Socialist Republic of Vietnam

(Viet Nam Ne­ws, February 19, 2003)

HA NOI — Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has described a further devolution of power to the local administration as a cornerstone of the current process of reorganising the administrative system.

Speaking at an Interior Affairs Ministry conference on Monday in Ha Noi, he told officials that decentralisation of power to the provincial level down to the grassroots was an urgent and important task at the moment.

He named the end of this year the deadline for the ministry to spell out the organisation and powers of the village and ward administrative apparatus.

"Everything the grassroots level authorities need to fulfil people’s aspirations and make things more convenient for business should be given to them provided State regulations are upheld," Khai said.

He told the conference that measures to decentralise power to make the lower levels more dynamic demanded clear identification of functions exclusively for the central government and for local administrations.

Certain tasks like building houses or small trade could be carried out by businesses provided local administrations draw up a legal framework and supervise their implementation, he said.

The Prime Minister called on the Interior Affairs Ministry to help the Government devise measures to fulfil the resolutions adopted by the seventh plenum of the Party Central Committee on national unity and religious affairs.

Only that way could the ministry help strengthen the link between the people, Party and administration, he said.

"This is really the bedrock of durable political stability, social order and national security," Khai added.

He told the meet that efforts were needed to noticeably improve the ethical and professional standards of public officials. He urged training for them in administrative management to abet the process.

He said further that a special training programme, including the learning of ethnic minority languages, should be devised to train village cadres in remote rural areas and in mountainous regions inhabited by ethnic groups.

Khai said that a key task for the ministry was reforming policies concerning administrative costs, salaries and fringe benefits to ensure public servants were dedicated in their jobs.

This was essential to encourage qualified and dedicated cadres to work harder, while rectifying a situation where both workers putting their best efforts and time markers got the same incomes, which were given on an egalitarian basis, Khai said.

He said the ministry also needed to strengthen discipline in the administrative apparatus while absolutely minimising red tape, corruption and wastefulness among public officials and employees.

He said enhancing administrative discipline was "urgent" and should dovetail with promoting democracy as well as increasing people’s role in inspecting the managerial activities of the administrators.

"I recommend that the imminent amending of the ordinance on cadres and public employees should take into account these issues as an important reference in building our administrative work regulations," PM Khai said.

He urged the ministry to step up its advisory function in assisting the government in quickly devising and issuing legal documents detailing the functions and organisation of the various ministries and government offices.

Khai wanted the ministry to build a legal framwork governing local administrations in which the functions and responsibilities of the People’s Councils, or the local legislative bodies, and the People’s Committees, the executive, should be specified. — VNS