Local experts have delved into the low labor productivity of State employees at many forums and seminars, but the specific number of incompetent staff at government agencies remains unfathomable, said the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Bui Sy Loi, deputy head of the National Assembly (NA) Social Affairs Committee, recently caused public concern when he announced that Vietnam is annually spending VND17 trillion paying for 700,000 civil servants, or 30% of the total State payroll, who are barely working. However, the figure was deemed as incorrect.

Speaking at a seminar on civil servant assessment and classification in Hanoi on December 19, Ngo Thanh Can, deputy director of the Department of Organization and Human Resource Management of the National Academy of Public Administration, said the figure was projected by experts when discussing labor productivity issues at seminars. It was not the official number announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

According to a report the ministry sent to the NA, only 0.5% to 0.6% of civil servants were rated as incompetent last year. It was hard to believe that over 99% of State officials worked well, Can said.

The problem is blamed on the poor assessment and classification of State employees. Besides, leaders of State agencies often report good staff assessments to protect the reputation of their organizations.

Deputy head of the ministry’s Department of Civil Servants Truong Hai Long said that the Government and State agencies have adopted a slew of solutions to secure quality staffing for the apparatus.

Speaking at a recent NA meeting, Minister of Home Affairs Le Vinh Tan said the Government had a plan to reduce 10% of staff in 2021 but just over 17,000 staff have been laid off in the past two years. Given a 1% reduction annually, over 36,000 officials at the district level must have been fired in 2016.

The Government’s Decree 56 has been applied for over a year as a major foundation to manage, evaluate, classify and discipline civil servants. However, some regulations or standards are infeasible and immeasurable, making it difficult to do staff assessments and manage personnel.

Recent studies and professional suggestions show that Decree 56 does not fit the reality. The Government has ordered the Ministry of Home Affairs to revise it soon, Long of the Department of Civil Servants said.

SGT