Removing human resource bottlenecks to better serve communes

Work overload

After more than 1 month of operation, the Go Vap Ward Public Administration Service Center, Ho Chi Minh City is always bustling with people coming to do administrative procedures. The staff and civil servants on duty at 15 reception counters, processing documents for people are always busy guiding, receiving, processing and returning results. This is also where the land registration office branch is located, so every day the center receives from 600-800 documents of all kinds. The large workload puts a lot of pressure on the staff and civil servants.

Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh, Deputy Director of the Go Vap Ward Public Administration Service Center, said that due to the large workload, officials and civil servants have almost no time for lunch break, and even work until 8 p.m. According to Mr. Thanh, every day, there are many people coming to do administrative procedures, sometimes at noon there are still people submitting documents, so the ward civil servants have to divide shifts to go for lunch. In the evening, the civil servants work overtime to digitize and edit documents received and processed during the day, because during office hours, civil servants focus on guiding and processing documents for people.

Similarly, the Public Administration Service Center of Hoa Hung Ward, Ho Chi Minh City received nearly 2,700 administrative procedure files in July, mainly certified copies - accounting for more than 60%. In addition to the pressure on the number of files, the Public Administration Service Center and the headquarters of the Ward People's Committee are located in two different places, making the operation process difficult, especially for files that require the Chairman or Vice Chairman of the People's Committee to sign and certify.

"The Standing Committee of the People's Committee still has to run back and forth to sign, while the Public Administration Service Center has its own seal, its own account, and a Deputy Director in charge, but has not been authorized to sign and certify," the leader of the People's Committee of Hoa Hung ward shared.

Not only Go Vap ward, Hoa Hung ward, work pressure and shortcomings after the organization arrangement still exist in many localities. In Binh Tan ward, the Chairman of the ward People's Committee said that in the past time, tasks were still handled smoothly and thoroughly. However, to make the work faster, with better quality and for officers and civil servants of departments to have the conditions to spend time researching and proposing initiatives and breakthrough solutions, the locality really needs to add a deputy for the departments.

Previously, the district level had up to 12 specialized departments, but now at the ward level there are only 3 focal points: the Office of the People's Council - People's Committee, the Department of Culture - Society and the Department of Economics - Urban Infrastructure. However, each unit currently has only 1 deputy. With the great pressure of work, one staff member cannot "shoulder" it all. The problem is not only a lack of people, but also a lack of appropriate decentralization to increase initiative and flexibility in operating the apparatus at the grassroots level.

Arrange staffing and structure suitable to locality

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Home Affairs, according to current regulations on the functions and tasks of commune-level professional departments, the workload is increasing in both breadth and depth, covering many areas such as economics, culture, society, urban management, environmental resources, social security, and handling administrative procedures for people and businesses... This requires civil servants to have extensive professional knowledge, comprehensive skills and the ability to handle situations flexibly.

However, with the current number of positions temporarily assigned to commune-level professional departments, on average each civil servant must be in charge of 4-9 specific tasks, each specific task has many detailed work contents with a large volume. This leads to difficulties in the process of performing tasks, such as work overload, limitations in ensuring work quality and progress, shortage of reserve resources, limitations in management, operation and consulting.

Therefore, the Department of Home Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City recommends that the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City assign agencies and units to review, research and advise on proposals to amend and supplement Resolution No. 98/2023/QH15 of the National Assembly on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Ho Chi Minh City to suit the 2-level local government model. In particular, it is proposed to increase the number of Vice Chairmen of the People's Committees of wards, communes and special zones; organize the apparatus of the People's Committees of wards, communes and special zones; assign staffing in accordance with the current reality of the city.

The difficulty of having a small number of cadres and civil servants compared to the tasks they are undertaking at the commune level does not only occur in Ho Chi Minh City but also in many other localities.

At the conference to review the work in the first 6 months of the year and deploy key tasks for the last 6 months of 2025, organized by the Ministry of Home Affairs on July 25, the leader of the Hanoi Department of Home Affairs proposed to allow some large-scale localities with specific development characteristics to establish an additional specialized department at the commune level. Because in wards and communes with large populations, many fields such as finance, economy, agriculture, transportation, construction, etc. are very diverse, it is difficult for a single department head to have the capacity to cover them all. Hanoi proposed that the Ministry of Home Affairs allow special localities to separate more specialized departments, such as separating the Finance - Planning Department to reduce pressure on the staff in charge, while creating conditions to promote the strengths of each locality.

In a recent report sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Department of Home Affairs of Lai Chau province requested ministries and branches to promptly review and advise the Government to amend the contents that are still inadequate, not specific, and not consistent in the decrees on decentralization, delegation of authority, and division of authority in the fields of state management under its management authority. In particular, it recommended that the Steering Committee for the arrangement of administrative units at all levels and the construction of a 2-level local government organization model of the Government consider regulations to increase the staffing framework for the commune level to ensure the implementation of assigned tasks.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/go-nut-that-nhan-luc-de-cap-xa-phuc-vu-tot-hon-post807903.html