Vietnam city to cut state employees by 11,600
HANOI - Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City last Saturday began
slashing their staff under a long-term scheme of streamlining
administrative bureaucracy.
The programme will see the number of employees at the city's
administrative agencies slashed by an estimated 11,600, according
head of the municipal Staff Organisation Commission (SOC) Bui Thien
Tich.
Those remaining will be expected to raise their efficiency to meet
the city's development requirements, he added.
Tich said the reform programme would involve several steps.
Importantly, relevant authorities will specify the
responsibilities, jurisdictions and functions of administrative
bodies.
Following this, these institutions will be reorganised and pared
down to enable them to be responsible for several industries and
areas simultaneously. Administrative procedures will be simplified
and working practices improved.
"These moves are intended to help draw up a list of State employees
to be kept on the payroll. It will also allow relevant authorities
to calculate the amount of money needed to maintain the operation
of these bodies," Tich said.
According to this staff reduction programme, he said, the number of
departments and agencies run by the municipal People's Committee
will remain at 21, but their responsibilities will be tailored to
the rapid changes underway in the city.
The municipal-level administration bureaucracy will also have only
12 subordinate organisations and five non-business related agencies.
Meanwhile, at district-level, administrations will each have the
number of their offices reduced to 13 before being given more
clearly specified duties.
The skills of administrative officials will also be honed in order
to operate the administrative apparatus more effectively.
Tich emphasised that the planned staff cuts will focus on
unqualified administrative workers. Redundant personnel in
municipal-level administration agencies could also lose their jobs
or be moved to other sectors.
"Coupled with the staff cuts, the programme deals with some
policies to assist workers affected by the cuts," he said.
The city will give agencies and enterprises more responsibility in
controlling their own payroll to retain the staff after the cut
back.
It will also strive to increase public employees' understanding of
the reform programme as well as their own sense of responsibility
and discipline.
HCM City now has more than 160,000 State employees, of which about
80,000 are involved in non-business related and administrative
sectors. Redundant personnel makes up a significant proportion of
the figure.
Meanwhile, up to 29 duties being taken up by departments and
agencies of the city's bureaucratic apparatus have been found to be
overlapping while 14 others were deemed too vague.
These limitations are considered a drain on the State budget and
the cause of time consuming red tape.
Some state offices in HCM City have already cut their staff
numbers, axing excess employees in the agriculture, forestry,
fishing, trading, hotel, communications, science and research
departments.
In particular, the number of public employees at social security
offices has fallen 7 per cent, while hospitality-related
enterprises have reduced staff by 4.5 per cent. Trading businesses
have saved a bundle by reducing their staff numbers by nearly 3 per
cent.
Vietnam News Agency - December 19, 2001.
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