Lê Vĩnh Tân, Minister of Interior. — Photo nld.com.vn

Lê Vĩnh Tân, Minister of Interior, talks to the newspaper Tiền Phong (Vanguard) about the Party’s recent resolution on streamlining the government payroll to increase efficiency.

The recently concluded the 6^th Plenum of the Party Central Committee has issued a resolution reiterating the country’s determination to continue its renewal process and vowing to improve efficiency. What do you think ministries and localities will do to turn the resolution into reality?

One of the two most important issues discussed at the 6^th Plenum of the Party Central Committee was how to reform the national institutional to improve its value and legal efficacy.

Besides, we also need great political determination from all offices and organisations, particularly a high sense of responsibility from top leaders. In addition, we also need a rather comprehensive institution, coupled with strong political will and a sense of responsibility from key leaders.

The road map laid out in the Party Central Committee’s resolution is rather clear, particularly with regard to tasks and missions in the near future, including the work of decentralisation between the central and local governments so that the local government will be given more opportunities to perform their assigned missions at their best.

However, what I want to emphasis here is that this time the Party Central Committee didn’t impose a rigid frame work for all localities as was used in the past. It is up to the local authorities to develop their own road map which is suitable to their conditions.

I’m confident that with such open guidelines, each city and province will be able to adjust to make it suitable to their needs. Of course, the Central Government will issue an organisational framework for cities and provinces to implement their assigned missions. And based on that document, the city/provincial authorities will then develop their detailed plans, suitable for local conditions and needs.

Will you please explain the decision to merge the Provincial People’s Council Office, the Provincial National Assembly Deputies’ Office and the Provincial People Committee Office into one office?

I should say that the merging here only means that the three offices will merge into a big office with the three separate missions, in accordance to their assigned duties. But they will share supporting staff like the cashiers, drivers or clerks.

Will you please explain a bit more about the proposal on work positions wherein several offices will be merged into one office?

There are two key tasks to complete when several offices are merged into one.

First, we will need to define the criteria for the staff’s competency. This is the most challenging task.

Second, we will need to develop a description for each work position.

These two tasks are the hardest, but if they are properly described, they will become a key factor ensuring success for the plan. This is the weakest point in all Vietnamese offices.

The other point I want to mention here is the work of staff performance evaluations. If we do this work regularly, it will become an effective tool for both the employers and employees to evaluate their year-end work performance. This is a good foundation for the management board to consider which staff should be laid off.

The policy on payroll cuts has been implemented for many years, but the payrolls keep growing. Do you have any comment on this problem?

In my opinion, the public staffing levels should be established with three goals in mind: to streamline payrolls; to create the strongest internal structure (this is a key element) and to ensure a clear job description for each position.

This issue will be included in the agenda of the 7^th Plenum of the Party Central Committee.— VNS