Grassroots cadres with the right expertise: both surplus and shortage

The allocation of cadres and civil servants in some communes and wards of Ho Chi Minh City is still uneven due to the "mechanical import" process after the merger and the number of cadres from the old district level being allocated to the commune level.

After nearly 3 months of operating the 2-level local government apparatus, along with gradually putting the apparatus into stable operation and initially arranging the staff at the commune and ward levels according to regulations, the staff work in many localities in Ho Chi Minh City has revealed limitations and difficulties in implementing tasks.

Many communes and wards have a situation of both “surplus and shortage” of qualified staff, one of the reasons pointed out is due to mechanical mergers, concentrating staff from wards and communes together, or uneven allocation of staff from district level to communes and wards. Most of them lack staff with appropriate expertise for their job positions, especially in the fields of land, environment, project management, finance, etc. To solve this “problem”, Ho Chi Minh City has been implementing many solutions, from short-term to long-term.

Faced with the above issue, VNA reporters have written a series of articles with the theme " The problem of staff for the two-level local government apparatus in Ho Chi Minh City " to acknowledge efforts to overcome difficulties and remove bottlenecks so that the two-level local government apparatus can operate smoothly and stably.

After nearly 3 months of operating the two-level local government apparatus, many communes and wards in Ho Chi Minh City have recorded a situation where many job positions are "surplus" in number but there is a lack of staff with appropriate expertise, especially in complex fields such as land, construction, project management and finance.

These are the "bottlenecks" that make it difficult for local authorities to meet the increasing needs of people and businesses, especially in the context of rapid urbanization and deep international integration.

Excess in quantity

After the merger, the total number of cadres and civil servants continuing to work in 168 communes, wards and special zones of Ho Chi Minh City is 12,119 people and about 6,532 people working part-time at the commune level. Meanwhile, according to the temporary staffing regulations, each commune and ward has an average of 32 cadres and civil servants and for every 2,000 population increase, one more person will be assigned, but the total number of civil servants will not exceed 50 for communes and 70 for wards.

According to actual records, the allocation of cadres and civil servants in some communes and wards is still uneven due to the "mechanical import" process after the merger and the number of cadres from the old district level being allocated to the commune level.

Bau Bang Commune, Ho Chi Minh City was formed on the basis of merging 7/8 neighborhoods of Lai Uyen town, old Binh Duong province, with a natural area of ​​over 84km2 and a population of 51,638 people. After the merger, the commune was allocated 90 positions of cadres, civil servants and public employees, including 52 professional civil servants.

After nearly 3 months of operation, the locality encountered some difficulties due to a lack of personnel with important expertise, especially in the fields of construction, industry and trade, agriculture , environment, health and culture.

Mr. Nguyen Phu Cuong, Secretary of the Bau Bang Commune Party Committee, said that most of the cadres and civil servants do not have the appropriate expertise, or are not familiar with the new way of working. Before the district level was abolished, the commune cadres were only used to doing executive work, but now they have to directly handle the situation, so they are confused and bewildered.

Similarly, Mr. Vo Van Tinh, Party Secretary of Bac Tan Uyen Commune, Ho Chi Minh City also acknowledged that the establishment of Bac Tan Uyen Commune on the basis of merging 3 old administrative units has created many advantages for leadership and management. The government apparatus after the arrangement is more refined, its operations are increasingly becoming more orderly, effective and clearly effective.

However, the arrangement of cadres and civil servants to take up positions in specialized departments of the commune is still uneven. Specifically, some positions are redundant due to the mechanical integration process after the merger, a number of civil servants do not meet the job requirements, have limited capacity, and find it difficult to adapt to the new model.

After the merger, the entire Bac Tan Uyen commune has 111 positions, of which the Party and Front bloc has 50 positions, the government bloc has 62 positions. The basic qualifications of the cadres meet the requirements of the new tasks with more than 60% having a university degree or higher, many cadres have advanced and intermediate training in political theory.

"In the coming time, the commune will continue to review and have a plan to train cadres and civil servants to overcome limitations in qualifications and skills. In addition, the locality is also determined to streamline the weak team, aiming to bring into the apparatus sensitive cadres to meet the job requirements in the new situation," Mr. Vo Van Tinh stated.

Lack of professional staff

Reality shows that due to mechanical mergers, concentrating cadres from communes and wards together or unevenly distributing cadres from the old district level to communes and wards, there are cases where some positions have many cadres with the same expertise, but there is a shortage in some fields, especially in important fields such as land, construction, environment, project management, finance, etc., leading to a lack of specialized cadres, affecting the work in communes and wards.

According to records in Ba Diem commune, one of the four "super" communes in Ho Chi Minh City with a population of over 204,000 people and a natural area of ​​27.36 square kilometers, from July 1 to now, the commune has received 260 complaints from people, mainly focusing on the fields of land and construction order.

Officials and civil servants of Ba Diem commune (Ho Chi Minh City) work through lunch to process administrative documents to serve the people. (Photo: Huu Duyen/VNA)

According to Mr. Le Van Quang Vinh, Head of the Economic Department of Ba Diem commune, the agricultural land area in the area is still very large, over 1,300 hectares, accounting for 49% of the natural area.

The number of cases related to land and construction order has increased 10 times compared to before, making the department's work overloaded. Since the establishment of the new commune, the number of violations of construction order in the area has increased dramatically with nearly 50 illegal constructions.

“The reason for the increase in construction order violations in the area is partly due to people taking advantage of loopholes in the arrangement process, and mainly due to the fact that the state management force is thin compared to the large area, with a lot of vacant land. Currently, each officer and civil servant has to take on 7-8 tasks, always in a state of overload, leading to a lack of close supervision of the area, giving rise to many complicated incidents,” Mr. Le Van Quang Vinh admitted.

To quickly rectify the complicated situation of construction and land order in Ba Diem commune, Mr. Le Van Quang Vinh said that it is necessary to supplement and strengthen at least 5 people with expertise in the construction field and 5 people in the land field.

Civil defense forces in Thai My commune (Ho Chi Minh City) participate in guiding people to complete online public service procedures. (Photo: Huu Duyen/VNA)

Meanwhile, Thai My commune, Ho Chi Minh City also recorded a shortage of professional staff in many fields, especially land and project management.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Thinh, Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said that there are two major projects being implemented in the area, including the 500kV Cu Chi-Chon Thanh-Duc Hoa transmission line project and the Ho Chi Minh City-Moc Bai expressway construction investment project.

The 500KV line project alone has 211 affected cases, of which 20 cases have part of the area permanently revoked and part of the line corridor affected with the expected recovered land area of ​​3,921.8 m2; 191 cases are affected in the line corridor with the affected land area of ​​180,444.9 m2.

According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Thinh, compensation, site clearance, and resettlement support involve a huge amount of work and require a lot of human resources to handle. However, the commune's professional civil servants currently have only 5 people, unable to both handle administrative procedures and research in-depth documents to ensure the rights of the people. In addition, Thai My commune is also lacking professional civil servants in the construction field.

"The merger of localities has resulted in a large amount of work, and the civil servants in charge of the construction sector of the commune are mostly part-time, performing both professional tasks in the assigned field and inspecting and handling violations. Therefore, the commune needs to increase the number of specialized forces in this field to support the inspection and supervision work to prevent violations of construction order in the area," Mr. Nguyen Duc Thinh shared./.

Lesson 2: Service team works overtime, strives to overcome difficulties

(TTXVN/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/can-bo-co-so-dung-chuyen-mon-vua-thua-vua-thieu-post1064784.vnp