Ho Chi Minh City: Anti-waste with focus and key points

Ho Chi Minh City identified enhancing the responsibility of leaders, strengthening inspection, supervision, and strictly handling violations as key solutions to effectively practice thrift and combat waste.

Identifying thrift and anti-waste as a key and regular task of the entire political system, in 2025 and the following years, Ho Chi Minh City will focus on building and effectively implementing a comprehensive, focused and key thrift practice and anti-waste program, associated with the work of arranging and streamlining the apparatus and operating the two-level local government; continuing administrative reform and strong digital transformation.

Anti-waste in investment and management of public assets

The plan to promote thrift practice and anti-waste in the City in 2025 and the following years of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee clearly states: Build and effectively implement a 5-year thrift practice and anti-waste program, ensuring comprehensiveness, focus, key points, and themes for each year; focus on key areas such as energy, land, resources, minerals, state budget, public assets; strengthen state management, tighten discipline, thoroughly save, anti-waste, improve the efficiency of management and use of the City's resources, especially in the management and use of resources, state budget and public assets.

Since merging with the two provinces of Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City has paid more attention to the arrangement, streamlining of the apparatus and operation of the two-level local government, and the enhancement of thrift and anti-waste in the management and use of public assets.

A corner of Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: Hong Dat/VNA)

The City People's Committee has requested departments, branches, wards, communes, and special zones to promote thrift practice and combat waste, focusing on a number of key areas such as: management and use of public investment capital, land, and factories; speeding up project progress; having solutions to remove difficulties of projects, backlogged works, construction stops, slow progress, and works, headquarters, and offices that are not used or used ineffectively.

At the meetings of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council after the merger, many People's Council delegates said that although the City has made efforts to rectify and resolutely handle cases and incidents of waste, in reality, there are still many headquarters and public land and housing sites left vacant, and many projects and joint ventures and association proposals have been delayed in approval, lasting for many years without being implemented.

The city has made efforts to review, arrange, and plan to reuse public housing and land funds after organizing a two-level local government, but implementation in many places and areas has not been drastic or synchronous, and there are still many problems and limitations.

To promote thrift practice and anti-waste, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc has directed units to strengthen inspection and supervision on the prevention and fight against corruption, waste and negativity, focusing on public housing projects.

The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee requested departments, branches and localities to propose specific solutions for each real estate address; consider converting them into public works such as: headquarters of state agencies, educational and medical facilities, public accommodation, community houses... to use them effectively, in accordance with local planning and usage needs.

Promoting the role of Party committees and leaders

According to the Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption and Wastefulness of Ho Chi Minh City, in the first 9 months of 2025, the work of preventing and combating waste has been strengthened by all levels and sectors, focusing on reviewing and handling public works and real estate when arranging and streamlining the apparatus, administrative units and operating local governments at 2 levels; ensuring full and accurate statistics of the current situation; exploiting assets in accordance with regulations and effectively, avoiding omissions, causing loss and waste of assets.

The city has removed 266/838 backlogged and stuck projects, works, and land plots.

The practice of thrift and anti-waste has achieved remarkable results in a number of areas such as: budget, public investment, public asset management, etc.

Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee said that in the first 6 months of 2025, the City inspected and discovered many cases and units violating regulations on thrift and anti-waste with a total amount of economic sanctions of nearly 54,000 billion VND, of which 99.3% was recovered.

The city has also cut 10% of regular expenditure (excluding salaries and salary-based expenses) to create resources for salary reform, amounting to VND1,417 billion.

To ensure effective and quality practice of thrift and anti-waste, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City continues to require raising the responsibility of leaders in leading and directing the practice of thrift and anti-waste in conjunction with the performance of assigned duties and tasks; clearly defining the responsibilities of each agency, organization, unit, each cadre, civil servant, public employee and worker in practicing thrift and anti-waste.

Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc surveyed the operation of the two-level local government in Ba Ria ward. (Photo: Huynh Son/VNA)

According to Dr. Nguyen Thanh Hai and Dr. Le Minh Hai (Ho Chi Minh City University of Law), in the work of preventing and combating waste, in terms of government operations, the team of cadres, civil servants and public employees plays a particularly important role, both as a "block" to control and prevent waste but also at the same time potentially causing waste and corruption.

Therefore, in addition to professional qualifications, each cadre and civil servant needs to constantly practice ethics, political mettle, and public service culture; must always uphold the law and put the interests of the people at the center of all public service activities.

To further enhance the role of Party committees and leaders in waste prevention and control, Dr. Tran Thi Lua (Deputy Head of the Department of Political Science, Vietnam Youth Academy Branch in Ho Chi Minh City) emphasized: "There should be clear and specific regulations on the responsibilities of Party committees and leaders in leading, directing and organizing the implementation of this work. In particular, it is necessary to build a mechanism to evaluate and review responsibilities in a transparent and serious manner when serious waste cases occur. Clearly defining responsibilities will create pressure and motivation for leaders to really get involved and take the lead in waste prevention and control."

To carry out the core and regular tasks of saving and fighting waste, Ho Chi Minh City continues to strengthen state management, tighten discipline, thoroughly save and fight waste in all fields, improve the efficiency of management and use of resources; at the same time, promote solutions to promote people's mastery, the supervisory and critical role of the Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations, mass organizations and people./.

(TTXVN/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/thanh-pho-ho-chi-minh-chong-lang-phi-co-trong-tam-trong-diem-post1069839.vnp