Quickly remove obstacles when merging

The conference on implementing the arrangement of commune-level administrative units in Hai Duong province for the period of 2023-2025, organized by the Provincial People's Committee on the morning of August 25, deployed many Party guidelines, policies and laws of the State on this important work, contributing to creating unity in thinking and action in the face of issues that have a profound impact on the staff and people at the grassroots level. Through the implementation of documents of the Politburo, the National Assembly, the Government, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Committee, and many specific instructions from relevant departments and branches, many issues have been clarified.

Speaking at the conference, many leaders of Party committees and authorities at district and commune levels expressed high consensus on the implementation of the merger, while also raising many difficulties and problems, and recommending that competent agencies pay attention to resolving them.

Personnel work related to the merger was discussed by many delegates. In reality, the settlement of regimes and policies for commune-level cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers in public service units, and full-time workers in villages and residential areas that are redundant due to the merger is a "hot" issue. If this issue is not resolved well, it will be difficult to create stability and consensus.

In Ninh Giang district, there was a case where Mr. Phi Cong De, former Chairman of the Veterans Association of Hoang Hanh commune (old), now Tan Quang commune, reported that after nearly 3 years since the commune merger, he had not yet received support according to Resolution No. 25/2019/NQ-HDND dated December 13, 2019 of the Provincial People's Council. After Hai Duong newspaper published an article reflecting and the authorities actively intervened, Mr. De's case was finally resolved.

In mid-2022, the Legal Committee of the Hai Duong Provincial People's Council supervised the operation of commune-level administrative units after the merger in the 2019-2021 period. According to the monitoring results, in 2019, the whole province merged 55 commune-level administrative units to establish 25 new units, reducing 30 units. Compared to before the merger, localities reduced 60 administrative agencies, 180 agencies of the Party, Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations and 315 cadres, civil servants, and 444 non-professional workers. After the merger, 30 schools and 30 medical stations were also reduced. The settlement of redundant people due to the merger was carried out in accordance with regulations. Of the 315 redundant cadres and civil servants, 116 were allowed to retire according to the regime, 107 were allowed to retire according to the staff reduction plan, 84 were transferred to other administrative units, and 8 were successfully recruited as district-level civil servants. All 410 redundant commune-level part-time workers were allowed to retire according to regulations.

It is expected that with 60 commune-level administrative units merged in the 2023-2025 period, the number of commune-level cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers at public service units, and full-time workers who will be redundant will also be quite large. Many people have worked for many years, are dedicated, and want to continue working, but because of public affairs, they have to quit their jobs, switch to find other jobs, and their lives will face some difficulties. Therefore, in addition to the support regimes according to current regulations, many people want the province to have specific support to help them stabilize their lives.

On the other hand, up to now, a small number of redundant cadres and civil servants due to the reorganization of commune-level administrative units in the previous period have not been resolved. According to the results of the thematic supervision of the Legal Committee of the Hai Duong Provincial People's Council, it is expected that by 2024, the whole province will have 122 redundant cadres and civil servants to be resolved. Thus, there is a double difficulty because the number of redundant people in the previous period has not been resolved according to regulations, but the redundant people in this period must continue to be resolved. This is a difficulty and problem that needs to be resolutely resolved soon.

At the province's implementation conference, many other issues were raised, such as the province needs to guide localities to clearly determine the time to temporarily suspend the election and appointment of leadership and management positions, recruitment and reception of cadres, civil servants and public employees at agencies and organizations in the political system in units that must be reorganized; the review, inspection and handover of basic construction debts between communes before the merger must be strict and in accordance with regulations, avoiding complaints as has happened before; resolutely handle violations of officials who collect fees and charges for people's documents when they have to convert or edit due to changes in administrative unit boundaries...

The above difficulties and problems need to be promptly considered and resolved by the authorities so that the merger can be carried out smoothly and effectively.