Vietnam is wasting trillions of VND paying 700,000 civil servants who are barely working, according to the National Assembly Committee on Social Affairs.

During the conference about basic wages and improvement for civil servants on October 12, Bui Sy Loi, deputy head of the National Assembly Committee on Social Affairs said the low monthly basic wage of VND1.21m was still higher than deserved for the productivity of most civil servants.

According to Loi, about 30% of state employees can barely do their work. This means government is wasting VND17trn (USD762m) to pay 700,000 useless employees annually.

A report from the International Labour Organisation showed that Vietnam has the lowest productivity in Asia - Pacific.

Loi suggested re-organising administration and cutting staff to improve efficiency and save wages.

Pham Chi Lan, member of the Advisory Group of the Vietnam National Assembly’s Economic Commission, said she had talked with a former minister about this problem. She said only a third of the officials worked hard. Another third were only a burden on other people while the remainder do nothing.

She also agreed that government needs to cut staff to deal with cumbersome bureaucracy or else they will never reach a satisfying conclusion no matter how much the basic wage was raised.

Le Hong Huyen, head of Department of Social Affairs, under the Central Economic Committee, said the low basic wages did fail to cover basic needs or encourage civil servants to work. 

"Good products don't have cheap prices so in order to make civil servants work harder, their salaries must be more appropriate," he said.

From 2008 to 2016, the basic wages were increased from VND540,000 to VND1.21m. Despite the low wages, Huyen said most civil servants have their own houses and many could even afford to buy cars. This meant they all have unknown outside incomes that are not included in personal income taxes, he said.

Dtinews