Current Status of Building a Team of Provincial Administrative Civil Servants in the Lao People's Democratic Republic


3.2. CURRENT STATUS OF BUILDING A TEAM OF PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATIVE CIVIL SERVANTS IN THE LAOS PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

3.2.1. Current status of implementation of the contents of building a team of provincial-level administrative civil servants

3.2.1.1. On planning the team of provincial administrative civil servants

Determining the planning of civil servants and public employees is a fundamental step in personnel work, aiming to proactively create a source of young human resources, gather many talents, and serve as a basis for training, arranging, using and developing the civil servant team in the political system to ensure quantity and quality, with a reasonable structure and a steady transition between generations.

In recent years, the work of provincial-level civil servants in the Lao PDR has had a human resource development strategy, a short-term and long-term training and development plan for civil servants, but there has been no civil servant planning. It was not until the 8th Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party that the issue of civil servant planning was officially taken seriously. The resolution of the 8th Congress stated, "It is necessary to urgently review and consolidate the civil servant planning and strategy to ensure the building of a synchronous, high-quality and reasonably structured civil servant team to meet immediate requirements, and have a successor civil servant team..." [36, p.48]. The Politburo issued Directive No. 08/BCT, dated August 12, 2007, on the planning of key civil servants for leadership and management. Circular No. 198/BTCTW, dated October 13, 2007, of the Central Party Organization Committee on the planning of leadership and management civil servants.

Based on the above guidance circular, many localities have also issued guidance circulars of the Provincial Organizing Committee on CC planning. According to a survey of provinces in the country, there are some provinces such as Bolykhamxay, the Provincial Organizing Committee has issued guidance circular No. 300/BTC, dated May 16, 2008, on CC planning for leaders and managers of the province from now until 2015. Because this is a major policy and the first time Bolykhamxay province has carried out CC planning, the province has conducted a pilot in departments, branches and sectors at the provincial level, then organized the implementation within the province.


The work of planning civil servants in provincial administrative agencies has only stopped at planning key positions; director, deputy director, head of department, division. Moreover, it is quite common to plan and arrange civil servants in a sequential manner: deputy level succeeds the head level, lower level head succeeds the upper level deputy level... the planning process has no scientific basis because many agencies have not yet built a standard structure of positions.

Up to now, there has been no general planning for the entire provincial-level administrative reform team. The planning work only addresses immediate needs, and has not been scientifically and closely forecasted to prepare a good source of civil servants for long-term orientation. This is clearly shown in the fact that the planning subjects are still young, female civil servants and ethnic minorities are not many, and the planning scope is still closed, mainly in the northern provinces. The planned source of civil servants is mainly incumbent leaders and managers, and the source has not been expanded or discovered.

The assessment of CC for planning, training and use in many cases is not thorough, not really objective and democratic. The planned CC level is still lacking compared to the standards in terms of expertise, foreign languages ​​and IT, so after planning, there must be a training and development plan immediately to be able to meet the requirements of the new tasks.

Many provinces are still confused in their approach, have not introduced and created a wide source of reserve civil servants. Some provinces still do planning work in a formal way, and the source of reserve civil servants is thin. Many new, young talents are trained in basic skills and appear in practical activities, but have not been promptly discovered and have not been boldly included in the planning.

During the planning process, many new problems arose that were slow to be resolved. Civil servants who were not planned for resources had a passive mindset, but some of those in the planning did not strive to improve their qualifications... many units did not pay attention to monitoring and training the planned civil servants. The creation of civil servant resources for a long time has not been given serious attention, so


Rejuvenating the administrative staff is facing many difficulties, the average age is decreasing.

trivial.

Based on the assessment of the current situation of the provincial-level administrative reform team; the Party Committee has proactively developed plans and specific policies to create a source of civil servants, especially grassroots civil servants, ethnic minority civil servants, civil servants in remote areas, and civil servants who are children of families with revolutionary traditions. Provincial-level civil servant planning in Laos has had a clear change in awareness according to the viewpoint of "expansion, democracy, and objectivity". Overcoming the closedness in each sector, locality, and unit; every year, the provinces review, adjust, and supplement civil servant planning, so the quality of civil servants included in the planning source has been gradually improved.

In reality, the planning is not linked to the current situation of the civil service workforce and the actual needs, human resource development strategies, socio-economic development strategies, lack of practicality, difficult to implement, and low efficiency. These are the issues that the civil service planning work in the coming time needs to be solved.

3.2.1.2. Developing standards and criteria for evaluating the team of provincial administrative civil servants

- Building standards for the provincial-level administrative reform team : The issue of new-period civil reform standards has been pointed out by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party in the Resolution of the 6th Conference of the Party Central Committee (7th tenure) and the Politburo's Decision No. 04/BCT, dated July 22, 2003. The document of the 8th National Congress of the Party (2006) continued to define the standards of the civil reform team as: "In the new period, the Party requires the civil reform team to have ethics, capacity, steadfast political will, be steadfast and loyal to the country, have the spirit of serving the country and wholeheartedly serving the people, have a healthy and progressive lifestyle, constantly strive to improve their qualifications, have a high sense of organization and discipline and a scientific working style" [36, p.51].


In Decree No. 82/CP, 2003 on the CC Charter of the Lao PDR, the CC standards are stipulated in Section 7, Article 39, but they are stipulated in a general manner, not clearly specified. In the Resolutions of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Congresses up to now, the issue of CC standards has also been considered important. Thus, the political basis for CC standards in the renovation period has been mentioned quite comprehensively. The remaining issue is how to institutionalize those standards into legal standards of CC in the legal system of the state.

Through actual surveys in some provinces, it is found that, up to now, very few sectors and units have developed their own CC standards for their sectors and units. In general, the Party Committees and provincial authorities of provinces nationwide have applied the general standards prescribed by the Politburo, while some sectors have applied the standards prescribed by the ministerial level mechanically, not suitable to the actual conditions of the locality. Therefore, in recent years, the arrangement, use and promotion of CC has fallen into a passive and subjective state without specific standards as a basis, so there is a situation of using CC in the wrong profession or expertise quite commonly. There are even many cases where CC is a leader or manager, so it is okay to arrange CC in any sector, regardless of the standards of that sector. In some provinces of Laos, the majority of CCHC do not meet the standards prescribed by the state for the position they are holding. In fact, the ranks that CCs are currently holding are mainly specialized from the old salary level, which does not accurately reflect the quality requirements of the CC's rank and level. The lack of this standard also partly reflects the situation that many CCHCs are working in fields other than their trained majors, so they are still confused and bewildered, or performing public duties based on their work experience... A problem is that due to the specific circumstances and conditions of the locality, the CC standards have not been applied in a locality. Currently, it is very necessary to have good CCs and achieve at least the general standards prescribed by the Politburo. However, in remote and isolated localities, there are no qualified ethnic CCs, and it is very difficult to transfer civil servants, so most CCs work in the region.


Remote mountainous areas rarely meet the standards of civil servants, especially in the fields of expertise, political theory, foreign languages ​​and information technology. The implementation of standards for some positions is even more difficult to implement, because civil servants with positions and power, working for many years often lack professional qualifications, and theoretical qualifications are mostly acquired through rapid training. Currently, many people are past retirement age but refuse to retire, and the Party Committee and provincial government have no way to solve this.

- Developing criteria for evaluating the provincial-level administrative reform team : Developing criteria for evaluating the administrative reform team in general and the provincial-level administrative reform team in particular is similar to developing standards for civil servants. For a long time, the evaluation of the civil servant team has been mainly based on the general standards of the civil servant team, and specific evaluation criteria have not been developed.

Firstly , according to the circular of the Department of Administrative Organization - Civil Servant Management (now the Ministry of Home Affairs), No. 01/CHC, dated September 22, 2005, on evaluating and quantifying the work efficiency of civil servants. The evaluation of civil servants is based on two main contents:

+ Criteria related to political qualities and revolutionary ethics.

+ Criteria related to the position: knowledge, professional capacity; working style; work efficiency, public personality.

To have a specific assessment of the performance of CC, it is necessary to use unified inspection forms and implement a unified common process nationwide. Develop inspection forms according to the classification of PAR and use assessment criteria and quantification at different levels. Assessment of PAR at provincial level in Lao PDR includes the following criteria:

1. Political qualities, revolutionary ideology, mastering the Party's leadership principles, Party guidelines and policies, steadfastly protecting the people's democratic regime.

2. Revolutionary ethics, spirit of sacrifice for the country and people, patriotism, diligence, thrift, integrity, impartiality; discipline and respect for the law, compassion, no jealousy or hatred of others...


3. Leadership ability, good manners, knowing how to gather, motivate, and unite; implementing the principle of democratic centralism; working with a plan, with supervision, inspection, and summarizing work experience; being a good role model for everyone.

4. Have a world view, strategic and broad vision, see the trend of progress and development in the work you undertake, and be sensitive to changes in the surrounding environment.

5. Proactive and positive with a high sense of responsibility for assigned work, capable of researching, proposing strategies, policies, and organizing the implementation of those policies into plans, programs, projects, etc.

6. Ability to manage and operate work well, use time effectively, solve work properly, quickly achieve good results, be creative, diligently research, and find appropriate ways to improve awareness and work quality.

7. Ability to make correct, accurate, timely work decisions, dare to take responsibility, perform assigned work proficiently and ensure quality.

8. Have scientific and professional knowledge and experience related to the tasks and work of the unit or agency; have knowledge of the organization, regulations, rules and management of civil servants in the management apparatus; be dedicated to the profession, use one's knowledge and expertise properly, and do not violate the law.

9. The specific volume and quality of work performed by civil servants are effective.

10. Know how to listen to other people's opinions, consider information and public opinion from other individuals and organizations regarding yourself, your agency or unit.


11. Have relationships and coordinate with internal and external agencies and units to serve their work in the best way; have the trust and confidence of the organization, unit and society.

12. There is a level of meeting work requirements and the rationality and uniformity of the administrative civil servant team such as: gender structure, age structure, occupational structure, ethnic structure, level of work efficiency and the system of civil servant degrees received through the training process.

+ Steps to quantitatively assess the provincial administrative reform team:

1. CC self-assessment and evaluation.

2. Evaluation opinions of the organization and party cell where the CC lives and works.

3. Opinions of the collective leadership, the provincial Party Committee considers and concludes (if it is a leading or managing CC, it must consult the opinions of the collective leadership vertically and horizontally and the opinions of the masses and people).

+ CC quantitative level and evaluation score:

To ensure that the quantitative measurement fully reflects the level of CC's work performance, the following 5 levels should be used:

1. Excellent : demonstrated by the fact that the CC must complete work beyond the target, have a creative mind, have comprehensive leadership ability to ensure quality, and a quantitative level of 9.1-10.

2. Good : shows that CC completes work to meet targets, has a sense of responsibility and has the ability to lead comprehensive work, quantitative level reaches 8-9 points.

3. Average : shows that CC performs the job to complete the task, the workload meets the target, but the quality is average, the energy to perform the job is quite good, the quantitative work scores 5-7.

4. Weaknesses : shows that some work tasks are not completed,

not meeting targets, low sense of responsibility, quantitative results 2-4.


5. Unusable : shows ineffective work, lack of responsibility, no respect for discipline and law, no self-improvement, quantitative results score 1-2.

Note, the above scoring method is used for each individual CC. In case we want to evaluate a collective or team of CC, using the percentage calculation method will be more accurate.

To have data, calculate, compare and evaluate, it is necessary to synthesize, process, calculate, sum all the criteria scores and then divide by the total to get the average score. If distributing the survey to evaluate the entire CC team, the quantitative method should be calculated in percentage %. (See table 1)

Table 1: Quantifying the work efficiency of administrative civil servants



Criteria

Level of public servant quantification

Excellent


Good

Medium


Least

Do not use

Okay

10-9.1

9-8

7-6-5

4-3-2

1-0

- Criteria related to fish quality

like:

+ Political qualities, revolutionary ideology, mastering the principles of Party leadership, the Party's guidelines and policies to protect the people's democratic regime;

+ Revolutionary ethics, spirit of sacrifice for the country and people, patriotism, thrift, integrity, impartiality, discipline, respect for the law, compassion, not jealous or hateful of others.






- Criteria related to management capacity:

+ Criteria from 3rd to 7th.






Average score =

Total/ Total

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Current Status of Building a Team of Provincial Administrative Civil Servants in the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic

Second , the current construction of evaluation criteria is not synchronous and complete, mainly for evaluating individual CC, and has not yet built criteria for evaluating the entire CC team.

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