Proposal for a comprehensive assessment of salaries and allowances for commune-level cadres and civil servants

In the afternoon of April 20, continuing the First Session, the National Assembly discussed in the hall about the socio-economic development plan.

Delegate Ha Sy Huan (Thai Nguyen Delegation) said that after one year of implementation, it can be affirmed that the new government model has met the requirements of modern, professional local governance and served the people well.

From local practice, delegates highly agreed with the Government's direction on effectively utilizing the function of using existing working headquarters, minimizing the construction of new headquarters and administrative centers.

However, through review at the local level, there are still many communes in mountainous areas after merging from 2 to 3 administrative units, the arrangement of workplaces is not really effective.

Currently, there are commune headquarters of the Party Committee, People's Council, and People's Committee arranged in 2 to 3 working places more than 10km apart. Therefore, it is proposed that the Government have a separate and specific mechanism for communes in mountainous areas to be arranged to build working headquarters in accordance with planning, ensuring that the apparatus system operates more effectively," the delegate proposed.

Also according to the delegate from the Thai Nguyen delegation, after the end of the district-level government, the team of commune-level civil servants is the leading force in implementing the policy of promoting decentralization and delegation of power to grassroots governments.

The commune level is the level that directly solves work for the people, all decisions directly affect the rights and interests of the people. Commune-level civil servants not only work according to a specialized model in one field but also switch to multi-field, multi-task. This has increased considerable pressure on legal responsibility requiring civil servants and leaders to meet comprehensive professional capacity.

However, the delegate stated that the actual level of position allowances for commune-level cadres and civil servants is still low, not commensurate with the nature of their work and is quite far from the level of allowances for provincial-level management civil servants.

For example, the head of the commune or ward level department receives an allowance of 0.25, the deputy head of the department receives 0.15. For the provincial level, the head of the department receives an allowance of 0.5, and the deputy head of the department receives 0.3 times the base salary.

Therefore, the delegate proposed that the Government have a comprehensive assessment of the regime of salary and allowance policies for commune and ward-level cadres and civil servants and soon have synchronous solutions for them to feel secure in their work, contributing to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the grassroots government's operations in the coming period.

Delegate To Ai Vang (Can Tho Delegation) said that, in the face of development requirements, the Government is required to promote decentralization, delegation of power, and assignment of responsibilities.

The female delegate said that if there is no protection mechanism, local officials, even central officials will not dare to do, dare not decide, and require them to implement correctly according to procedures and regulations, leading to delays compared to breakthrough requirements, towards the goal of double-digit growth.

The delegate clearly stated that this is not condoning violations, but creating a safe space for officials to dare to dedicate themselves to the people and the country.

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