Almost the time to hold the old headquarters while the new ones to be built

From January 1st, 2018, the financial agency will comment from the beginning of proposal to build the new offices. Photo: collected.

"Intervention" from the root

Look at a “small" statistics of the Hanoi People's Committee on the relocation of units outside the inner city announced in early 2017 shows that 5 Ministries, 4 agencies were arranged land, had built new headquarters but 7 units remained to keep the old offices. To access this situation, Mr. Nguyen Tan Thinh, Deputy Head of the Public Property Management Department, the Ministry of Finance, said that when the agencies and the units had been built the new offices, the offices assigned the task of state management of public assets at central and local levels were fully aware where and when they were built, when the units move the headquarters, but the State management offices had no function and task of withdrawing their former offices. The allocation of land fund for the construction of new headquarters, the withdrawal of the former headquarters belongs to the responsibility of the local government. This is a problem to be solved.

In mid-2017, the National Assembly passed the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets to replace the Law on Management and Use of State Property in 2008, that were effective from January 1st, 2018 with many remarkable breakthroughs. One of them is the regulation that the unit which has been arranged the new headquarters that meet the criteria and norms of working area, general use area and specific area force to give the old ones back.

Specifically, Article 41 of the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets supplements the regulation that the office buildings will be revoked if they have not been used continuously for more than 12 months when the units are allocated new head offices or invested in the construction of other head offices by the State for replacement, and used the wrong subjects, in excess of the prescribed criteria and norms; misused, loaned; transferred, sold, donated, contributed capital… and the State agencies which are assigned to manage and use give the property to the State back voluntarily.

However, to avoid the "voluntary" as now and also to elaborate this content, the Ministry of Finance has drafted, consulted with the relevant agencies, absorbed and submitted to the Government the general Decree stipulating in detail and guiding this law in general and a separate draft Decree on standards and norms of use as well as the withdrawal of the head offices.

In the general Decree, the Ministry of Finance proposed that prior to the decision on allocation and recovery of land of the working office, the State authority having the competent to allocate and recover the land would send a document to the Ministry of Finance (the head office of central office), the Department of Finance (local office) for comments. The contents of the written consultations must state clearly the reasons; the expected area; The suitability of the plan with the land use planning and plan; The functions, tasks and the staff inspected by the State agency which is planned to assign and recover land; the land allocation to move… In other words, the previous time, the land allocation and land recovery were independent of the management and use of public assets, so the agencies and units built new ones when the Public property management offices were unaware that the new office meets the requirements, standards, and norms, and also did not know what the old offices use for after the agencies moved. If the general Decree is issued, the Ministry of Finance and the provincial Finance Departments will participate and comment on the new phase of the new office building to know the reasons of a new building for downgrade of the olds or not enough workspace, not meeting the requirements. The financial agency also based on that to monitor and supervise the process of building new headquarters and hand over the old office, so it does not happen the case of having a new head office but not giving the old headquarters back as now.

Moreover, the reason that many the agencies and the units having new headquarters to keep the old headquarters is "new headquarters do not guarantee the working area" will also be disabled since January 1st, 2018 when laws and guiding documents come into force because the financial agency will involve at the time of project development. Further analysis, Mr. Nguyen Tan Thinh said as soon as receiving a written request for comments on the allocation of land, recovery of the office land, the financial agency will calculate how many staffs of officials, civil servants, office-holders, laborers (even consider the personnel changes) in the the agencies, the units moving the head offices, then multiply by the working area, the general using area, the specific area in accordance with standards, norms and compare with construction design. If the new construction area is not suitable, the financial agency will disagree with the plan of land allocation and land recovery. If the new office meets the requirements, the financial agency will have an opinion on how to arrange the old office: withdrawing; transferring to other units, agencies or organizations being shortage of working space; auction of land use rights... in accordance with the planning.

Norms for each title

Not only that, in the draft Decree on public office, the Ministry of Finance has set the specific standards and norms according to the number of staff, the working area of each position, the specific title to do the basics for the land allocation plan, new headquarter building plan. For example, the Central agencies, organizations and units, the Politburo's members, the Secretary of the Party Central Committee, the State Vice-President, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Vice-President of National Assembly are arranged up to 60m2/workplace; the General Director is up to 40m2; the Deputy General Director, the Head of Department the Ministry, ministerial equivalent agencies, Government agencies and other central agencies shall be allowed maximum 25m2... The smallest maximum area is 7m2 for personnel signing the labor contract with indefinite term. According to the Ministry of Finance, the determination of the working office is based on the number of staff taking into account the long-term development orientation and the maximum level of working space for each position being determined will ensure strictness, limit the wastefulness in land allocation to implement the project of building working offices as well as overcome the situation of "having new house but not enough space to keep the old house".

When commenting on this issue, the Ministry of Justice raised a question: whether should prescribe the minimum working area to force the State agencies to meet, ensure the task implementation for each title. However, according to the Ministry of Finance, maximum norms are to appropriate to the specific nature and specific conditions of each agency, organization or unit in defining the demand for working space for economy and effectiveness. Therefore, in the draft Decree, the Ministry of Finance has added the following contents: The agency, the competent person decide on allocation, construction investment, procurement, lease, layout using on the basic of work characteristic of the title, the demand for use, the capacity of the State budget, the current house and land fund and the autonomy degree of the public service delivery units in order to decide suitably, ensuring economy and efficiency.