Organize the apparatus, leave no one behind

On the afternoon of December 17, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Head of the Government's Steering Committee on summarizing the implementation of Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW of the 12th Central Committee "Some issues on continuing to innovate and reorganize the apparatus of the political system to be streamlined and operate effectively and efficiently" chaired the fourth meeting of the Steering Committee.

Also attending were Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee; Deputy Prime Ministers Tran Hong Ha, Le Thanh Long, Ho Duc Phoc and a number of Ministers who are members of the Steering Committee.

At the meeting, the Steering Committee continued to consider and complete the Project on merger, consolidation, transfer of functions, tasks, and organizational structure; the establishment of the Government Party Committee, Party Committees of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and agencies under the Government. At the same time, it considered the regime and policies for cadres, civil servants, public employees, and contract workers in the arrangement of the political system's organizational structure.

According to the draft Project on merging, consolidating, transferring functions, tasks, and organization of the Government apparatus, after the reorganization, it is expected that the Government apparatus will have 13 ministries, 4 ministerial-level agencies, reducing 5 ministries and 3 agencies directly under the Government; reducing 12/13 general departments and organizations equivalent to general departments under ministries and ministerial-level agencies. Basically, general departments and equivalent organizations will be eliminated, initially expected to reduce 500 departments under ministries and general departments.

Ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and government agencies also completed plans to reduce focal points and adjust the functions and state management tasks of ministries and ministerial-level agencies. Accordingly, after the arrangement and consolidation of organizations, 35-40% of focal points will be reduced, and the remaining organizations will be arranged internally, with a minimum reduction of 15%. General departments and equivalent organizations will be basically eliminated.

Regarding the regime and policies for cadres, civil servants, public employees and contract workers in the reorganization of the political system, the Steering Committee believes that the policy must be "revolutionary", ensuring synchronization between the streamlining of the apparatus; the policy must be outstanding, humane, fair, ensuring a reasonable correlation between the subjects, in order to stabilize life, ensure the rights and interests of cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers in the process of reorganization and streamlining of the apparatus.

In particular, the policy focuses on giving special and outstanding priority to encourage subjects to retire immediately and retire within 12 months from the time the agency, organization, or unit implements the arrangement according to the decision of the competent authority; the policy aims to link staff streamlining with restructuring, improving the quality of the staff, civil servants, and public employees; determined to maintain and retain good cadres, good public employees, with capacity and qualities equal to the task, not to let "brain drain"...

Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated and basically agreed with the opinions of the members of the Steering Committee; requested the Ministry of Home Affairs - the Standing Agency of the Steering Committee to absorb, synthesize, and continue to complete reports and projects to submit to the Politburo and the Central Steering Committee; at the same time, strengthen communication so that people, cadres, civil servants, public employees, and workers can deeply understand, reach high consensus, and promptly and effectively implement.

Regarding the arrangement of the apparatus, the Prime Minister emphasized that any issue that is ripe and clear will be reported to the Politburo and the Central Steering Committee, and any issue that still has many opinions will be further studied and completed, and the most feasible plan will be presented, in the direction of a streamlined apparatus that is effective and efficient, reducing focal points and intermediate stages, without losing functions and tasks.

Regarding the establishment of the Government Party Committee, the Prime Minister requested clarification of the functions, tasks, and relationships of the Government Party Committee with Party Committees directly under the Politburo such as the National Assembly Party Committee, the Central Public Security Party Committee, and the Central Military Commission; as well as the internal relationships of the Government Party Committee.

Regarding the arrangement of State-owned corporations and general corporations, the Prime Minister directed the Central Steering Committee to only keep a number of key corporations and general corporations that control a number of sectors and fields that the State needs to hold under the Government's management; other corporations and general corporations will be transferred to ministries and branches for management by sector or field.

Requiring that the organizational arrangement must be associated with streamlining the payroll, restructuring and improving the quality of the staff, civil servants, public employees and workers, the Prime Minister requested to develop a regime and policies to ensure the legitimate and legal rights and interests of cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers in the organizational arrangement in a consistent manner, inheriting previous policies, especially Decree No. 29 of the Government, but must design superior policies, suitable to the context and conditions of the country and suitable between the state and non-state sectors.

The Prime Minister emphasized that policies must encourage high-quality human resources with capacity, health, qualifications, and enthusiasm to work in the State, as well as attract non-state workers to work in the State; at the same time, there must be a mechanism for workers to be able to "enter and exit" to work in and outside the State normally and conveniently, on the basis of appropriate efficiency.

Emphasizing that the consistent viewpoint of the Party and State is: not to sacrifice progress, equality, and social security to pursue purely economic growth, and not to leave anyone behind, the Prime Minister requested to design policies according to specific and detailed targets; more preferential treatment for older people with little time to contribute and young people who have just started working and have many job opportunities in many different areas; in particular, to have a satisfactory regime for contract workers, to avoid these people being disadvantaged.

The Prime Minister said that with the expected number of people and the amount of money needed to pay for officials, civil servants, public employees, and workers in the organizational arrangement, the State budget is completely guaranteed. However, it is necessary to continue to increase revenue and reduce expenditure to reserve the State budget for many other important issues of the country.