National Assembly Delegate: Commune level 'works day and night', low salary, lack of motivation for officials

During the discussion at the National Assembly, delegates reflected that commune-level officials and civil servants work day and night, without Saturdays or Sundays, but the regime remains the same, resulting in a lack of motivation. Delegates suggested that it is necessary to soon develop financial and budgetary policies and regimes suitable for the two-level local government model.

On the morning of October 21, the National Assembly discussed in groups the socio-economic situation, the State budget and reports of the Government, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuracy ...

Too many people, but not enough qualified people

At the discussion session, National Assembly delegate Le Van Dung ( Da Nang delegation) raised many opinions on the two-level government model. According to Mr. Dung, after nearly 4 months, besides the positive aspects, the two-level government still has many difficulties and problems.

National Assembly Delegate Le Van Dung (Da Nang delegation). Photo: Nhu Y

First of all, regarding the headquarters, according to Mr. Dung, there are places where activities are arranged in the headquarters of 3-4 old communes, working conditions are not guaranteed, and travel is difficult. "I went to some mountainous communes and saw that the commune secretaries and chairmen had to put up chairs and spread out mats to lie down at the office, just like in wartime. Honestly, I felt very sorry for them," said the National Assembly delegate from Da Nang.

The second difficulty, according to the Da Nang delegation, is that the regime, policies, salaries and allowances for commune officials are still low, while the workload has increased significantly.

"Commune-level officials and civil servants work day and night, without Saturdays or Sundays, but the regime remains the same, so there is a lack of motivation" - a National Assembly delegate from Da Nang reflected.

Not to mention, according to him, the current situation of communal-level cadres is both surplus and shortage. There is a surplus of administrative cadres, but a shortage of professional cadres, especially IT cadres.

Mr. Dung gave an example: the commune's economic-infrastructure department now has to take on the work of the four previous district-level specialized departments (agriculture, natural resources-environment, economic-infrastructure, planning). To carry out the task, each department must have at least 1-2 full-time staff, but now there are only a few part-time staff, so they cannot handle it.

In addition, Mr. Dung also reflected on the shortcomings in implementing Decree 178. He said that in the past, there were many cases of early retirement registration, but then the policy stopped on August 31, making many people very upset.

“There are cases where officials have handed over the position of commune secretary and volunteered to work as specialists to prepare for retirement, but the policy was suddenly stopped, so they lost their positions and were not given benefits, which is a great disadvantage,” said Mr. Le Van Dung. He suggested that for cases that had registered and been approved before the policy was stopped, they should be allowed to retire according to the old policy, to avoid creating resentment among the staff, especially the commune secretaries and chairmen.

Many redundant headquarters are left to waste.

To overcome difficulties and obstacles in the commune-level government, National Assembly delegate Le Van Dung proposed to soon invest in building or repairing headquarters to ensure the operation of the apparatus. At the same time, make adjustments to salaries and allowances, especially for commune officials, especially in remote areas, to ensure they are commensurate with the current workload.

Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh speaks at the discussion session. Photo: Nhu Y

Sharing the same view, delegate Pham Thuy Chinh (Tuyen Quang delegation) proposed that the Government direct the Ministry of Home Affairs to be the focal point to provide unified guidance on the organization, functions, tasks, staffing and policies for commune-level authorities; to avoid the situation where each ministry and sector provides different guidance.

Regarding the arrangement of surplus headquarters, Ms. Chinh said that there are many surplus headquarters without a plan for use, causing waste of the budget. “Our arrangement orientation is to convert surplus headquarters into public service facilities, prioritizing health and education services. However, converting functions is very difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to review, inventory, classify public assets, and soon have solutions for effective use, avoiding waste in the process of arranging the apparatus,” said the delegate of Tuyen Quang delegation.

Participating in the discussion at the group, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh said that when organizing the two-level local government, most district-level officials were sent to communes. Among them, there were many cases where their capacity and qualifications were not suitable for their job positions. "It is not possible to dismiss them all, but sending them to communes will inevitably lead to a professional gap," said Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh.

To overcome this problem, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, it is necessary to train and apply technology to handle administrative procedures and the officials themselves must try to learn and improve their qualifications. "This problem takes time, it cannot be solved immediately," said the Deputy Prime Minister.

According to Tien Phong Newspaper

Source: https://baotuyenquang.com.vn/xa-hoi/202510/dai-bieu-quoc-hoi-cap-xa-lam-ngay-lam-dem-luong-thap-can-bo-thieu-dong-luc-2784f19/