To prevent civil servants from "being in the wrong positions"

The job position framework at the commune and ward level is considered the "key" to determining the success or failure of the two-tiered local government model.

This September, the Ministry of Interior will submit four key items to the Politburo to ensure the progress of implementing the two-tiered local government system. Among these, developing a job position framework at the commune and ward levels is considered a crucial task, as it is directly linked to the efficiency of the reorganized administrative apparatus.

The right person, with the right expertise.

The Ministry of Interior has just issued Document No. 7415/BNV-CCVC to the People's Committees of provinces and cities, requesting them to focus on implementing a plan to ensure personnel at the commune and ward levels – emphasizing the principle of "the right person, the right job, the right expertise". This is not only a technical issue but also a political and administrative foundation for the new model to be implemented effectively.

Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra stated that the initial phase of restructuring the commune and ward-level administration was "mechanical," leading to a surplus of personnel in some areas and a shortage in others, particularly in crucial sectors. After streamlining, the two-tiered local government has operated stably, but future plans must be more scientific, based on job positions. The Ministry of Home Affairs is finalizing criteria regarding population, area, and socio-economic scale to determine appropriate staffing levels.

The Public Administrative Service Center of Thu Duc Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, has sufficient staff to serve the people.

According to the Minister of Home Affairs, the Politburo and the Secretariat have issued Conclusions 183-KL/TW and 186-KL/TW, requiring localities to urgently strengthen the capacity of communes and wards; review the current situation and transfer personnel between communes and wards according to needs; and at the same time supplement the shortage of personnel based on ensuring professional expertise.

According to the guidelines, the Ministry of Interior has proposed four implementation methods: transferring civil servants to suit practical needs; signing labor contracts with professionals, prioritizing information technology, accounting, and land administration; conducting competitive examinations, selection processes, or recruiting unused civil servants from the payroll; and strengthening the training and development of existing staff, especially in areas requiring high skills.

Specifically, the appendix to Document 7415 identified 36 job positions at the commune/ward level – including 8 leadership and management positions and 28 professional and technical positions across various fields: justice, finance and planning, construction and industry, agriculture and environment, education, culture, health, militia and self-defense forces, etc. This list is considered a "standard framework" for localities to review and supplement personnel, addressing the long-standing problem of localized surpluses and shortages.

Notably, this framework is not rigid – it ensures uniformity within the system while also allowing flexibility for localities to adjust personnel according to practical needs, without exceeding the allocated staffing quota. This approach clearly demonstrates the direction: building a streamlined yet modern administrative apparatus at the commune and ward levels, with sufficient management capacity to meet development requirements in the new context.

Important preparation steps

Dr. Nguyen Tien Dinh, former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Interior, argues that previously, the process of defining job positions was cumbersome, leading to a situation of "one civil servant, one position," resulting in an bloated bureaucracy and low efficiency.

With the 2025 Law on Cadres and Civil Servants, the approach has changed. The Ministry of Interior, based on functions and tasks, has set the direction to reduce the number of positions to only 36. A new feature is that a civil servant can hold multiple positions, or a single position may require multiple people, thereby streamlining the system while ensuring its effectiveness.

Mr. Dinh proposed that localities should flexibly transfer civil servants between communes and wards; sign contracts with specialized personnel, including from the private sector. At the same time, they should continue to hold recruitment exams for vacant positions to attract talent. These approaches would not only reduce the workload in critical areas such as land administration, land management, and environment, but also create new motivation for civil servants at the commune and ward levels.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong, Director of the Institute for Policy and Development Studies (IPS), emphasized that the job position framework helps define tasks and avoid overlap, but it is the staff themselves who are the "key" to operating the system. "In the new context, staff must be versatile, have strong expertise, be good at one thing but capable of doing many others," Mr. Dong said.

The ability to multitask and a sense of responsibility will determine the success of the two-tiered local government model - especially at the grassroots level, where there is direct interaction with the people and businesses.

The implementation over the past two months has shown that many localities, after reorganizing their administrative apparatus, have experienced personnel shortages in finance, justice, land administration, construction, etc., but surpluses in other departments. Without a standard framework for balancing these shortages, the effectiveness of local government operations will be affected. The Ministry of Interior's guidance on 36 positions and its push to finalize the report to the Politburo in September is a timely and fundamental step in reforming the administrative apparatus.

In the long run, the job position framework is not just an administrative category, but a human resource management tool, a basis for evaluation, training, development, and even a foundation for restructuring salary and allowance policies. Each civil servant, when assigned to a specific position, will have clear responsibilities, limiting situations of half-hearted work, avoidance, or being "in the wrong place."

According to Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong, a streamlined commune-level administrative apparatus, with the right people in the right jobs, will improve the efficiency of serving the people and contribute to strengthening public trust in administrative reform.

This is also an important preparatory step towards building a service-oriented, professional, modern, and transparent administration.

Send officials back to the local areas.

Ho Chi Minh City is implementing a plan to deploy approximately 900 officials from the Department of Construction to support communes and wards in addressing the shortage of personnel for land management and urban order. In the initial phase, nearly 900 construction inspectors will be seconded to 168 localities. Afterward, the city will evaluate their effectiveness to make appropriate adjustments. The next phase will consider transferring these officials to become commune and ward-level civil servants, contributing to improved efficiency in construction order management.

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Source: https://baolaocai.vn/de-cong-chuc-khong-ngoi-nham-cho-post881985.html