NA probes into quality of public servants
Deputies Danh Ut from southern
Kien Giang province and Chu Son Ha from Hanoi suggested improving the
performance of the public service by getting rid of poor performers.
Binh said that there had been a rise in the number of
public employees in recent years, but claimed this had mostly taken
place in newly-established agencies or existing agencies developing new
functions.
However, he said that from now until 2016,
the Government would try and limit the number of public servants by
redefining job positions so that they more suitably matched the
functions and duties of each agency, locality, ministry and sector.
"The Government has a master reform plan on re-organising the public
service. Redundant public servants will be rotated and assigned suitable
jobs," he added.
Questioned about public concerns
that some 30 percent of public employees failed to carry out their jobs
properly, Binh claimed that annual assessments of work performance
showed that the figure was only 1 percent.
However, he offered to investigate and define the exact figure and report back to the National Assembly.
Concerning the hiring of public servants, the minister replied that
this had been changing towards a computer-based approach to ensure it
was done transparently while also improving the quality of employees to
meet professional, political, foreign-language and computer-science
demands.
"Stricter management before and after the exams has also been carried out to ensure quality recruits are hired," he said.
Binh said that all central-level agencies and 70 percent of
local-level agencies would apply information technology in recruiting
public servants.
Answering deputies' concerns about
overlapping between the functions and duties of agencies and
organisations, the minister said the Government would reform and perfect
operations at different ministries and sectors to ensure each issue was
handled by one agency.
Deputies Pham Van Ho, Chu
Son Ha and Truong Thi Anh asked about corruption in hiring public
servants and steps to get rid of corrupt officials.
Binh said the ministry had taken steps to stop this issue "of great
public concern" in personnel departments, adding that he had proposed
the Government issue a decree to stop it - and widely apply it
throughout the public service.
He said the
Government had regulations making the heads of State agencies
responsible for any corruption, adding that strict punishments applied.
The minister said recruitment reform would apply to on-line tests to ensure transparency and justice.
Earlier, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat
continued his question-and-answer session with NA deputies that started
on November 19, focusing on measures to boost agricultural reform.
Answering deputies' questions on the farm sector's involvement in
creating a high-yield rice variety, he said this would also increase the
value of the grain.
He said the ministry had
guided research programmes to create varieties to boost production,
build trademarks and export more products to foreign markets.
Questioned on bank credit policies for agricultural development,
Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Van Binh said many policies
had been issued to help develop agriculture.
He
said the banking sector was reviewing credit policies to help meet the
demand for national economic restructuring, including the agricultural
sector.
Answering questions on the rice-reserve
programme, Binh said the State Bank had provided enough capital for this
as well as a large sum for developing other key products, such as
coffee, tra and basa fish.
Minister of
Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son was also grilled by
deputies about the 3G price hikes in November 20 afternoon.
Son said that the recent increases by Viettel, Mobifone and Vinaphone
were necessary because the companies had originally set prices lower
than cost to attract users. Telecoms companies last month raised the
price of their 3G packages after receiving approval from the ministry.
On October 16, Vinaphone, MobiFone, and Viettel,
which hold more than 95 percent of market share, increased their monthly
fees from 50,000 VND to 70,000 VND.
"This is the
general policy of the State and is in accordance with current
regulations and international commitments. We cannot sell below cost,"
said Son.
"The 3G service always follows the general
rule: beginning, growth, saturation and decline. In the initial period,
telecoms providers reduced prices to attract users and then gradually
increased them. Domestic telecoms providers have kept the price low for
too long."
He said the Prime Minister Nguyen Tan
Dung signed Decision N°32 to restructure the telecommunications market.
This required prices to rise gradually until they equalled or surpassed
costs.
Son added that during the year, Vietnam
telecoms rates were 34.9 percent lower than in other ASEAN nations and
34-57 percent lower than in other countries. He claimed the Vietnamese
telecoms rate was less than 50 percent of costs.
Vietnam had about 9 million 3G subscribers out of a total of 19 million phone customers.
Son said that 3G rises made a great contribution to the State budget.
Last year, Vinaphone and Mobifone contributed 7.3 trillion VND (347
million USD) and Viettel added 11.3 trillion VND (538 million USD) to
State coffers.
He said consumers should share the
heavy financial burden with network providers as at least 80 percent of
telecoms equipment was imported.-VNA