NEWS ANALYSIS, FEBRUARY 2, 2002

On January 24 and 25, a conference was held by the Hanoi government Committee for Organization and Personnel to review its activities in 2001 and start its tasks in 2002. The Vietnam Communist Party is working on its campaign to reform administrative apparatus, one of the several key reforms that are required to implement the bilateral trade agreement with the United States.

The VCP regime has been notorious in more than four decades for its inefficient and backward administrative system. Though it was the most successful insurgence instigator with its legendary guerrilla warfare, its mandarin-like bureaucracy has dragged it down from the triumphant throne of the conqueror to the sheer disordered tyranny. And its leaders know that.

In the Communist administration, the Organization and Personnel branch plays the most important role in appointment of Communist cadres to government jobs. The chiefs of Organization and Personnel offices must be the most faithful, always sticking to the ultimate principle "strengthening the Party's leadership" in the government, the armed forces and the entire society. Besides, the branch also acts as a political security monitoring machine which closely watches the personnel political behavior.

Communist Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was addressing the conference with general directives concerning the state organization and personnel apparatus. As in every speech of the kind delivered by a Communist leader, Khai began his by praising the Committee for Organization and Personnel for its various achievements.

The general objective of the committee for 2002 is known as establishing an administrative system that is incorruptible, democratic, strong and modern, and enforcing administrative disciplinary regulations.

But it seemed that Khai was stressing more on serious problems emanated from realities and the nature of the regime. He said that many shortcomings of the committee must be overcome, first of all was incapability in staff works, tardiness, passiveness and slow innovation in methodology.

These shortcomings and necessary improvements in the administrative apparatus have been objectives for criticisms by the top VCP leaders since the mid-1950s, some were reported in state-run newspapers every year or two

The basic problems have grown from the lack of well-coordinated and effective fundamental administrative regulations. To implement a law newly promulgated by the top authority, each of the government agencies - ministry and lower - is almost free to issue directives and regulations to carry it out in its domain of responsibility. Many laws, regulatory decrees and directives are contradicting, even conflicting with one another.

After 47 years in power in North Vietnam and 27 years ruling the whole country, the Communist government is still calling for "legislation and regulatory decrees to specify administrative power distribution, clearly defining rights and responsibilities, obligations and competence of local governments and their agencies... and organization and policies regarding local government at village level."

For the last four decades, the Communist regime has been striving for the more effective administrative apparatus with dozen of decrees and resolutions. But despite its efforts, there have been no considerable success. Vietnamese people can easily tell why.

The Communist movement has been growing and its top leaders have ascended to power thanks to the corps of infra-structure leaders who were extremely faithful to the party, enduring intense hardships and fighting bravely in wars. After the party's victory in 1975, those leaders were appointed to leading posts of the local governments or party committees, of economic or industrial enterprises, even science and technology institutes, although most of them have formal education lower than fifth grade. The party has to keep the promises of awarding good jobs to those devoted underlings when it would have had won the war.

With general education so low, the local leaders would act their own way in interpreting directives and orders enacted by their superiors. Besides, most of those leaders have built up their sectarian power, consolidating autonomous authority over their territories. Combined with corruption practices, the whole administrative apparatus has long been ineffective, creating waste of money and time, ill management and enormous red tape, that make all walks of life to suffer.

Consequently, a regulation or a decree can be changed overnight without prior notice. A clause of the recent resolution of the National Assembly removes the regulatory power from the ministries and lower level agencies. It might result in better law implementation, but it is still limited by staggering burden of regulatory paper work and the shortage of capable legal experts.

Despite the fact that the VCP regime is willing to carry out economic and administrative reforms,

foreign investors should be aware of the realities of the today's Vietnam in order to have recourses not only to legal action when doing business in Vietnam.

Mr. Phan Van Khai's instructions include reorganization of government work force, reducing about 15 percent of civil servants in every agency, according to a decision announced last year. That was one of many similar decisions requiring government organizations to tailor their size to reduce unnecessary employment and eliminate sinecures. But all failed to meet the central government's expectations. A party member removed from a job given as a reward at an office would usually be granted a job at another office of the same district or province. There always be a hundred reasons to create a new post especially those paid by local government budget.

People outside Vietnam might not be aware that expenses to support the existence and operation of the Communist Party are paid by tax payer's money. That part of the national budget is never made public and thus complicates administrative procedures in many other areas.

Another great impediment to any reform is the administrative habits. For a long time, citizens serving the government and armed forces - and the party offices as well - have been taught since their childhood that the Party is like God. Everything can be done to the ultimate interests of the Party. Democracy, obligations of the government to the public are never been conceived as basic notions of a government employee.

Probably because the obligated implementation of the BTA with Washington, Hanoi has to retrain its employees of new concepts and administrative procedures. Despite its efforts, it is believed that no considerable good results may be expected in the near future. To win a battle against a well-armed enemy is much easier than to reform a wrongly educated soul.

Moreover, any administrative reform must be carried out in almost all government branches, from a hamlet chief's desk to the president's office. Such task is impossible, given the current situation in Vietnam when pervading corruption breeds disobedience in the ruling hierarchy.

Similar reform had been implemented in South Vietnam before 1975 with assistance from the Michigan University. Though the project had produced rather favorable success, several times better than that of the current Communist government effort, it still did not attain all the goals estimated by the Michigan delegation.

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