Kim Thanh, Thanh Mien districts, many new offices were invested and put into use but were abandoned.

Up to now, according to Hai Duong Newspaper reporters' investigation, many surplus commune-level People's Committee headquarters after the previous merger are still "closed", abandoned or ineffectively exploited.

Being the headquarters with the largest land area among the surplus commune headquarters in the province with nearly 1.3 hectares, the old Thai Son commune headquarters, now in Pham Thai ward (Kinh Mon) is abandoned. Along with the large land area with an office building, the old Thai Son commune headquarters also has a spacious communal cultural center built in 2012, which was used for a few years before the commune merged.

The above reality is the common situation of many surplus commune headquarters after the merger in the period of 2019-2021. At the end of 2022, the Provincial People's Committee approved the overall plan to rearrange and handle houses and land of agencies, organizations, units and enterprises under the management of the province, including a specific plan for arranging and reorganizing surplus commune headquarters after the merger. However, the implementation of this plan still has some problems. Many localities have encountered difficulties in changing the purpose of land use, procedures for auctioning, selling assets on land and transferring land use rights of surplus headquarters due to procedural and regulatory problems. This occurs because some policies and regulations of the Central Government are not consistent and not complete, greatly affecting the progress of handling surplus public headquarters after the merger of the province.

Meanwhile, in some communes, schools lack the space to meet the standards but cannot transfer the surplus headquarters to expand the school because the location is far from the school. The surplus headquarters is the working place of the People's Committee at the commune level with its own characteristics in structure and design. Some places have a solution but do not have the funds to renovate it to suit the new purpose of use. The monitoring report of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council also pointed out that some localities and competent agencies are slow in proposing solutions to handle surplus public headquarters...

Find a way to remove

In the 2023-2025 period, localities, relevant levels and sectors need to learn some good practices in handling surplus public offices from the previous period to avoid waste. For example, in the 2019-2021 period, many surplus communal People's Committee offices after reorganization were transferred to expand school facilities, medical stations, commune police headquarters, and offices of mass organizations; some offices had plans to sell assets on land, transfer land use rights or to expand relics and religious facilities.

The old Gia Hoa commune headquarters after merging with Yet Kieu commune to form Yet Kieu commune (Gia Loc) was transferred to Gia Hoa Kindergarten, the commune's central hall was transferred to Gia Hoa Secondary School. According to Mr. Pham Van Du, Chairman of Yet Kieu Commune People's Committee, the plan to handle this redundant public headquarters is reasonable. "Based on the location, the old Gia Hoa commune headquarters is located opposite the kindergarten, near the secondary school, so the transfer is convenient. Currently, Gia Hoa Secondary School is preparing to renovate the central cultural house into a multi-purpose house. This will be a condition for this school to reach level 2 standards because it is lacking criteria on area and facilities," said Mr. Du.

However, in reality, the above solutions of the localities are situational in nature. Because the previous function was to be the headquarters of the People's Committee of the commune, now it has been changed to another purpose, it is necessary to invest in renovation and repair to suit the new function. Comrade Dong Dung Manh, Secretary of the District Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Council of Thanh Mien district, said that in order to effectively handle the surplus public headquarters after the merger, the province needs to pay attention to supporting the cost of repairing and renovating the existing facilities to meet the new purpose of use.

On August 17, 2023, the Department of Finance issued instructions on the management and use of public assets when merging commune-level administrative units.

According to Mr. Nguyen Dong Kim, Deputy Director of the Department of Finance, communes that are expected to merge in the near future need to consider investing in renovating and repairing their headquarters before merging to avoid wasting public investment. If they continue to be kept as new commune headquarters, they will invest in renovating and upgrading. Districts need to consider plans for arranging, handling, and using headquarters, including new commune headquarters and redundant headquarters after the merger.

On August 29, the Prime Minister issued Official Dispatch No. 771/CD-TTg on reviewing the handling of assets and working offices of agencies and organizations in administrative units that have been reorganized in the 2019-2021 period and the implementation plan for the 2023-2030 period. The Prime Minister requested the Minister of Finance, based on practical requirements, to study and propose the development of a decree to replace Decree No. 167/2017/ND-CP dated December 31, 2017 on the rearrangement and handling of public assets and related decrees and documents to facilitate the handling of assets and working offices of agencies and organizations.