Leading a National Assembly delegation supervising the administrative reforms from 2011-2016 to work with the Government on May 27, NA Deputy Chairman Uong Chu Luu said that work to reduce the number of people on the State payroll had been “very limited”.
“The statistics say that it (number of public servants) is not decreasing,” he said.
The number of public servants nationwide was more than 3.56 million by December 31, 2015, and climbed to more than 3.57 million by February 1 this year.
Government officials’ wages also expanded by VND5 trillion (US$222.2 million) in one year, from VND405 trillion in 2015 to VND410 trillion in 2016, Luu said.
Home Affairs Minister Le Vinh Tan, on behalf of the Government, explained that new administrative duties and establishing new district and communal units resulted in the increase.
He also noted that 11 localities employed more than the quotas given by the ministry, resulting in a total of 7,951 extra officers by December 2016. The localities included Hanoi, HCM City, Da Nang, Hai Duong, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Binh Thuan, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai and Long An.
The number of public servants at communal level and below, meanwhile, hit more than 1.9 million people by the end of last year.
A member of the NA supervision delegation, former NA Legal Affairs Committee Chairman Phan Trung Ly said that few Governmental agencies had managed to downsize. Most of the job cuts they reported were officials who were going to retire anyway.
“Those who can’t do their jobs, meanwhile, still get to stay in their roles,” Ly said.
