Management competency test

For many years, the environmental sanitation management model has been "centralized along the vertical lines", in which communes and wards mainly play a coordinating role, while the main responsibility lies with the district level (old) and public service enterprises.

This leads to the fact that when garbage, bad odors, and unreasonable collection points arise, the response is often slow and the handling is prolonged due to lack of authority. To overcome these shortcomings, from December 1, Hanoi transferred the task of maintaining environmental sanitation to 126 communes and wards.

This is an unprecedented step in terms of decentralization, aiming not only to change the way "who does it", but more deeply, to innovate the thinking "how" to keep the environment cleaner and more civilized.

This decentralization resets the responsibility structure. Communes and wards are investors, and are also responsible for and supervise environmental sanitation work. From monitoring volume, quality acceptance, progress inspection to receiving feedback from people, all activities are concentrated at the grassroots level, the place closest to the people, understanding the area and also receiving direct assessment from the community. The city not only transfers tasks, but also transfers trust, and at the same time sets out the decentralization requirement, but absolutely must not let services be interrupted; increase responsibility, but not create loopholes; delegate authority, but not loosen management. That is the spirit of administrative innovation, decentralization, and delegation of authority so that communes and wards can do real work, take real responsibility and inform the people of results in a transparent manner.

Implementation practice shows that the pressure on communes and wards is very large, from directly managing environmental sanitation maintenance packages, to preparing legal documents, controlling volume, payment, and acceptance. All are complex tasks, requiring precision and professional understanding. In addition, the pressure on progress and time as 2026 is approaching, so in December 2025, localities must make estimates, build bidding documents and organize the selection of collection units for the period 2026-2030. In particular, when communes and wards are investors, all grievances of the people come directly, there will be no more mechanism of "pushing responsibility up", but must be handled immediately.

According to environmental experts, these pressures also create motivation. Because only when empowered, can communes and wards have the conditions to reorganize the waste collection and environmental sanitation system to be more practical, such as increasing the frequency of waste transportation, adjusting collection hours appropriately, changing vehicle routes to avoid congestion, and arranging more scientific collection points.

However, in order for the decentralization of environmental sanitation management to be not only “correct” but also “on point”, solutions must be implemented synchronously, clearly and under control. In particular, communes and wards need to be given full authority in selecting collection units; adjusting collection frequency and routes; handling littering violations; acceptance and payment. However, strong sanctions must be applied; any area that lets garbage stay for 24-48 hours must be accountable to the City People's Committee.

The city's departments and branches must ensure sufficient resources immediately upon handover, such as: Providing sufficient funding according to the estimate; supplementing equipment; strengthening the environmental specialist team in communes and wards. At the same time, the city requires localities to standardize the contractor selection process, absolutely not allowing group interests to arise. During the implementation of the bidding package, the volume, unit prices, acceptance results must be made public, and there must be supervision and cross-checking between specialized departments of the Department of Agriculture and Environment. Another very important solution is that communes and wards must step up propaganda work among the people about dumping garbage on time, in the right place; eliminating spontaneous landfills, black spots of waste...

Decentralization of environmental sanitation work to communes and wards is not only a transfer of technical tasks, but also a big test of the management capacity of the grassroots level. When rights - responsibilities - resources - supervision are placed in the right place, the capital will be cleaner and more civilized from the smallest street corners and alleys. That is an important step for Hanoi to manage the environment in a modern direction: Clean from the root - standard from the base - sustainable from the community.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/phep-thu-nang-luc-quan-tri-726112.html