Streamlining the apparatus, how to arrange "chairs" to avoid making officials "thoughtful"?

Recently, the Government issued a number of decrees stipulating the tasks, functions, powers and organizational structures of a number of ministries and branches, according to which it can be clearly seen that the organizational structures of many ministries and branches have been streamlined.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment abolished 4 general departments, the Ministry of Home Affairs reduced the number of focal units from 23 to 20 units (reducing 2 departments under the Ministry and 1 public service unit), the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs reduced from 23 units to 21 units...

In 2018, implementing Decree 01 of the Government, the Ministry of Public Security abolished 6 general departments and reduced nearly 60 department-level units and nearly 300 department-level units. For local police, after merging 20 fire prevention and fighting units, more than 500 department-level units and 1,000 team-level units were reduced.

According to the assessment of many National Assembly deputies, streamlining the payroll along with streamlining the apparatus is a correct policy, in line with voters' wishes, and has initially shown positive results. Although the payroll has been streamlined, the streamlining of the apparatus still has many obstacles to achieving the goal of streamlining while still operating effectively and efficiently.

Speaking at the 2021 summary conference of the home affairs sector, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also noted the remaining limitations in the organizational arrangement of the apparatus, many ministries have not met requirements, are still cumbersome, a number of civil servants and public employees are not qualified enough..., requiring determination from the entire political system.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Ngo Thanh Can (National Academy of Public Administration), the recent restructuring of the apparatus in many agencies, ministries and sectors shows that there has been a reduction in the number of focal points and personnel arrangements. However, what Associate Professor Dr. Ngo Thanh Can is still concerned about is the rearrangement of management and leadership positions and the concerns of officials and civil servants.

“When 2 or 3 focal points merge into 1, there is only 1 head, the number of deputies must be careful, so there are people who will no longer hold their positions when merging focal points, so the work of organizing staff to solve this problem will take a lot of time when considering and choosing new positions for staff, but it must not affect the planning issue.”

Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Thanh Can also said that the “key” to solving these problems is that each officer needs to determine his or her own sense of responsibility, must put the task of serving the people above all, first of all for the common goal, only then will there be less worries. According to Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Thanh Can, the Ministry of Public Security has done quite well in this work.

“In 2018, although the unit has a fairly large organizational structure, it can be said that the Ministry has done this arrangement very neatly. Many positions have been removed or transferred, but the whole sector has reached a consensus to meet common requirements. This is also an example that we often use as evidence for the rearrangement of the organization and apparatus, not to mention that this is a unit with a unique operating and organizational model compared to many other ministries,” said Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Thanh Can.

Streamlining the apparatus and staffing is considered a very difficult and sensitive issue because it involves human issues. How to retain the right people, put them in the right positions that match their abilities and expertise in order to streamline and streamline but still be effective and efficient. Because if not, the arrangement will still only have mechanical elements, but the thoughts of the brothers about the story of planning, promotion, arranging the right people, the right positions, plus the story of reducing staffing will still have certain disturbances.

Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Thanh Can said that this is a difficult problem for those working in organizations. One of the important directions is to perfect the system of job positions after agreeing on the organizational structure. A series of new decrees issued by the Government in recent times show that the work of rearranging the organizational structure in many agencies and ministries has initially met the requirements. However, the setting of job positions also depends on the functions and tasks. Therefore, after having a Decree on arrangement, the next step is for agencies and units to clarify each job position to meet the prescribed functions and tasks.

However, according to the analysis of Associate Professor Dr. Ngo Thanh Can, this step will also be quite favorable, because in order to reach the regulations on functions and tasks, the agencies have also clearly defined the job positions to meet the upcoming functions and tasks. But the issue that he is most concerned about is that because it is directly related to people, stories about the regime and promotion need to be especially studied further to achieve the goal of selecting officials with public ethics, qualifications and capacity to participate in the smooth, flexible and creative operating system.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, in 2021, for the first time, the whole country exceeded the target of streamlining the payroll (10%) set by the Politburo in Resolution No. 39-NQ/TW dated April 7, 2015. Also in 2021, the results of the implementation of the organizational arrangement of the administrative apparatus for specialized agencies under the People's Committees at the provincial level and equivalent reduced 7 organizations; specialized agencies at the department level reduced 1,648 organizations (reduced 1,440 departments under the department, reduced 208 branches under the department); specialized agencies under the People's Committees at the district level reduced 451 departments; the number of public service units reduced by 12.35% compared to 2015...

According to VOV