Which option does Hanoi develop the urban authority?

The people do the administrative procedures at the "one door" department of Thanh Xuan district (Hanoi). Picture: Nhat Nam.

Two authority levels, one administrative level

According to the draft of urban administration model Project, Hanoi offers two options. Option 1, Hanoi builds a organizational model of two authority levels (city level and urban district, suburban district, county town level), and one administrative level in commune, ward and township. In particular, the city authority and the authorities of the urban district, suburban district, county- town remain basically the same as the current organization including the People's Council and People's Committee. Regarding the commune, ward and township, the People's Council is not organized; the administrative bodies are only organized according to the People's Committee.

Option 2, organization model of one authority level (city), one administrative level (urban district, suburban district, townships) and one representative administrative agency (commune, ward, town). Accordingly, the city authority is the top level, including the People's Council and the People's Community like it is currently. The authority for urban districts, or suburban districts and townships, is an inadequate authority level without the People's Council at the level of urban district, suburban district and wards, there would only be the urban district administrative agencies, suburban districts and townships under the institution of the People's Committee.

Based on the strengths and weaknesses of the two above options, Mr. Tran Huy Sang, Director of Hanoi Department of Home Affairs - the lead agency drafting Project said that the pilot scheme for the Hanoi urban authority model would implement Option 1 at the present time, which is to build the organization model with two authority levels (city and district level); one administrative level (in commune, ward, townships).

Regarding the role of the People's Council at the current ward and commune level, many people think that the People's Councils at ward and commune levels are operating in a formal manner, thus leaving the People's Council at the commune and ward levels necessary, and at the same time it will improve the quality of delegation of People's Council at the district and ward level in a compact and effective spirit.

If the activities of the People's Council at the commune and ward levels are still to be maintained, the Party Secretary will hold the position of Chairman of the People's Council concurrently in organizational structure. Many ideas suggest that the authority apparatus should be streamlined, the number of commune-level cadres should be reduced, expenditures should be fixed in localities when building the urban authority. But some other comments also warn the power must be controlled increasingly by the lens of the people when leaving the People's Council, at the same time, we should review, reduce the middle class, to shorten the clues, and save the State budget.

Agreeing with the option 1, Mr. Nguyen The Tuan, Chairman of People’s Community at Ngoc Lam Ward, Long Bien District, said that if the current People’s Community at the ward level with 28 delegations are abolished, the allowance will be reduced by 130 million VND per year. In addition, if they hold the non-specialized positions in the wards and the residential teams, the State budget will save hundreds of millions of dong.

Concurrent with the policy of abolishing the People's Council at the ward level, a ward leader in the Dong Da District said that in the current reality, the quality of the delegations of the Ward People's Council was very weak, they were mainly retired officials, so the supervision was very limited. However, when abolishing the People's Council, the city should have a concrete plan for the organization to replace the task, the Father Front could strengthen the duties at the ward level to carry out supervision.

On another side, Ms. Nguyen Thanh Yen, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the People's Council of Trung Tu Ward, Dong Da District, said that with the model of urban authority, the role of the Ward People's Council was still great, it was proposed to continue the activities of the Ward People's Council, which would increase the responsibility of the Ward People's Council (especially to consider the important issues such as socio-economic, budget, basic construction); the operation apparatus of the People's Council will be streamlined, but key leadership positions still need to be kept and increased (if needed).

"If the plan does not organize the Ward People's Council, it will disturb the State management apparatus in the localities, lose the role of control and supervision in the organization; The activities of the authority can not promote the people's mastery, and will easily lead to the abuse of power. In particular, it will lose the representative role of the people’s will,” she said.

Strong reform

According to Mr. Ta Ngoc Tan, the former Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy, Hanoi should not organize complete authority at the district and ward levels. According to Mr. Tan, the district and ward levels were intermediate ones, which do not directly decide the budget, they work with the people directly. According to Mr. Thang Van Phuc, the former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Hanoi needed to be reformed more drastically by the urban authority organization in the model of a complete authority at the level of city and two administrative levels. It means that People's Councils would not be organized at both the district and ward levels.

However, the former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs also said that after the merger, the area of Hanoi would be large, including many suburban areas, so in the immediate future, we needed to distinguish the inner city and suburban areas, the inner city should be organized as analyzed above. The rural area should remove the People's Council at the suburban district level, but it was necessary to organize the People's Council at the commune level, because the district level itself was the only following arm of the city. The village model was very sustainable, and had a thousand-year historical tradition.

According to Mr. Le Quoc Ly, Deputy Director of the National Academy of Public Administration, the model of urban authority should be designed in line with the trend of development and management of the new generation. Specifically, it must be associated with the digital society, smart urbanization, and associated with the market economy and security of national defense and social security.

In addition, according to Mr. Ly, the management agencies should analyze the differences between the State administration functions of urban authority and one local authority as well as the organizational requirements, personnel structure... The organization should be organized effectively, the urban authority spend less money but work more for the people.

“At the same time, when developing and piloting the urban authority model, it is necessary to clarify and promote the role of the people in the model. It is necessary to have a strong thinking process, especially for the predicting changing trends in future years to avoid the situation which then has to readjust to suit the reality when the pilot has just been implemented…,” said Mr. Ly.