Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Tran Anh Tuan.

Ministries, sectors and localities are all implementing Politburo Resolution 39 on reducing the number of State officials and other tasks such as wage reform and regulations on civil servant recruitment and State officials classification as part of efforts to enhance the quality of civil servants and Government operations, he said at a press briefing in Hanoi on October 1.

Concerning claims that 17 trillion VND (762 million USD) was used each year on wages for the 30 percent of civil servants not competent enough to carry out their duties, Tuan said that the information was incorrect.

He affirmed that there was not any official survey showing that 30 percent of State officials were incompetent. He added that civil servants had made great contributions to Vietnam’s achievements.

On the ministry’s responsibility in proposing the appointment of Trinh Xuan Thanh as Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Hau Giang province, who was found accountable for massive losses at a major State-owned oil company he chaired, and was censured for illegally using a Government licence plate on his private car, Deputy Minister Tuan said the ministry built plans and set up a task force to work with relevant agencies to inspect the responsibilities of individuals or groups involved in Thanh’s crimes.

Results of the inspection will be publicised, he said.

Regarding accusations of nepotism by officials in appointing relatives to positions of power in some localities, Deputy Head of the ministry’s Department of Civil Servants Truong Hai Long said the ministry was amending regulations on appointing State officials.

He said the ministry proposed the Politburo issue regulations and review mechanisms to control the use of power by authorities and strictly handle those violating Party discipline and State laws.

The ministry had built a master plan on renewing methods to choose management leaders that was approved by the Politburo, he said.-VNA