Whenever government employees can’t live on their salary, they have to “calculate” and “eat on the sly,” readers shared their opinion on VietNamNet’s forum.
 |
Hundreds of readers have now sent their opinions to VietNamNet ‘s Administrative Reform Forum. Many comment that it is impossible for government employees to support their families by salary alone. The result, they say, is that these officials have to “calculate” and seek every way to compensate for the inadequacy of their pay.
Officials who have worked for the Government a dozen years or more told VietNamNet that they never dare to dream of buying a house or a car on their starvation wages. Others said that it’s obvious that government employees don’t live by their salary, and commented that “many people are willing to pay tens of millions of dong to become a government employee”.
Therefore, renovating procedures by cutting down and simplifying formalities is tantamount to pruning the twigs at the top of the tree (papers), not chopping away at the roots (personnel), analysed reader Phan Bao Lam from HCM City.
Nguyen Duc Hung, a masters degree holder and a government employee in the city of Hai Phong, said that his salary is 1.5 million dong ($85) per month, not enough to support himself. Phong said he is “lucky” because he lives with his parents and doesn’t have a girlfriend, so his living expenses are low.
To survive as virtuous government employees, young people like Hung have to ask for support from their parents. If they want to get married and build their own house, they have to spend their parents’ money or they have to “calculate”.
Reader Toan Thang from the northern mountainous province of Lang Son complained: “I’m a top official of a ward in Lang Son City. I have 10 years of experience but my salary is only 1.6 million dong ($90). How can I live on that pay in this current situation?”
Many readers frankly said that they want to work for state agencies to have stable jobs but to earn their living, they have to “calculate.”
Reader Bui Quang Anh from Tuyen Quang province, who worked for nine years as a government employee, said that because of low salary, government employees have to “calculate.” Where they can “calculate”? The answer is from administrative procedures.
Quang wrote: “The more cumbersome procedures are and the more people that are involved in them, the better it is for officials. If a task can be accomplished in one day by only one employee, but he is allowed five days to do it, he can leave it for five days while investing the time in seeking money for themselves.”
“I think the state needs to have a proper mechanism for government employees so they can support their families by their salary so they don’t have to ‘calculate’. Freed from the need to ‘calculate’, they will focus their mind on the job instead of harassing or raising difficulties for the people,” Quang added.
Prevent administrative formalities from becoming a “source of benefit”
Many readers wrote that the state is paying starvation wages to its employees, which starves virtuous officials while others “calculate,” resulting in broken rules.
Hoang Son from the central province of Thanh Hoa, who quit his prestigious by ill-paid job as a university lecturer to go into business, suggested: “We must immediately reconsider the way we appoint government employees. Only skilled and energetic people should become officials.”
Son called the current state machinery “cumbersome. It must be narrowed and streamlined so the state has enough funds to pay alaries appropriate for capable government employees.”
“Administrative formalities are not to blame. The problem is the people who manage them,” Nguyen Duc Vinh from Hanoi analysed.
He said the first objective should be renovating man’s nature, choosing worthy government employees, and paying them a decent salary.
Reader Nguyen Thong Long wrote: “We’ll know that the problem of ‘administrative formalities’ has been solved when the relatives and friends of government employees no longer ask them ‘do you have any extra benefit from that job?’ Then we can be assured that government employees can live well enough on their salary and their thoughts will incline to the public benefit. While they are hungry, they must try to eat on the sly.”
When the day comes that government employees no longer consider administrative formalities as a “tool” to earn money, they will seek to simplify them, Son added.
Nguyen Trieu Dan from Gia Lam district, Hanoi complained: “We must streamline the system of government employment. At my office, officials sip tea from morning to noon. After lunch, they sleep until 2-3 pm”.
Many readers pointed out that all government employees complain that they are paid starvation wages but a few of them quit their jobs.
“Many people try to hold their position at state agencies to have untaxing jobs, wait for promotions and to harass the people,” write Nguyen Hung from the Czech Republic.
A reader signing himself ‘patriot_vn’ from HCM City wrote that most government employees have never lived by their wages because each of them springs from a privileged class in society.
Thus, it is difficult to trim away any formalities because one immediately bumps against the “roots.”
As the man in charge of the reform effort, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, chief of the Prime Minister’s Office, put it, “Formalities may be reduced but if government officials still harass the people, the people will still suffer.”
Le Nhung
Related news:
- “Five Elements” to vie with “Rock’n Roll” at Danang firework fest
- “Magic” trade “conjures” Dalat potatoes from China
- “Crazy Dung” to direct next “Charming Vietnam”
- “I never thought I would be a deputy”
- “Endeavour to be independent voice”
