Speaking at the 6th session of the 15th National Assembly at the end of 2023, President Vo Van Thuong said: “Nowadays, when people encounter problems, they immediately think about whether they know anyone or not. That way of thinking is dead, it reflects negatively on society. When people are in trouble, they should immediately think about the government, the committee, and the law.” Previously, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra also said that there is currently a situation where a large number of cadres, civil servants, and public employees are working half-heartedly, pushing things around, avoiding, lacking responsibility, and fearing mistakes in performing their duties.

In Binh Thuan, the responsibility of performing public duties to serve the people and businesses was also mentioned many times by Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Duong Van An, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Hoai Anh and Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Doan Anh Dung in meetings and directive documents for all cadres, civil servants and public employees performing public duties in departments, branches and localities of the province. Provincial leaders identified the shortcomings when affirming that there were a number of cadres who were afraid of making mistakes, did not dare to do things, did not do things wholeheartedly, and were indifferent to the difficulties and hardships of the people and businesses. That led to work stagnation, affecting the development of the province and the people's trust in cadres, civil servants and public employees in the State administrative system, and furthermore, the trust and prestige in the leadership of the Party.

The story of officials who are afraid of making mistakes, shirking, avoiding, afraid of responsibility, harassing, demanding, and extorting, leading to sluggishness in solving work for people and businesses is not new. But never before has this mentality become a "phenomenon" that appears so much, with factors spreading from the central to local levels and in many sectors and fields like today. In addition to officials who are afraid of violating the law and do not dare to do it, there are also officials who do not want to do it because there is no benefit. This is a distorted perception and thinking, not to mention a degradation of political ideology for those who perform public duties.

In fact, the above phenomenon partly stems from the work of building and rectifying the Party and a clean and strong political system that our Party is determined to carry out. In that rectification, there is a campaign to prevent and combat corruption that is being promoted, resolutely, without forbidden areas, without exceptions, with a series of officials from the central to local levels being arrested for corruption. For a long time, more or less among officials, civil servants, and public employees working in the State apparatus, there has been a thought that in addition to receiving salary, there must be additional "illegal" payments, percentages, and allowances in handling work. Therefore, even though the work is difficult, or the regulations are unclear or overlapping, efforts are made to remove or exploit loopholes, even disregarding mistakes for the sake of group interests... Now that the campaign to prevent and combat corruption is being carried out resolutely, with strict control, leading to no longer being or being less beneficial, many officials, civil servants, and public employees are afraid of making mistakes and being afraid of responsibility. This negative thinking directly affects work progress, because leaders speed up drastically while subordinates sometimes "sit still".

The cause of the above situation also comes from objective factors when our current institutions, policies and regulations are still overlapping, contradictory, and no longer suitable for reality, leading to many barriers and obstacles in the implementation of public duties, leading to inability, delay or pushing. Among these, we must mention the fields of land, investment, budget finance, public investment...

To address the situation of "officials would rather stand before a disciplinary council than stand before a trial council", along with perfecting the institutional system, promoting decentralization, delegation, and authorization, as well as reviewing and abolishing inappropriate regulations, the Government also issued Decree No. 73/2023/ND-CP dated September 29, 2023 on encouraging and protecting dynamic, creative, daring, and responsible officials. It encourages bold proposals for innovation, removing and resolving bottlenecks and bottlenecks in mechanisms and policies that have not been stipulated in legal documents. The Decree is considered a "medicine" to cure the fear of mistakes and responsibility, including officials who work for the common good, have pure motives, and if there are mistakes, they may not be held responsible and measures to protect officials will be applied. In parallel with the above policies, the implementation of the policy on salary reform for civil servants and public employees, applied from July 1, 2024, is also considered a "lever" to promote increased labor productivity, improve capacity, responsibility, work efficiency and the spirit of contribution and dedication of officials to match the salary received...

It can be seen that the cadres, civil servants and public employees are the entities that carry out the functions and tasks of the State entrusted by the people. This is the core and the factor that ensures that the public service is carried out effectively and efficiently, serving the interests of the State, the people and society. Therefore, each cadre, civil servant and public employee needs to correctly identify their position, role and responsibility, in order to wholeheartedly serve, improve the quality of life, the satisfaction of the people, and contribute to the construction and development of the homeland and the country.

Officials work for the common good, have pure motives, if there are mistakes, they may not be held responsible and measures will be applied to protect the officials.