On October 26, the National Assembly discussed the bill on officials, in which deputies focused on the concept of officials, public agencies, the organization and management of the operation of public agencies, and the regulations on Vietnamese settling in foreign countries participating in the employment of officials in public agencies.

The bill was earlier discussed during the seventh session of the NA in June 2010. After being completed and submitted to the 8th session of the NA, the bill has 6 chapters and 63 articles.

Regarding the role of the head of public agencies, some ideas indicated that the assignment of too much power to the head does not suit the reality and the management ability of many public agencies while it could cause negative phenomena during the employment of officials.

Regarding the establishment of a management council in agencies, deputy Le Van Hoc from the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong agreed with the NA Standing Committee to establish the council. According to the deputy, the council, once established, will become an agency inspecting the operations of public agencies; however, he also said that the bill should clarify the structure of the council.

Contrary to the idea, deputy Nguyen Minh Thuyet from the northern province of Lang Son, said the council should not be established. According to deputy Thuyet, to prevent the abuse of power of the head of public agencies, it is better to increase the inspection of Party committees, of unions, and of people’s inspectors.

However, the NA Standing Committee realized that at present, public agencies are holding a great amount of State-owned properties and managing over 1.6 million officials and labourers. Therefore, together with increasing the responsibility of the heads of agencies, it is necessary to have a suitable inspection mechanism to ensure the operational efficiency of agencies and prevent the misuse of power. The NA Standing Committee agreed with the necessity to establish a management council for public agencies.

During the discussion, NA deputies were concerned about the regulation regarding the issue that Vietnamese people who are settling in foreign countries participate in the employment of officials in public agencies. Some ideas offered that the bill does not put forth regulations while some others suggested the Government allow Vietnamese citizens who are settling in foreign countries to participate in the employment of officials in Vietnam.

Regarding the issue, the NA Standing Committee said that as the operation of officials should be in line with public agencies, therefore, it is impossible for officials to work in Vietnam but live in foreign countries.

In the case of benefiting from intellectual property and experiences of Vietnamese citizens in foreign countries, other mechanisms such as cooperative agreements should be used.

Deputy Nguyen Minh Thuyet suggested that the bill should expand the working time for officials who have high qualifications and academic titles.

Deputy Mai Thi Anh Tuyet from the southern province of An Giang said that to prevent the decrease of intellectuals and highly qualified persons from public agencies to the non-public sector, satisfactory treatment should be granted for officials. She also added that bill should issue priority policies to attract talented people to public agencies.

There were many conflicting ideas about the regulation that officials are not allowed to go on strike.

(CPV)