The Treasury's refusal to pay the above salary is based on Decree 111/2022/ND-CP of the Government, but it has inadvertently caused difficulties for the operations of a number of agencies and units and raised concerns among the public. What is the cause of this situation and what is the solution to resolve it?

Inadequacies from practice

Decree No. 111/2022/ND-CP of the Government issued on December 30, 2022, effective from February 22, 2023 (referred to as Decree 111), replaces Decree 68/2000/ND-CP (referred to as Decree 68) and Decree 161/2018/ND-CP (referred to as Decree 161) regulating contracts for certain types of work in administrative agencies and public service units.

However, due to the complicated situation of signing labor contracts at public service units and administrative agencies over the years, the Ministry of Home Affairs has instructed localities to take some time to review and convert to signing contracts according to Decree 111. In Nghe An, from the beginning of 2024, the Treasury system began to control expenditures according to Decree 111, so problems also began to arise.

For example, the contract workers at the Nghe An Fisheries and Fisheries Control Department as well as some other units have been refused salary payments by the Treasury for the past few months. Regarding this issue, Mr. Bui Dinh Sang - Chief Inspector of the Department of Home Affairs said that in reality, there are many reasons, including the situation where public agencies and units sign labor contracts in a rather chaotic manner. Previously, the Department of Home Affairs had presided over the inspection and review at a number of units, thereby recommending the Provincial People's Committee to direct the review and liquidation of contracts signed in violation of regulations to end this situation.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tran Chau Thanh - Head of the Fisheries Inspection and Control Department, Department of Fisheries - Fisheries Control, who has more than 20 years of experience on fisheries control vessels, said: The regulations on standards for fisheries control workers on ships are not suitable, because the civil servants and public employees currently working for the Department of Fisheries - Fisheries Control are unlikely to have the health conditions to work on ships for long periods at sea. The requirement for working on ships is to first ensure personal safety in order to complete the task of inspection and control at sea... Currently, the whole country as well as Nghe An are strengthening inspection against IUU fishing, protecting aquatic resources and removing the EC yellow card, but it is very regrettable that fisheries control vessels have to stay ashore due to lack of labor.

This is a difficult situation because previously, according to Decree 68 and Decree 161 of the Government on signing labor contracts at administrative agencies and public service units, the conditions were quite open, not clearly stating which agencies and units were allowed to sign labor contracts for what work, but now according to Decree 111, the regulations are stricter when it clearly states: Administrative agencies and public service units are not allowed to sign contracts to do professional work, except in cases that have been prescribed.

Studying the reality at administrative agencies and public service units from 2022 onwards, although there are regulations that when an agency or unit wants to recruit and sign a labor contract, it must report to the governing agency and when approved by the competent authority, it can sign and arrange a source for salary payment. However, in reality, due to the increasing workload and the long-term lack of staffing, most units have "broken the barrier" and signed labor contracts on their own.

Due to budget constraints, administrative agencies only sign labor contracts for supporting and service jobs such as driving, janitors, etc. (also known as Contract 68), which is now relatively easy to convert according to Decree 111. However, public service units, due to the large number of labor contracts signed, also do specialized work, are more difficult to resolve and remove. For example, the education sector signs contracts with classroom teachers, the transportation sector signs contracts with traffic inspectors; investment project management boards of departments, branches and district-level People's Committees sign labor contracts for jobs related to construction supervision and management, etc.

A long-time staff member of the Department of Education and Training of Quynh Luu district shared: Previously, the revenue and expenditure at administrative agencies and public service units were not clear, although the salary according to the contract was not high, the units were still balanced so there were no complications. However, currently, due to increasingly tight revenue and expenditure, the units do not have funds to pay salaries and the shortcomings and limitations are gradually revealed.

Therefore, like many other localities, after many years of not being able to supplement the quota for recruiting new teachers, Quynh Luu district, in order to meet the teaching requirements, since 2010, Quynh Luu district, like many other localities, has signed contracts with teachers to teach and teach classes according to the school year and summer without pay. On the other hand, because Decree 68 and Decree 161 of the Government have not yet clearly regulated, many localities also sign labor contracts for the positions of clerks, treasurers, and librarians in schools.

The refusal of the Quynh Luu State Treasury to pay the salaries of 9 contract teachers in early 2024, as well as the refusal of some district and city State Treasuries to pay the regime for some school officials and teachers on secondment, has caused public concern. After reviewing, at the end of February 2024, the Department of Education and Training sent a document to the Provincial People's Committee; at the same time, the review showed that the whole province currently has more than 340 teachers and school officials signed contracts under the above category.

Talking to us, the representative of the Department of Home Affairs added: Up to this point, while basically administrative agencies and public service units under provincial departments and branches have reviewed and basically converted cases of signing contracts under Decree 68 and Decree 161 to signing contracts under Decree 111, some public service units have not yet completed due to problems.

In fact, although according to Decree 111, administrative agencies and public service units are not allowed to sign labor contracts to perform specialized work, Article 4 of this Decree also clearly stipulates that agencies and service units subject to the financial autonomy mechanism under Decree 60/2021 issued on June 21, 2021 are still allowed to sign contracts to perform specialized work. According to this regulation, it can be understood that revenue-generating service units such as hospitals, fishing port management boards, etc. can pay salaries to employees from their own revenue sources and not through the State Treasury, so there are currently no problems.

Review to find solutions?

To resolve the problems of salary payment for teachers who signed contracts outside the quota assigned by the Provincial People's Committee, immediately after a number of contract teachers in Vinh City and Quynh Luu District had their salaries suspended, from mid-January 2024, the Provincial State Treasury, due to the reaction of the units, sent a document to the Provincial People's Committee. By early March 2024, the Department of Education and Training also sent a document to the Department of Home Affairs and reported to the Provincial People's Committee on the above incident to ask for direction on handling.

Accordingly, on March 8, 2024, the Provincial People's Committee issued Document No. 1744/UBND-TH to provincial departments, branches and sectors; People's Committees of districts, cities and towns and public service units under the Provincial People's Committee, giving opinions on contracts for support and service implementation and contracts for performing professional and technical work in public service units when implementing Decree 111 in practice.

Pursuant to Document No. 1744/UBND-TH, the Department of Home Affairs shall preside over and coordinate with the Department of Finance, the State Treasury and relevant departments and branches to advise the Provincial People's Committee to submit a plan to handle and resolve difficulties and obstacles regarding contracts for the performance of professional work in public service units; at the same time, request departments and branches, People's Committees of districts, cities and towns to report on difficulties related to contract signing to the Department of Home Affairs for synthesis.

According to Mr. Pham Van Luong - Head of the Civil Service Department, Department of Home Affairs, to completely resolve cases arising from the signing of contracts outside the quota and regulations such as the case of 9 teachers in Quynh Luu or 10 fisheries inspectors at the Department of Fisheries - Nghe An Fisheries Inspectorate leading to the refusal of salary payment by the State Treasury, units need to properly implement Decree 111. That is, only support and service contracts can be signed according to the provisions in Article 4) and only public service units subject to the expenditure allocation can sign contracts to do specialized work (Article 9); at the same time, direct consideration and review to convert to signing contracts according to Decree 111 of the Government.

Regarding the arising problems related to contracts left over from previous periods, based on the direction of the Provincial People's Committee, the Department of Home Affairs will work with relevant units to specifically review and advise on solutions. Currently, although the deadline for submitting the response report of the Provincial People's Committee has expired (March 15), only a few departments, localities and units have sent it, so the Department of Home Affairs has not been able to synthesize it. In the near future, implementing the direction of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, the Department will have a working session with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, relevant departments to review and agree on a plan to submit to the Provincial People's Committee for resolution and solution.

Mr. Pham Van Luong - Head of Civil Servants Department, Department of Home Affairs