Reorganizing and streamlining general departments is an important part of the government’s apparatus restructuring.

Under the strategic plan, the Government Steering Committee proposes that ministries and ministerial-level agencies draw up reorganization plans in a way to ensure lean management. In general, the ‘general department’ model under ministries will be discontinued.

In some cases, if general departments really need to exist, ministries and branches must report to the Government's Steering Committee which will seek opinions from the Central Steering Committee.

According to Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra, the government has agreed to "essentially eliminate general departments and equivalents." It has put forward the plan to cut 12 out of 13 general departments and equivalents.

This is not the first time the government has rearranged and streamlined general departments.

Prior to that, the government had undergone two streamline campaigns, and the number of general departments reduced by 25.

MPS has pioneered eliminating general departments. In August 2018, under the instruction by To Lam, who was then Minister of MPS, the ministry announced the removal of six general departments, including the Security General Department (General Department 1), the Police General Department (General Department 2), General Political Department (General Department 3), the General Department of Logistics and Engineering (General Department 4), General Department of Intelligence (General Department 5) and General Department of Criminal Enforcement and Judicial Assistance (General Department 8).

After that, MPS reorganized the High Command of Guard Police and High Command of Mobile Police into department-equivalent units. Thus, the ministry eliminated the general department level, including six general departments and two equivalent units.

In an interview with VietNamNet, Lam said many ‘general director of general departments’ became ‘director of departments’ after the restructuring and all of them were happy about the rearrangement and new duties.

This was because the ministry organized many conferences to collect opinions, analyze and explain viewpoints on apparatus streamlining to build consensus. It also proposed reasonable policies and a regime for officers affected by the rearrangement.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh praised the fact that MPS took a daring move to eliminate eight general departments at the same time, but still could fulfill all political tasks.

17 general departments eliminated

After MPS eliminated general departments, other ministries still had 30 general departments that need to be reorganized. 

However, in 2018-2022, little progress in apparatus streamlining was made as ministries took no action. In early 2022, under Chinh’s instruction, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) began urging ministries and branches to "cut general departments and reduce the number of intermediaries”.

Tra of MHA said the streamlining went slowly in that period because ministries cited many difficulties. She acknowledged that this is difficult work, but is a must.

And the second restructuring campaign has been activated. Tra said she and her co-workers at MHA had to spend ‘sleepless nights’, because they had to deal with  ‘problems which are absolutely complex’.

After 1.5 years of working on eliminating general departments, in June 2023, the government completed the reorganization of units inside ministries and branches with 17 of 30 general departments cut. However, 13 general departments and equivalents still exist.

Of the 17 general departments eliminated, four belonged to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), including the Vietnam Environment Administration (VEA), General Department of Geology and Minerals (DGMV), General Department of Land Administration (GDLA) and Vietnam Administration of Seas and Islands (VASI).

The other two general department-equivalents belonged to MHA, including Government Committee for Religious Affairs and the Central Committee for Emulation and Reward, which have become equivalent to ‘department’.

The Ministry of Transport (MOT) has eliminated the Vietnam Road Administration by splitting it into the Department for Roads of Vietnam (DRVN) and the Vietnam Expressway Authority (VNEA).

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) changed ‘four general departments’ into ‘departments’.

As for the Ministry of Science and Technology, the General Department of Standards, Measurement and Quality has become the National Committee for Standards, Measurement and Quality, while the HoaLac Hi-tech Part Board of Management no longer exists.

Under the Law on Government Organization, ‘general department’ is a level in the organizational structure of a ministry with no more than four deputy heads. However, the 13 existing ‘general departments’ currently have 396 ‘departments’, while ministries and branches only have 141 ‘departments’.

Thu Hang