To have a strong - compact - streamlined political system

Speaking at a group discussion session at the National Assembly, General Secretary To Lam frankly admitted that the current Vietnamese political system apparatus is too cumbersome and overlapping, and if this situation is not promptly remedied, it will hinder the country's development. The head of our Party affirmed that "without streamlining, development is impossible". Following this spirit, the General Secretary recently wrote an article titled: "Refined - Lean - Strong - Effective - Effective - Efficient". On December 1, 2024, the conference summarizing the implementation of Resolution No. 18 with many major orientations on streamlining the political system apparatus was deployed.

In fact, all the views on the restructuring of the apparatus have been raised in many resolutions of the Party, especially Resolution No. 18, but this is a favorable time to implement it. Perhaps never before has the story of streamlining the political system become as urgent as it is now, how could it not be urgent when the apparatus has become too cumbersome; the number of people receiving salaries from the budget is too large with the reality that 70% of the state budget is currently used to pay salaries, regular expenses, and serve the operation of the apparatus. This means that only 30% is left to invest in development, defense, security, hunger eradication, poverty reduction, and social security.

Vietnam's current administrative system is too cumbersome with many intermediate levels, too many agencies and organizations. Therefore, the functions and tasks of agencies and organizations in many places become overlapping and duplicated in terms of tasks. When the administrative system is too cumbersome, it will inevitably lead to the consequence that no matter how hard we try, it will still be difficult to achieve the set goals of reducing staff. When the staff is not reduced, it is difficult to discuss salary increases, and when salaries are not increased, it is difficult to discuss attracting and retaining talented people in the system, so a vicious cycle continues year after year. Perhaps because the system is cumbersome, for many years, we have implemented staff reduction but there has not been any clear change.

Nowadays, it is not difficult to realize that there are many parallel systems existing at the same time: the Party's organizational system, the State's organizational system, the Fatherland Front 's organizational system and socio-political organizations.

Almost every organization at the Central level has its own organization at the local level, extending down to hamlets and neighborhoods. With more than 10,000 commune-level administrative units as present, this organization will be a huge burden on the budget. We not only have cadres, civil servants, public employees, and armed forces receiving salaries from the state budget, but also a large number of non-professional workers, Party and mass organizations who are not entitled to receive salaries but receive allowances from the state budget. Therefore, it is not surprising that 70% of Vietnam's current expenditures are regular expenditures, of which the majority are salaries and operating expenses of cadres, civil servants, and public employees. The organization is cumbersome, the number of people receiving salaries and allowances from the budget is too large, so the consequence is that not only does the State not have enough resources to invest in development, but even salary increases for cadres, civil servants, and public employees over the past many years have been sluggish. Perhaps that is why, after many salary increases, the refrain “salary is not enough to live on” has continued throughout the years. Not all low-paid cadres, civil servants, and public employees are negative, but it cannot be ruled out that this is one of the main reasons that “gives birth” to the situation where a group of cadres, civil servants, and public employees bully and harass people while performing their official duties. Although there are many complaints about the qualifications and abilities of cadres and civil servants among the people, but in annual assessments, the number of people who cannot do their jobs is still very small, so there are very few dismissals. In fact, in many units today, there is a phenomenon where some people cannot finish their work, and some people do nothing.

To have a streamlined political system that operates effectively, the drastic participation of the entire political system is required. The Prime Minister has directed the establishment of a Steering Committee and a Working Group to assist in streamlining the Government apparatus. Hopefully, after this "initial shot" from the leader, the entire political system will transform and effectively reorganize the streamlined apparatus and operate effectively and efficiently. An effective apparatus does not necessarily require that the Central level has an agency, and that the provincial and district levels have that agency. It is necessary to drastically implement as soon as possible the reduction, or even the elimination of agencies and units that overlap in functions and tasks. Only when these contents are achieved can the project to streamline the payroll and perfect job positions be effectively implemented. During the implementation process, a standard mechanism should be issued to comprehensively and objectively assess the capacity and quality of civil servants and public employees as a premise for determining the number that needs to be reduced to avoid the situation of equalization. Along with the arrangement and consolidation of the organizational apparatus is the streamlining of staff, improving the quality of the staff and civil servants; using the right people for the right job.

Source: http://baolamdong.vn/chinh-tri/202501/de-co-he-thong-chinh-tri-tinh-gon-manh-57424e4/