Unit Leaders Have the Best Insight into Officer Potential

Streamlining Civil Service: A Major Overhaul

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has announced significant cuts across various sectors, impacting five ministries, four governmental agencies, 12 general departments, and a vast number of other organizational units.

Over the past 25 years, civil service exams have served as a method for selecting public workers. While this system aims to enhance the quality of civil servants through rigorous evaluation and oversight, the outcomes fall short of expectations.

Categories of Civil Servants

Civil servants can be segmented into distinct categories:

• Capable Candidates (20-25%): These individuals are hired based on their true abilities as demonstrated in examinations or assessments.
• Financial Influence: Some are recruited after agencies’ leaders receive bribes.
• Connections: Others gain employment due to family ties with influential figures.
• Friendship Links: Finally, some are hired through personal relationships with decision-makers.

While it’s inaccurate to label those in the latter three groups as inherently incapable, their qualifications often do not match those of the top group, who have undergone a competitive evaluation process.

A number of civil servants were already in place long before the introduction of exams in 1998, complicating the process of streamlining the workforce. The challenge lies in dismissing employees from the second, third, and fourth categories, particularly when relationships with powerful individuals shield them from consequences.

Evaluating Performance and Dismissal Strategies

Identifying and making the right decisions about which civil servants to retain or dismiss is essential yet complex. There are various proposed methods for streamlining personnel:

• Voting: A division leader may suggest that members vote on who should be let go. However, this lacks an objective standard.
• Random Selection: This method is deemed inappropriate for making such serious decisions.
• Performance Reviews: Assessing civil servants based on their achievements within the past two years appears logical but may be flawed due to the typically low proportion of underperformers.
• Testing: Implementing a testing requirement for possibly 2 million civil servants poses significant challenges and would require new regulations.

Leadership Responsibilities and Implementation

Party Chief To Lam has repeatedly stressed the importance of reorganizing the civil service, prioritizing talent in recruitment, and eliminating underqualified personnel. Similarly, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh underlines the need to retain qualified, passionate civil servants and emphasizes accountability among organizational leaders.

Division heads hold the insight necessary to assess their staff’s capabilities accurately. However, there’s hesitation among them to enforce strict evaluations due to potential discord within their teams and the implications for performance ratings.

For the streamlining initiative to succeed, clarity regarding the responsibilities of organizational leaders must be established. Without this, achieving meaningful improvements in personnel quality may remain unattainable.

Former Director of the Administrative Reform Department, Ministry of Home Affairs)