Draft law lacks teeth to prevent public brain drain

In a remote mountainous village in northern Son La Province, a teacher has her baby strapped to her back. The public sector nationwide suffers from a serious shortage of qualified personnel. (Photo: VNA)

The draft Law on Government Officials and Civil Servants fails to adequately address the human resource crisis facing the public sector, many legislators said Monday.

On the fourth day of the National Assembly’s biannual session, deliberations also centered on the draft law on Road Traffic.

The draft law on civil services has not worked out an effective mechanism to lure competent people to work for the public sector, deputies said.

Many deputies blamed the continued public brain drain on meager salaries, saying the current wage levels are unfair for civil servants considering their important contribution to national governance.

Low salaries, in tandem with heavy workloads, have forced scores of public officials to leave the sector in search of more lucrative positions in the private sector.

A recent Thanh Nien story revealed many ward officials in Ho Chi Minh City had quit because their massive workload was not properly compensated.

The deputy mayor of a ward in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh District said he gets around VND2 million (US$120) per month after working for 21 years as a public officer.

A ward mayor of Tan Phu District also said his salary was just VND2.4 million ($143) per month.

Deputy Pham Thi Thanh Huong from the central province of Binh Dinh said at the meeting Monday that low salaries had scared away many people from the education and health sectors in provinces across the country.

Even HCMC, Vietnam’s business hub, has been hit hard by the manpower crisis in education and healthcare sectors.

Of 6,422 officials leaving HCMC government agencies from July 2003 to December last year, the municipal Health Department was the worst hit, with 576 people quitting, while the Department of Education and Training lost 288 teachers and school directors, the city government reported.

But meager salaries are not the sole reason for the public brain drain, lawmakers said Monday.

A talent-unfriendly structure and working environment in government agencies has also played a key role in discouraging public officers and forced them to give notice, legislators said.

They called on the government to downsize government agencies so that they would create less work and higher pay for civil servants.

But deputy Le Van Cuong from northern Thanh Hoa Province said the downsizing target had not been met as the number of staff at public agencies has continued to increase.

Cuong demanded the government spell out reasons for the increasing public staff and identify who should bear the responsibility in this regard.

Other issues

Turning to the draft Road Traffic Law, deputies discussed the ban on liquor consumption for vehicles riders and regulations on the quality of helmets.

Deputies were divided on to what extent liquor consumption should be banned.

Some said the drinking of beer or alcohol should be totally banned for drivers, but several others said the law should only regulate the concentration limit of consumed liquor.

Many deputies concurred that consumers should not be fined for wearing substandard helmets. State agencies in charge of overseeing the helmet quality should take responsibility instead, they said.

The ban on substandard stylish helmets is set to come into effect in November.

Reported by Thanh Nien staff

Update from: http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=43037