Resolution 09 of the Politburo has just been issued, allowing Ho Chi Minh City to increase a maximum of 20% of the total staff, equivalent to about 14,000 civil servants and 25,000 public employees.
Currently, the city is rearranging the team of non-specialized workers at the commune level. Among about 5,017 people, there are about 995 people who can become civil servants and public employees.
About 408 information technology professionals will be re-signed contracts in the spirit of Resolution 57.
Notably, Mr. Tran Luu Quang - Member of the Politburo, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, noted that the re-recruitment of this team must be carried out carefully, choosing the right capable people, avoiding the situation of "trusting".
It can be said that the fact that Ho Chi Minh City is allowed to increase a maximum of about 14,000 civil servants and 25,000 public employees, along with the review of more than 5,000 non-specialized workers at the commune level, of which nearly 1,000 people can become civil servants and public employees, is a very large-scale public personnel restructuring.
And in every restructuring phase, the most important story is not only how many payrolls increase or decrease, but who to choose to put into the new apparatus. Because the reality over the years shows that many places still have recruitment thinking based on relationships, according to "mechanisms", or according to introductions, entrusting more than based on actual capacity.
If this continues to repeat in the current reform phase, no matter how streamlined the apparatus is, it will be difficult to create real effectiveness.
Local authorities at 2 levels currently set very different requirements than before. The commune and ward levels are no longer just doing administrative work but are increasingly having to solve many tasks related to digital transformation, online public services, population data, urban management and serving people in the digital environment.
In other words, the new apparatus needs truly talented people who can truly do the job. The fact that Ho Chi Minh City leaders support transparent exams and tests and open opportunities for good students and professionals to participate in the public service system is the right and positive direction.
Of course, combating "trust" has never been an easy story. And to have an administrative apparatus without any civil servants of the "trusted" type to exist is also not easy.
Because "trusting" does not only come from personal interests but sometimes also stems from the psychology of leniency, acquaintances or evaluation mechanisms that are not really transparent.
But at least, the fact that Ho Chi Minh City leaders publicly emphasize the requirement to recruit the right people, choose the right capacity, resist "trusting" and "forcing" the head to be responsible for the recruitment results, shows that the current organizational reform is starting to go deeper into the core part, especially human quality.
And that is the decisive factor for the true effectiveness of the 2-level local government model.
