(Dan Tri) - Former Minister Le Doan Hop likened this revolution of streamlining the apparatus to a "golden opportunity" to select talented people and eliminate bad people. He emphasized the need for mechanisms and standards for this.
Streamlining the Party, National Assembly, Government, Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations was one of the important issues raised at the 10th Conference. This is also the key content that General Secretary To Lam has mentioned many times since taking office. Speaking to Dan Tri reporter, former Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop emphasized that this restructuring and streamlining of the political system is a revolution, because it affects a large number of cadres, civil servants, and public employees; affects the functions and tasks of agencies as well as old habits, so this revolution is "not simple". However, he affirmed that it is time to streamline the apparatus, for three reasons. First, the salaries paid to the apparatus have reached a level that "the economy cannot bear anymore". "We cannot have an apparatus that the people's money cannot support", Mr. Hop said. Second, the apparatus is so crowded that it gives rise to harassment and negativity instead of serving. Third, the apparatus has too many cadres who do not meet their functions and tasks, nor serve the people according to their capacity, strengths and qualifications. The effectiveness of streamlining the apparatus, according to former Minister Le Doan Hop, will first of all help decentralize and reduce the number of tasks for superiors so that superiors have time to "take care of important matters". Mr. Hop pointed out the current inadequacy when superiors are currently having to take on many tasks of subordinates. Another effectiveness is to increase the authority of subordinates and speed up the progress of work for the people. Meanwhile, Dr. Thang Van Phuc, former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, former Director of the Institute of State Organizational Sciences, compared this revolution to a "second renovation" when it "touches" the entire political system. "After my whole life of reforming, now I really have hope for a strong reform", Mr. Phuc expressed his expectation and believed that Vietnam has many advantages to carry out the revolution of streamlining the apparatus. According to Mr. Phuc, before that, we also had a rather long journey of arranging the apparatus organization, but when establishing a new one, it was simple, but when merging it, it was very complicated, because it touched on interests. As the General Secretary said, if we do not know how to sacrifice, if we do not work for the great cause of the nation, we cannot do it. Also placing his hopes on the determination of General Secretary To Lam, Mr. Nguyen Duc Ha (former Head of the Department of Party Bases, Central Organization Committee) believed in the success of this revolution, because in his position as Minister of Public Security, General Secretary To Lam at that time also directed and created a mark in the pioneering streamlining of the apparatus of the Ministry of Public Security. According to Mr. Ha, the Ministry of Public Security pioneered the elimination of the general department, department, division and divisions and departments, offices, and teams; bringing regular police to the communes, that is, synchronously arranging at all 4 levels of Central, provincial, district, and commune with the spirit of "a refined ministry, a strong province, a comprehensive district, and a grassroots commune". The Ministry of Public Security at that time also deployed staff and researchers from departments and divisions above the Ministry to border bases and difficult areas, and rotated police officers from localities for training. With many achieved results, Mr. Ha assessed that the Ministry of Public Security at that time was a bright spot in implementing the streamlining of the apparatus and the arrangement and assignment of cadres. It was a successful revolution, according to the expert's observation. General Secretary To Lam was then the Minister of Public Security, so Mr. Ha recognized that the Party leader's instructions this time showed a strong determination, plus the advantage of having practical lessons and implementation experience. Mr. Ha also mentioned the advantage of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Head of the Government's Steering Committee for the implementation of Resolution 18, who was also Head of the Central Organization Committee, directly directing the development of Resolution 18 before. With such important roles of the leader, with exemplary, decisive and experienced leadership, Mr. Ha believes in the positive results of this revolution to streamline the apparatus. "This time we have a very high determination and revolutionary spirit, now we must stand up and act, we cannot just sit and ponder because there is no more time, if we act decisively we will succeed", said Mr. Ha. Looking back at the revolution in the arrangement and organization of the Ministry of Public Security in mid-2018, experts consider this a large, comprehensive "revolution" in organization, positively changing all aspects of the work of the People's Public Security force up to now. At that time, the Central Party Committee of the Public Security and the Ministry of Public Security proactively researched and advised the Politburo on the policy and orientation for developing the Project "Some issues to continue innovating and arranging the organization of the Ministry of Public Security to be streamlined, effective and efficient" (Project No. 106). After Project 106 was approved, the Central Party Committee of the Public Security continued to advise the Politburo to issue Resolution No. 22 on "Continuing to innovate and arrange the organization of the Ministry of Public Security to be streamlined, effective and efficient". This is a particularly important basis for the Government to issue Decree No. 01 stipulating the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Public Security. The principle that the Ministry of Public Security thoroughly follows when implementing the restructuring of the apparatus is to organize and manage centrally, uniformly, and in-depthly according to each field of work, combining sectoral management with territorial management and arranging according to administrative levels. The Ministry of Public Security also advocates separating State management agencies from public service organizations; clearly defining the responsibilities, functions, tasks, and powers of each level, organization, and unit of the Public Security. The organizational structure was oriented to be unified from the Ministry to the local Public Security in the direction of "Ministry is refined, province is strong, district is comprehensive, commune is close to the grassroots"; the coordination and cooperation between forces, units and levels of Public Security became increasingly close and effective. As a result, the Ministry of Public Security at that time reduced 6 general departments but still ensured that the leadership from the Ministry to the Department was faster, more accurate, more timely, without going through an intermediate level. The Ministry also merged units with similar functions and tasks to reduce 55 department-level units and nearly 300 department-level units; arranged and reduced public service units. At the local public security, 20 units of the Fire Prevention, Fire Fighting and Rescue Police with the Provincial and City Public Security were merged and organized into a department-level unit under the Provincial Public Security; merged a number of units with the same functions and tasks... to reduce more than 500 department-level units, reduce more than 1,000 team-level units. By July 2023, the Ministry of Public Security will continue to improve the internal organization of the Public Security of units and localities, reducing 279 more department-level units, 1,237 team-level units... Up to now, the Ministry of Public Security has increased thousands of officers and soldiers from the Ministry to the local Public Security, from the provincial-level Public Security to the grassroots level, of which more than 55,000 officers and soldiers have been mobilized to take on regular commune-level police positions in more than 8,800 communes and towns. According to statistics from the Ministry of Public Security, after implementing the new organizational model, 172 leaders at the Department level, more than 1,500 leaders at the department level, district level and equivalent; more than 2,300 leaders at the team level and equivalent. Despite many achievements, during the implementation process, the Ministry of Public Security also encountered many difficulties, especially when arranging and organizing the leadership and command team and implementing policies and regimes, stabilizing the ideology and feelings of officers and soldiers at dissolved and merged units... However, after only a short time, the above problems were fundamentally resolved with many synchronous solutions proposed. To carry out this revolution of streamlining the apparatus, former Minister Le Doan Hop emphasized that there must be scientific principles and action orientations to "not go astray". The first principle he emphasized was that the level directly responsible should be assigned to that level to make decisions. The commune's affairs must be decided by the commune, not everything can be asked for the opinion of the superior, everything can be decided by the superior, according to Mr. Hop. The second principle is that the level that receives the most information should make the decision, avoiding the situation where a level receives enough information but then presents it to another level that does not have enough information to make the decision. The third principle is that the level closest to the cadres, who understand the cadres the most, should give priority to that level to make decisions. The fourth principle is to be clear about the work, the people, and the responsibilities. Another principle mentioned by Mr. Hop is that decentralization depends on the ethics of the cadres, the capacity of the cadres, and the trust of the cadres. "Cadres with different virtues, talents, and trustworthiness will be assigned different levels, like choosing the right person to entrust gold to", Mr. Hop said. Citing the story of decentralization and delegation of power, Mr. Hop recounted the period of nearly 15 years when he held the positions of Deputy Secretary, Chairman and Secretary of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee. At that time, just electing an additional Vice Chairman of Nghe An Province, a member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and reporting to the Central Committee, the procedure took nearly 1 year, while the term was 5 years. According to him, if the Provincial Party Secretary is managed by the Politburo, the Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee is managed by the Secretariat, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee is managed by the Government, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Council is managed by the National Assembly Standing Committee, and the remaining authority is given to the Standing Committee of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee to decide, then all procedures will be faster, with fewer errors, and if there are errors, the responsibility will be clearer. Or another example, when he was the Minister of Culture and Information, and then the Minister of Information and Communications, he expressed the view that "it is impossible for the Minister to sit and sign the decision to recruit and promote an employee serving the deputy department head or department head - someone whose name, face, or abilities he does not know". Therefore, he decided to decentralize to the department head to receive and promote the deputy department head or department head because this is the level that directly assists the department head. Thanks to that, the work is handled faster and very effectively, without errors. However, according to Mr. Hop, after decentralization, it is necessary to urge subordinates to work faster, accompanied by inspection, supervision and close adherence to reality to see what is reasonable, what is not, what needs to be supplemented to improve. "Even if I delegate to you and you do not do well, I can still withdraw it," Mr. Hop said. To streamline the apparatus and promote decentralization and delegation of power, according to the former Minister of Information and Communications, it is necessary to first do a good job of ideological work to create unity of perception and action, because the strength of the organization starts from ideological work. "A brick that is not placed carefully can fall, let alone people. We must do something to make cadres have the right perception and determination to implement," Mr. Hop stated his opinion. In addition, he said that there should be a mechanism and screening criteria to select virtuous and talented people, because that is the most important thing. Former Minister Le Doan Hop likened this revolution of streamlining the apparatus to a "golden opportunity" to select talented, dedicated, and virtuous people and eliminate bad people. Along with that, he emphasized the need for appropriate mechanisms and policies for officials subject to rearrangement. Because they are in the apparatus, they have more or less contributed to the State, so when they leave due to the general policy, there must be appropriate policies for their contributions, and also resources to help them change careers. For example, those who still have a few years of work can be encouraged to retire early, but there must be a minimum source to help them maintain their lives. In the matter of "arranging seats" after merging agencies, former Minister Le Doan Hop suggested that it is possible to organize a competition to select leaders. For example, when two ministries merge, the number of deputy ministers is too large, a competition can be organized with the topic "If you were the deputy minister in charge of the field, what would you do?", then let the "candidates" present their reports. With this approach, he believes that he will be able to select more talented and capable people. Meanwhile, from the perspective of practical implementation in the locality, Vinh Phuc Secretary Duong Van An said that before implementing the policy of arranging and streamlining the apparatus, it is necessary to meet with cadres to discuss and clarify the purpose, meaning and urgent requirements of the policy. In reality, as General Secretary To Lam commented, the apparatus is cumbersome, has many layers, increasing the burden on the budget. Therefore, according to Mr. An, the sooner the apparatus is streamlined, the more beneficial it is for the people and the country. In addition to motivating the spirit of the team of civil servants and public employees, Vinh Phuc Secretary said that it is necessary to arouse the spirit of dedication and sacrifice for the common cause of cadres. To do so, it is necessary to set criteria for arranging, selecting people, and assigning work in a public and fair manner, with forms of implementation such as: reviewing, evaluating, and voting democratically through collecting collective opinions of agencies and units. In particular, in addition to the central government's general policy, Mr. An said that localities also need to issue their own policies to encourage and compensate cadres who are subject to reorganization when streamlining the apparatus. When the two agencies merge, Secretary Duong Van An said that only one person will hold the position of chief, the other person can go to another unit to be a leader if their qualifications are suitable or accept being demoted to deputy level, or even choose to retire. However, to avoid the situation of "eliminating talented people", he emphasized the need for specific selection criteria along with the assessment of qualifications, prestige, responsibility, and dedication of cadres to choose the right person. The National Assembly, the Government, ministries, branches, and localities are urgently developing and implementing a plan to streamline the apparatus and reduce staff. According to the Central Committee's request, the agencies must complete the summary of Resolution 18 and report to the Central Executive Committee on the plan to arrange and perfect the organization and apparatus of the political system in the first quarter of 2025.
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