Concerns about the authority to establish public service units in communes
The Ha Tinh Department of Home Affairs said that due to the lack of specific instructions from the Central Government, the arrangement of public service units after the removal of district level from July 1, 2025 will face some difficulties; each province will implement differently, leading to a lack of unity and synchronization.
Most worryingly, the establishment of a commune-level public service unit to provide basic and weak public services has not yet had specific instructions.
Regarding this issue, Mr. Phan Trung Tuan - Director of the Department of Local Government, Ministry of Home Affairs answered at the Conference on the Pre-Summary of the first 6 months of the year recently organized by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Mr. Tuan said that some localities are still facing difficulties in implementing regulations related to the authority to establish professional agencies and other administrative organizations at the commune level; public service units at the commune level; or the authority to appoint, dismiss, and remove from the positions of heads and deputy heads of public service units.
Mr. Tuan analyzed that the main reason is the lack of consistency between the provisions of the Law on Organization of Local Government and the Government's decrees on decentralization, delegation of authority and determination of authority.
For example, Decrees 142 and 143 issued by the Ministry of Education and Training advising the Government in June 2025 have different provisions compared to the Law on Organization of Local Government. In which, the authority to establish public service units belongs to the People's Council at the commune level, but the Decree on the authority to appoint the Chairman of the People's Committee at the commune level.
"The Ministry of Home Affairs is coordinating with ministries and branches to provide specific guidance on this issue. In the field of education and training, the Ministry of Education and Training has also issued Document No. 4247 to provide specific guidance, ensuring compliance with the Law on Organization of Local Government" - Mr. Tuan said.
No increase in the number of people receiving salaries from the budget
Meanwhile, Mr. Vu Hai Nam - Director of the Department of Organization and Border Guard (Ministry of Home Affairs) informed that regarding the organization of public service units, in the process of rearranging according to the 2-level local government model, basically district-level public service units are transferred to commune level. Only a few public service units with regional management characteristics have been transferred to the provincial level.
Mr. Nam cited that in the education sector, facilities such as kindergartens and primary schools are currently organized at the commune level.
For the health sector, the Ministry of Health previously issued Circular 07 guiding the model of organizing health stations. In the future, if the Ministry of Health amends Circular 07, the model of health stations also needs to be recalculated in accordance with the spirit of Directive 35 - that is, based on population size, practical service needs, not necessarily organized according to commune-level administrative units.
Mr. Nam said that if we organize a model of 126 health stations like Hanoi, it is also a way. With the characteristics of some communes in Hanoi having large scale and high demand for health care, the city has chosen a model of health stations with the same capacity as health centers in other provinces and cities.
"This is also a way to improve operational efficiency. However, if it is considered a new public service unit, it must ensure that the number of people receiving salaries from the budget does not increase. We acknowledge and will coordinate with the Ministry of Health to have instructions in an open, flexible direction, suitable for the characteristics of each locality" - Mr. Nam suggested.
With the public service unit being a project management board, in principle, the management boards all operate under an autonomous mechanism, at any level they are autonomous.
However, it is necessary to specifically calculate the workload and resources for decentralization of investment management to organize effectively. If the resources are not enough, the locality can choose a regional or specialized model.
This issue has been clearly regulated by the Construction Law and the implementing guidelines of the Ministry of Construction, and localities can proactively choose.
