Spring day, discussing public service responsibilities

Never before has public service responsibility been mentioned as much as in 2023, because of the phenomenon of officials "fearing responsibility", or the remaining negative aspects that need to be eliminated, to build a public service system that serves the people.

Speaking at the 6th session of the 15th National Assembly at the end of 2023, President Vo Van Thuong said: "Nowadays, when people encounter problems, they immediately think about whether they know anyone or not. That way of thinking is dead, it reflects negatively on society. When people are in trouble, they should immediately think about the government, the committee, and the law." Previously, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra also said that there is currently a situation where a large number of cadres, civil servants, and public employees work half-heartedly, push things around, avoid, lack responsibility, and are afraid of making mistakes in performing their duties.

The responsibility of performing public duties is always reminded and encouraged by the provincial leaders in the meetings of the Provincial Party Executive Committee. Photo: N. Lan.

In Binh Thuan , the responsibility of performing public duties to serve the people and businesses was also mentioned many times by the Provincial Party Secretary Duong Van An, the Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Hoai Anh and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Doan Anh Dung in meetings and directive documents for all cadres, civil servants and public employees performing public duties in the departments, branches and localities of the province. The provincial leaders identified the existing problems when affirming that there were a number of cadres who were afraid of making mistakes, did not dare to do things, did not do things wholeheartedly, and were indifferent to the difficulties and hardships of the people and businesses. That led to stagnation in work, affecting the development of the province and the people's trust in cadres, civil servants and public employees in the State administrative system, and furthermore, the trust and prestige in the leadership of the Party.

The story of officials being afraid of making mistakes, shirking, avoiding, afraid of responsibility, harassing, demanding, leading to sluggishness in solving work for people and businesses is not new. But never before has this mentality become a "phenomenon" that appears so much, with factors spreading from the Central to the local level and in many sectors and fields like today. In addition to officials who are afraid of violating the law and do not dare to do it, there are also officials who do not want to do it because there is no benefit. This is a distorted perception and thinking, not to mention a degradation of political ideology for those who perform public duties.

In fact, the above phenomenon partly stems from the work of building and rectifying the Party and a clean and strong political system that our Party is determined to carry out. In that rectification, the fight against corruption has been promoted vigorously, without forbidden areas, without exceptions, with a series of officials from the central to local levels being arrested for corruption. For a long time, more or less among officials, civil servants, and public employees working in the State apparatus, there has been a thought that in addition to salary, there must be additional "illegal" payments, percentages, and allowances in handling work. Therefore, even if the work is difficult, or due to unclear or overlapping regulations, efforts are made to remove or take advantage of loopholes, even regardless of mistakes for the sake of group interests... Now that the fight against corruption is being carried out vigorously, tightly controlled, leading to no longer or less benefits, many officials, civil servants, and public employees are afraid of mistakes and responsibility. This negative thinking directly affects work progress, because leaders speed up drastically while subordinates sometimes "sit still".

Civil servants serving the people at the Binh Thuan Provincial Public Administration Center. Photo: D. Hoa

The cause of the above situation also comes from objective factors when our current institutions, policies and regulations are still overlapping, contradictory, and no longer suitable for reality, leading to the implementation of public duties, the person in charge of the job encounters many barriers and obstacles, leading to inability, delay or pushing. Among these, we must mention the fields of land, investment, budget finance, public investment...

To address the situation of "officials preferring to stand before a disciplinary council than a trial council", along with perfecting the institutional system, promoting decentralization, delegation, and authorization, as well as reviewing and abolishing inappropriate regulations, the Government also issued Decree No. 73/2023/ND-CP dated September 29, 2023 on encouraging and protecting dynamic, creative, daring, daring, and responsible officials. It encourages bold proposals for innovation, removing and resolving bottlenecks and knots in mechanisms and policies that have not been stipulated in legal documents. The Decree is considered a "medicine" to cure the disease of fear of mistakes and fear of responsibility, including officials working for the common good, with pure motives, and if there are mistakes, they may not be held responsible and measures to protect officials will be applied. In parallel with the above policies, the implementation of the policy on salary reform for civil servants and public employees, applied from July 1, 2024, is also considered a "lever" to promote increased labor productivity, improve capacity, responsibility, work efficiency and the spirit of contribution and dedication of officials to match the salary received...

It can be seen that the cadres, civil servants and public employees are the entities that carry out the functions and tasks of the State entrusted by the people. This is the core and the factor that ensures that the public service is carried out effectively and efficiently, serving the interests of the State, the people and society. Therefore, each cadre, civil servant and public employee needs to correctly identify their position, role and responsibility, in order to wholeheartedly serve, improve the quality of life, the satisfaction of the people, and contribute to the construction and development of the homeland and the country.

Officials work for the common good, have pure motives, if there are mistakes they may not be held responsible and measures will be applied to protect them.

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