Under current regulations, civil servants are only considered for dismissal if they are rated as failing to complete their tasks for two consecutive years.

MHA believes that the “filtration” mechanism is not strong enough, which is one of the reasons behind the existing problem. There are civil servants and public employees who are both redundant and insufficient, while many officers avoid undertaking tasks or passing the buck to each other, and lack initiative or courage to act.

Therefore, in the draft amendment to the Law on Officials and Civil Servants, MHA has designed regulations on assessing and screening officers based on the principle of “entry and exit, promotion and demotion”, rather than “lifetime employment”, using the principle of competition.

This aims to address issues like avoidance of tasks, buck-passing, inertia, the mindset of “once you’re in the government, you’re safe”, or the “lifetime civil servant” situation, and a weak elimination mechanism. This ensures the development of a skilled, high-quality workforce with sufficient virtue and talent to serve the Party, the country, and the people.

The draft law outlines four bases for determining job positions:

First, the functions, tasks, authority, and organizational structure of the agency, organization, or unit.

Second, the complexity, nature, characteristics, and scale of activities; the scope and target audience served; and the professional management processes as stipulated by specialized laws.

Third, the level of office modernization, equipment, working tools, application of information technology, and digital transformation.

Fourth, in addition to the above, local agencies and organizations are arranged based on geographic location; the nature, scale, and structure of the population; the pace of economic development and urbanization; the socio-economic development strategy; and the local security and order situation.

Based on these criteria, the agency or organization managing civil servants will issue regulations on the methods and content of inspections and assessments to evaluate and assign civil servants to job positions that match their abilities and qualifications.

At the same time, the draft proposes making job positions the centerpiece of managing and utilizing officials and civil servants. As a result, every step in personnel management—recruitment, training, promotion, appointment, rotation, reassignment, and evaluation—will be revamped to be practical, focusing on “finding the right person for the job” and assessing based on measurable outcomes.

Additionally, MHA proposes adding regulations to distinguish between job positions that require recruitment and those that can be filled through contracts, creating flexibility in using external human resources.

The amended Law on Officials and Civil Servants, consisting of 47 articles, has been put forward for public feedback to finalize the draft for submission to the National Assembly at its 9th session.

Thu Hang