The 6th Party Congress in 1986 identified the cause of all causes leading to the socio -economic crisis at that time as the work of organizing cadres. Over the past 40 years, the organization of the political system of our country, especially the state administrative apparatus (HCNN), has undergone many reforms and has also achieved certain achievements, thereby contributing significantly to the development of the country. However, the organization still has many limitations as General Secretary To Lam pointed out in the article "Refined - Compact - Strong - Effective - Effective - Efficient".

General Secretary To Lam . Photo: VNA

So what is the cause of the chronic disease of our country's organizational system? Clearly recognizing this problem will provide appropriate solutions to make the apparatus more compact, with fewer levels, and operate better. The following article would like to contribute a few more ideas to clarify this issue. Philosophy of organizational apparatus First of all, it can be said that we do not have a standard philosophy of organizational apparatus. This type of philosophy is considered the foundation, the basis on which the apparatus is designed, operates, and similarly, changes when necessary. This philosophy hardly changes, it is the constant to respond to all changes. Because there is no such philosophy, there was a time when provincial and district administrative units had to be large, leading to the widespread merger of provinces and districts. Then came the time of separation, creating too many provinces, districts, and communes. And now it is the arrangement, mainly the merger of districts, communes, and wards. Will it still be the same in 10 years or will districts, communes, and wards be separated? Even the system is the same. Is there any country that amends the law on government organization every new government term like ours? Then there is the amendment of the framework decree on ministries. Similarly, the law on local government, the framework decree on departments... Sometimes, near the end of the term, the Government has just issued a specific decree on the functions, tasks, and organizational structure of each ministry. This is a huge waste of the truly useful activities of state administrative agencies.

It can be said that we do not have a standard philosophy on organizational structure, so there was a time when provincial and district administrative units had to be large, leading to the widespread merger of provinces and districts.

Entering the organization within ministries and ministerial-level agencies is also a matter of thought. In the same field of international cooperation, most ministries have a Department of International Cooperation, but the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism have a Department of International Cooperation. Or most ministries have a Department of Planning and Finance, but the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice have a Department of Planning and Finance. The government from 2007 to 2016 was a period of flourishing general departments and equivalent organizations within ministries. From 2021 onwards, there has been a trend of considering reorganizing general departments within ministries and quite a few general departments under ministries have been abolished. Another example among many related examples here. Because the organizational apparatus was seen as too cumbersome, there was a time when Party and State agencies and organizations in some similar fields were merged at the provincial level. After a while, it stops... Defining standard functions and tasks The second reason that makes the apparatus cumbersome and ineffective is the incorrect determination of the functions and tasks of the administrative agencies. The basic principle of organizational science is that the design of the apparatus must start from the functions and tasks of that organization; if the functions and tasks are clear and correct, the organizational structure will be determined appropriately, and there cannot be overlap in the work of agencies and organizations. This principle is like that, but we have not followed it, so the apparatus is still cumbersome, with overlapping functions and tasks of some administrative agencies. Specifically, for example, the organization of Ministry A is determined to have 2 functions and 15 main tasks to perform those functions. Corresponding to the 15 major tasks, the organizational structure of 14 departments is designed. However, due to the non-standard analysis, in fact, from 2 functions only 12 main tasks are created and of course the organizational structure cannot be 14 departments. General Secretary To Lam pointed out this situation as follows: … The management scope of multi-sectoral and multi-field ministries is not thoroughly defined; some tasks are interconnected, linked together or in the same field but assigned to many ministries for management. The organizational structure of some levels and sectors has so far remained basically the same in terms of quantity, the arrangement has not been associated with improving effectiveness, efficiency, determining job positions, and restructuring the staff. The apparatus in ministries and ministerial-level agencies still has many levels, some levels have unclear legal status; affiliated units with legal status have increased, increasing the situation of "ministries within ministries".
Designing an organizational structure must start from the functions and tasks of that organization; if the functions and tasks are clear and correct, the organizational structure will be determined appropriately, without overlapping work.
What needs to be emphasized here is that in the transition to a socialist-oriented market economy, the functions and tasks of the state administrative agencies must change accordingly. Many things do not need to be done by these agencies anymore, but are left to society to take care of. We have achieved some results such as having private organizations that do notarization, inspection, and driving lessons, which were previously only done by state agencies and organizations. However, these results are very modest compared to actual capabilities. Does the state need to build houses? If it is still needed, there will still be state companies and corporations, meaning that state organizations are still needed and cannot be streamlined. During the subsidy period, there was a time when there was a General Department of Rubber under the Government, and now there is no need for such a department, but our country's natural rubber output ranks third in the world. If we think in the old way, it is probably very worthy to organize a General Department of Rice, General Department of Tea, General Department of Pepper... under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Decentralization and decentralization between the central and local levels . The third reason that must be mentioned is that the story of decentralization and decentralization between the central and local levels has not been really done well. Actually, this is also a major content of the topic that clearly defines and is suitable for the functions and tasks of the state administrative agencies, but it is separated into a separate content for consideration because of its importance. Why were only a few provinces and cities initially given special mechanisms, then more than a dozen provinces and centrally run cities were given this type of mechanism? It is time to carefully study the issue of special mechanisms. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh once stated very accurately that if many provinces ask for the same mechanism and policies, it will become common, it cannot be called special. The current approach to the specific mechanism for localities is like the Central Committee holding 100% of the local work, expressed as authority and responsibility, and if the locality keeps asking, asking more strongly, the Central Committee calls it decentralization, decentralizing power to the locality today about 60%, tomorrow about 10% more... If the Central Committee stops doing this or that job and transfers it to the locality, the organizational structure of the Central apparatus will have to change, there will no longer be an organization to take care of the decentralized work. The apparatus will certainly be compact. New organizational model How to compact the apparatus, so that each agency and organization can operate effectively and efficiently? This is really a big issue, always discussed and expressed in the Party's resolutions through congresses from 1986 to the present. The first reason given for the current state of the apparatus organization is that there is not yet a standard philosophy on apparatus organization. So how can this standard be determined?

For the first time, the head of the political system used the phrase "new organizational model".

In his article, General Secretary To Lam pointed out: “…the organizational structure of our country’s political system, although it has been innovated in some parts, is still basically based on the model designed decades ago, many issues are no longer suitable for new conditions and are contrary to the law of development…”. So this standard is quite clear, which is the organizational structure of the political system. This system is designed correctly, each part of the system has clear functions and tasks, which will be the premise to ensure the whole system is compact and operates well. For the first time, the head of the Party pointed out that the model of our country’s political system was designed too long ago, so there are many issues that are no longer suitable. Without such full awareness, it will be very difficult to have a suitable approach to create compatible changes in our country’s political system. The General Secretary affirmed that it is necessary to build and organize the implementation throughout the political system of a comprehensive model of the organizational apparatus of the Vietnamese political system to meet the requirements and tasks in the new revolutionary period. The summary of practice, especially the summary of the implementation of Resolution 6 of the 12th Party Central Committee "Some issues on continuing to innovate and reorganize the apparatus of the political system to be streamlined, effective and efficient", according to the General Secretary, "must be conducted objectively, democratically, scientifically, specifically, deeply, receptively, closely following the practical situation and from there propose a new organizational model, evaluate the advantages and impacts when implementing the new model...". For the first time, the head of the political system used the phrase "new organizational model", showing the extent to which the current organizational model of our country's political system has limitations that need to be overcome. Building a new model of the political system with three blocs: the Party, the State, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations will certainly be an extremely difficult and complicated problem. Without innovative thinking, it is impossible to succeed in this work. What is the appropriate organization of the Party apparatus? The Party leads and the Party is in power, so how is this leadership and power ensured through the organization of the Party and the State apparatus? Continue to maintain existing organizations such as the Central Committee for Mass Mobilization, the Central Committee for Economic Affairs, the Central Committee for Internal Affairs, etc. or reorganize them appropriately and the Central Committee uses the Government's ministries like the Party's committees to advise the Central Committee on a number of institutional and policy issues. In principle, the ministers are all Party members, even members of the Central Executive Committee, so they are all responsible for implementing the Party's resolutions and must be even more responsible for advising and consulting the Central Committee on issues related to the state management of the ministries, first of all, guidelines, policies, planning, and development plans for sectors and fields. Clarifying the Party's apparatus at the Central level will also help to rationally organize the Party's apparatus at the provincial, district, and commune levels. The new model of the political system cannot fail to mention the organizational innovation of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations including the Youth Union, Trade Union, Women's Union, Farmers' Association, and Veterans' Association. The issue of particular significance governing the innovation here that needs to be studied is to clearly and accurately determine the nature and role of social classes and strata in contemporary Vietnamese society. Are the Vietnamese working class and peasantry… today exactly the same as they were decades ago? Correctly perceiving these issues will help clearly determine the position and role, especially the organizational structure of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations in our country’s political system.

In the internal organizational design of the ministries, if there is no fundamental change, it is very likely that the organization will remain the same or there will be insignificant changes.

Finally, the innovation of the state apparatus. Talking about the state apparatus organization means talking about the apparatus organization of the legislative body, the judiciary body and the state administrative body. Here we only mention the third part, that is the state administrative apparatus organization. First of all, it is necessary to clearly redefine and standardize the functions and tasks of administrative agencies from the Government, to the ministries and the People's Committees at all levels. This issue includes the story of decentralization and delegation of power between the central and local levels, including the necessity of doing this, doing that and especially giving up doing some work as before. Experience in our country and abroad shows that if we let state administrative agencies review and evaluate their own functions and tasks and then make proposals and recommendations, the results are often very limited. Some countries often hire a private organization to do this and often get clear and correct assessments and proposals on the functions and tasks of the State administrative agencies, especially proposals and innovations in the organization of the Government and other agencies of the administrative system. Designing the organization of the apparatus Based on clear functions and tasks, then embark on designing the organization of the apparatus. In designing the internal organization of the ministries, if there is no fundamental change, it is very likely that the organization will be the same or there will be insignificant changes. For decades, legal regulations have not clarified the difference between the departments on one side and the bureaus and general departments on the other side in the ministry. The department has the function of assisting the minister in state management of the sector and field, which means focusing on advising on institutions, policies, planning, plans, etc. Quite standard. The department and general department are determined to have the function of assisting the minister in state management of the sector and field and enforcement of specialized laws. Thus, both the department and the bureau, the general department have the same function of advising the minister on state management of the industry and field. This is a major problem that needs to be studied and resolved. Similarly, the concept of organizing rooms in departments in ministries also needs to be re-examined from the perspective of organizational science. In the process of building a new model of our country's political system, there are certainly things that can be done immediately, but there are also things that require careful and cautious research, and even testing to gain experience. General Secretary To Lam's guiding opinions on this issue will always be a foundation and extremely meaningful principles to help the implementation of building a new model of our country's political system go in the right direction and soon achieve results.

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