At a Q&A session on November 9, Tan answered questions related to commune and district mergers, simplification of degrees and certificates, and restructuring of the apparatus and streamlining the workforce in state agencies.

Minister of Home Affairs Le Vinh Tan

In reply to a question raised by Tran Dinh Gia, a National Assembly deputy from Ha Tinh on administrative unit merger, Tan said the National Assembly’s Standing Committee in the last eight months has issued plans to restructure communes and districts of 43 out of 45 provinces/cities. Meanwhile, the restructuring plans of Kien Giang province and HCM City will be approved this month.

To date, the re-arrangement of administrative units for 2019-2021 has been basically completed. The Ministry of Home Affairs will give advice to the government on whether to continue the re-arrangement in the time to come after a review.

The Resolution 18 of the sixth Central Conference did not mention the re-arrangement of administrative units at the provincial level, so the re-arrangement is not mentioned in the National Assembly’s resolution.

Tan said some difficulties have arisen during the re-arrangement process, including treatment of redundant civil servants. The ministry has issued a document guiding the treatment.

Regarding the restructuring of the units within agencies, Tan said 12 organizations have been cut at the department level, while the number of units in authorities/agencies has increased by seven. At the general directorate level, the number organizations has decreased by four.

As for the Ministry of Public Security, six general directorates have been cut, but two new general directorates have been established, namely the General Directorate of Market Management and General Directorate of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.

At the provincial level, the number of specialized agencies has been reduced by five and number of administrative organizations by 12. At the division level, 973 units have been cut, while the figure is 126 at sub-department. At the district level, 294 administrative units have been cut.

Tan said in implementing the Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles in the Law on Public Employees and Officials, government decrees have cut down some procedures in civil servant recruitment and promotion.

The people who graduate from schools whose outcome standards include foreign language and informatics standards, won’t have to submit foreign language and informatics certificates.

The ministry is amending some requirements on civil servants when getting promotions. Certificates on skills won’t be required, but there will only be requirements on capability of using IT and foreign languages, to be shown in tests on the computer, while no certificate will be required. 

Tran Thuong

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