Streamlining the organization of the political system to make it lean and effective is a major policy that not only has a profound impact on the leadership and management capacity of the apparatus at all levels, but is also of particular importance to socio-economic development. However, this is a very complex and challenging task, requiring great determination and drastic action from the entire political system in the implementation process.
Key tasks
In the process of building the political system in Vietnam, our Party has paid early attention to building and innovating the apparatus of the political system. In particular, facing the requirements of national renewal, the task of "building a compact, high-quality apparatus, with a contingent of cadres with political qualities and the capacity to manage the State, economy, and society" was clearly mentioned in the Political Report of the 6th Party Congress (1986). Subsequently, through the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Congresses, the Central Executive Committee issued many resolutions and conclusions on the organization of the apparatus and streamlining the payroll of the political system. However, the apparatus of the Party, State, and mass organizations has been slow to be rearranged, streamlined, and improved in quality; at the same time, there are still many manifestations of bureaucracy, seriously violating the democratic rights of the People. Therefore, the main goal of political system innovation is to effectively implement socialist democracy and fully promote the people's mastery.
In that spirit, during the 12th Congress, the arrangement and consolidation of the apparatus organization received special attention, importance and drastic implementation. In particular, the 6th Conference of the 12th Central Executive Committee issued Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW dated October 25, 2017 on a number of issues on continuing to innovate and arrange the apparatus organization of the political system to be streamlined, effective and efficient. The Resolution emphasized: “Continue to innovate and arrange the apparatus organization of the political system to be streamlined, effective and efficient and in accordance with the socialist-oriented market economy institution to strengthen the leadership role of the Party; improve the effectiveness and efficiency of State management and the quality of operations of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations; promote the people's mastery. Streamlining the payroll is associated with restructuring, improving the quality and effective use of the contingent of cadres, civil servants and public employees; reduce regular expenditures and contribute to reforming wage policy"...
It can be said that with very clear viewpoints, objectives and very specific tasks and solutions, Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW is an important basis for all levels and sectors from the central to local levels to resolutely carry out innovation, reorganization of the apparatus and streamlining of staff. In particular, Thanh Hoa is one of the localities that has been seriously and methodically implementing, with many very important achievements.
To quickly realize Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW, Thanh Hoa province has issued working regulations, action programs, and implementation plans of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee and revised and supplemented regulations and provisions on assignment and decentralization of management of organizational apparatus and cadres; appointment of cadres and introduction of cadres as candidates; regulations on functions, tasks, and organizational apparatus of the political system. Thereby, promptly overcoming the situation of duplication and overlap of functions, tasks, and management areas. Along with that, the province also directed the review of regulations on functions, tasks, organizational apparatus, and working relationships of agencies and units in the entire political system. On that basis, rearrange the organization and apparatus of agencies and units from the province to the grassroots level in the direction of streamlining, effective and efficient operations. At the same time, ensure that no functions or tasks are left out, overlapped, or duplicated, in the direction that one task is assigned to only one agency or unit to preside over. In addition, the province also approves the list of job positions, and arranges the staff of civil servants and public employees according to job positions.
Identifying the innovation and reorganization of the apparatus as a complex and challenging task, Thanh Hoa province therefore determined that the entire political system needs to be involved with high determination, great efforts, and drastic actions in the process of implementing Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW. In particular, leaders of Party committees, authorities, agencies, and units at all levels, especially the heads, must have high political determination and be responsible for their decisions. In addition, the province also pays special attention to political and ideological education, raising awareness of cadres and party members about innovation, reorganization of the apparatus, and streamlining of staff. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen propaganda, mobilization, persuasion, and create high unity within the Party and consensus in society in the process of implementing this very important task.
Thanks to the active, proactive, drastic participation and methodical approach, after 7 years of implementing Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW, the organization and apparatus of the political system in the province have been and are being arranged and consolidated in the direction of streamlining, reducing focal points and the number of leaders, with many remarkable results.
Many important results
A "bright spot" in the implementation of Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW of Thanh Hoa province, first of all, is the arrangement of administrative units at the commune and village levels. Accordingly, in the period of 2016-2021, the province merged 143 communes to establish 67 communes, reducing 76 communes; merged 3,100 villages and residential groups to establish 1,522 villages and residential groups, reducing 1,578 villages and residential groups. With such an impressive number, Thanh Hoa is one of the localities implementing the most arrangement of administrative units at the commune and village levels in the country. More notably, not only did it exceed the set target in the arrangement of administrative units at the commune and village levels (reducing 12% of the number of commune-level administrative units and 26.5% of the number of villages and residential groups); but it also contributed to streamlining the apparatus, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of management of the grassroots government. At the same time, restructure and rearrange the staff, civil servants, and non-professional workers. Thereby, helping to save the State budget, create resources for salary reform, increase allowances for non-professional workers; promote the potential, internal strength, and socio-economic investment efficiency of localities...
Currently, the province is implementing the arrangement of district and commune-level administrative units for the 2023-2025 period according to Resolution No. 939/NQ-UBTVQH15 dated December 13, 2023 and Resolution No. 1238/NQ-UBTVQH15 dated October 24, 2024 of the National Assembly Standing Committee. In particular, Dong Son district will be merged into Thanh Hoa city, reducing 1 district; 23 communes will be merged to form 11 communes, reducing 12 communes. After the arrangement, Thanh Hoa province has 26 district-level administrative units (22 districts, 2 towns and 2 cities) and 547 commune-level administrative units. In addition, the arrangement of the organizational apparatus has also been carried out drastically and synchronously by the province in the Party, mass organizations and local authorities, with many important results achieved.
Innovating and reorganizing the apparatus in conjunction with innovating leadership methods and streamlining the payroll. In particular, the focus is on restructuring and improving the quality of the staff, civil servants and public employees; attracting virtuous and talented people; allocating sufficient necessary resources and having appropriate mechanisms and policies for those directly affected in the reorganization process. This is the guiding viewpoint emphasized in Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW, and is also one of the key contents that Thanh Hoa province is interested in implementing. Accordingly, the whole province has exceeded the target of streamlining the payroll for the period 2016-2021 in the spirit of Resolution No. 39-NQ/TW (reducing over 10% of the payroll of cadres, civil servants and public employees)...
Some issues raised
Despite achieving very important results, the review, innovation, arrangement, consolidation of the organizational apparatus and streamlining of staff, restructuring of the staff, civil servants and public employees are complicated and even sensitive tasks because they are directly related to people. In reality, the arrangement of staff (chiefs and deputy heads) in merged agencies and units still faces difficulties. Meanwhile, in some localities where administrative units have been merged, there is still confusion in resolving the issue of office buildings, cultural and sports facilities in residential communities. The staffing levels for provincial agencies and units are still low compared to the task requirements and the norms prescribed by central ministries and branches regarding the number of staffing levels and employees, especially in educational and health service units (for example, the health sector needs to add nearly 1,000 staffing levels to arrange for commune, ward and town health stations; the education sector needs to add more than 10,000 staffing levels for teachers at all levels...). Not to mention, with the assigned staffing levels, some agencies and units have a small number of cadres and civil servants, leading to the ineffective implementation of State management tasks.
In addition, the implementation process in some places shows that there is still a lack of determination, deference, avoidance, fear of conflict, and a desire to maintain stability in the current organization, apparatus, and staff of agencies and units. Some localities, units, and leaders are not really bold, straightforward, and objective in managing, using, evaluating, and classifying cadres, civil servants, and public employees as a basis for streamlining staff...
The above situation has raised the requirement for awareness and sense of responsibility of some localities and units about the importance, urgency and requirements for innovation and organizational restructuring, which need to be raised higher than ever. At the same time, Party committees and authorities at all levels, especially leaders at all levels, need to be more determined and drastic in their actions. Only then can innovation and restructuring of the political system achieve the true goal of streamlining, operating effectively and efficiently in accordance with the spirit of Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW.
Article and photos: Khoi Nguyen
Lesson 2: Streamlining the focal points and reducing the cumbersome apparatus
Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/nghi-quyet-so-18-nq-tw-tien-de-xay-dung-bo-may-tinh-gon-hieu-luc-hieu-qua-bai-1-chu-truong-lon-quyet-tam-cao-234401.htm
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