Behind the integration of institutions in small counties with small populations: the high altitude causes many people to take sick leave, and one or two departments are left to work

Maduo County, Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province Visual China Map

Maduo County, Guoluo Prefecture, is located in the southern part of Qinghai Province, with an average altitude of more than 4,500 meters, an area of 25,300 square kilometers, and a permanent population of 14,600 people. The institutional integration in 2023 has brought this small county with the smallest total population and the smallest institutional establishment in Qinghai Province to the attention of the outside world.

The reform of Maduo County has its own special background.

At the end of 2023, a series of reports published by "Qinghai News Network" revealed that the biggest challenge facing each cadre in Maduo is the high altitude of 4,500 meters on average. A book of section-level cadres on a monthly basis has taken a lot of leave, and many of the contents of the leave are related to the physical discomfort caused by high altitude.

Zhou Fengbang, member of the Standing Committee of the Maduo County Party Committee and head of the Organization Department, introduced that the leave slip of each month is bound into a book, and according to monthly statistics, in July, because the children in the family go to school, these leave requests are more concentrated. Relatively speaking, the average number of people a month is 90 to 100, which can reach 50%, which is equivalent to half of the people taking leave. We are about 200 people at the section level, and 100 of the cadres are on leave.

"After there are more people who ask for leave, don't ask for it, they are all really sick, some comrades have long-term third-degree hypertension and insist on going to work with illness, and some are indeed sick for the elderly at home, and no one takes care of the children. If you take a leave of absence, you can't carry out the work, which is more contradictory. Zhou Fengbang said.

And as long as someone asks for leave, some "games with less than four people" will have the problem of suspension. Ding Fengshan, secretary of the Maduo County Party Committee, said that Maduo County has a small population, a small establishment, a large service radius, a high altitude, difficult conditions, and a large number of people who usually ask for leave.

The Maduo County Party Committee Office previously introduced that before the reform, there were a total of 28 party and government organizations directly under the county in the county, except for individual departments with greater demand for staffing, the average number of departmental administrative establishments was less than 4, and there were 13 "bureaus with less than four people", accounting for nearly half of the party and government organizations in Maduo County, and the institutions were generally small in scale and scattered. In the many "bureaus with less than four people", except for the leaders of one principal and one deputy or one principal and two deputies, the administrative establishment of ordinary cadres in the department is only 1-2, or even none, and the cadre structure is very unreasonable. The administrative establishment of the county-level party and government mass institutions has a total of 154 people, and the average service radius is 164 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the area of 3-4 towns and villages in the mainland.

In the view of Liang Wenguang, director of the Maduo County Party Committee, the reform of Maduo County has actually reached the point where it has to be changed. "Originally, each of our departments is 3.7 establishments, 3.7 establishments are an average of less than 4, we are full of 4 establishments, remove a positive 2 or a positive 3 deputy work is basically none, because of the high altitude here, so it is not excluded that some cadres will take sick leave and leave, and then the department will have an average of two people left to work, may be one to work, so you see that with such a large service radius, such difficult conditions, so you see how difficult it is to carry out the work. ”

The surging news earlier reported that the integration of "small population counties" in Maduo County will be set to 20 of the 25 party and government institutions before the reform, including 6 party committee institutions and 14 government work departments, which is 5 institutions streamlined compared with before the reform, with a reduction ratio of 20%, aiming to build a "large department" institutional functional framework of "big supervision", "big organization", "big culture", "big ecology", "big agriculture and animal husbandry", "big guarantee", "big construction" and "big law enforcement".

Among them, the personnel management responsibilities undertaken by the former county human resources and social security bureau were stripped out and the county personnel bureau was established and co-located with the organization department of the county party committee; the county bureau of culture, sports, tourism, radio, television and television was co-located with the propaganda department of the county party committee; the county rural revitalization bureau was co-located with the county agriculture, animal husbandry and science and technology bureau; and all the responsibilities of the former county transportation bureau and the former county housing and urban-rural development bureau were integrated to form the county transportation and housing urban-rural development bureau. Maduo County has also set up a working committee of the county party committee to coordinate the work of the county's mass organizations. Its director is one member of the Standing Committee of the county party committee in charge of mass organization work, and its members are the responsible persons of each mass organization.

After the reform, there are 6 party committee organs in Maduo County, namely: the county discipline inspection commission and the county supervision committee (county party committee inspection office), the county party committee office, the county party committee organization department (county personnel bureau), the county party committee propaganda department (county culture, sports, tourism, radio and television bureau), the county party committee united front work department (county ethnic and religious affairs bureau), and the county party committee political and legal committee (county judicial bureau).

There are 14 government departments, namely: County Government Office, County Development and Reform Bureau, County Education Bureau, County Public Security Bureau, County Civil Affairs and Social Security Bureau (County Medical Security Bureau, County Veterans Affairs Bureau), County Finance Bureau, County Transportation and Housing Urban-Rural Development Bureau, County Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Science and Technology Bureau (County Rural Revitalization Bureau), County Natural Resources and Ecological Environment Forestry and Grassland Water Conservancy Bureau, County Health Bureau, County Statistics Bureau, County Emergency Management Bureau, County Audit Bureau, County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau.

After the integration of the organization, the department is more streamlined, the scale of the department is significantly expanded, the structure of the department is more reasonable, the department is more intensive, the boundary of the department's rights and responsibilities is clearer, the cost of inter-departmental coordination is significantly reduced, and the efficiency of the implementation of the same type of matters in the county has been significantly improved, and a simple and efficient grassroots management system has been initially formed.