On May 7, 2025, during the 9th session of the 15th National Assembly, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra presented the draft amended Law on Cadres and Civil Servants. This significant legislative proposal includes 7 chapters and 52 articles, a reduction of 35 articles compared to the current law. The proposed amendments aim to create a unified, interconnected, and synchronous civil service system that spans from the Central to the commune level.
One of the most notable revisions in this draft is the introduction of transitional regulations for commune-level cadres and civil servants who were elected or recruited before the law takes effect. If these individuals meet the necessary standards and conditions, they will be transferred to the local administrative payroll as civil servants.
The draft law also seeks to enhance the efficiency of assessing, utilizing, and screening civil servants. Pham Thi Thanh Tra emphasized that evaluations must be based on actual task performance and specific work products, rather than relying on general, formal, or subjective criteria. This shift is intended to eliminate the outdated mindset of “lifetime tenure” and to foster a culture of accountability and effectiveness within the public service.
Under the new framework, the responsibilities of agency heads in managing, evaluating, and utilizing civil servants according to their abilities and job positions will be clearly defined. The assessment process will form the basis for various personnel decisions, including appointments, training, rewards, and disciplinary actions. Importantly, it will also ensure that individuals who do not meet job requirements are screened out and removed from their positions.
Civil servant assessments will be classified into four levels: Excellent completion of tasks, Good completion of tasks, Completion of tasks, and Non-completion of tasks. Those who are rated as not completing their tasks will face potential reassignment to lower-level positions or dismissal if they fail to meet the agency’s requirements. Specifically, civil servants who receive a non-completion rating for two consecutive years will be dismissed from their positions.
The amendments aim to create a legal framework that modernizes civil service management, promoting dynamism, transparency, and efficiency. The goal is to ensure that the right individuals are placed in the right roles, maximizing the potential of civil servants while removing those who do not fulfill their responsibilities. This initiative is expected to contribute to building a professional and responsible civil service that upholds public service ethics and effectively meets the needs of citizens and businesses.
The Law and Judicial Committee expressed its support for the comprehensive amendment of the law, noting that the integration of commune-level civil servants with the provincial level is both timely and necessary. This integration is essential for organizing government structures and implementing a two-level local government model.
The draft law continues to uphold the principle of combining job title standards, job positions, and payroll targets. However, some committee members have urged for a revision of this principle to better align with modern approaches to managing civil servants based on job positions. Such a change would create a legal basis for implementing salary payments according to job positions, in line with Resolution No. 27 from 2018 regarding salary policy reforms for civil servants and public employees.
Furthermore, some voices within the committee have suggested that regulations defining “talented individuals” should be established, based on achievements in education, work, or contributions to the field. This would help standardize evaluations across various ministries and localities.
In accordance with the requirements of the Political Bureau, the draft also emphasizes the importance of incorporating asset and income declarations into the criteria for evaluating civil servants and agency heads. The committee has recommended that the Ministry of Home Affairs develop appropriate regulations to institutionalize this requirement.
Additionally, the draft law introduces new objectives for civil servant assessments, focusing on screening and dismissing those who do not meet job requirements. During implementation, it is crucial to establish clear, transparent, and quantifiable criteria that connect performance results with public service ethics, responsibility, and citizen satisfaction.
To enhance the evaluation process, suggestions have been made to leverage digital technology and automated assessment criteria. This would enable more objective monitoring, storage, and analysis of civil servants' work results, reducing subjectivity and ensuring fairness and transparency in the screening process.
It is also essential to recognize that the evaluation of civil servants who do not hold leadership positions differs from that of those who do. Therefore, a tailored approach to handling performance issues for these two groups is necessary to ensure fairness and avoid a one-size-fits-all solution.
Finally, civil servants found in violation of regulations will face one of four disciplinary actions: reprimand, warning, demotion (for those in leadership roles), or forced dismissal. This structured approach aims to maintain a high standard of accountability within the civil service.
