On April 9, the website of the Henan Provincial Development and Reform Commission released the "List of Top Ten Cases of Economic System Reform in Henan Province in 2023". The first place is the "Solidly Promoting the Reshaping Reform of Public Institutions and Injecting Strong Impetus into the Construction of Modern Henan" compiled by the Henan Provincial Party Committee.
The Henan Provincial CPC Committee's Office pointed out that judging from the actual situation, problems such as inaccurate positioning, unclear responsibilities, suboptimal structure, and low efficiency of public institutions still exist. Some institutions have problems such as weakened functions, shrinking operations, and their main responsibilities and main businesses deviating from the nature of public welfare, and being out of touch with economic and social development; some institutions have problems such as overlapping functions, scattered and redundant settings, and a high proportion of "small, scattered and weak"; and the phenomenon of some people having nothing to do and others having nothing to do coexist.
In terms of reform practices, the Henan Provincial Party Committee Editorial Office analyzed in the article from three aspects: "focusing on optimizing the functional layout and realizing the overall restructuring and reshaping", "focusing on resource intensification and efficiency, streamlining the scale of institutional establishment", and "focusing on improving support measures to promote the steady and far-reaching implementation of reform".
Among them, in terms of streamlining the scale of the establishment of institutions, the Henan Provincial Party Committee Office wrote in the article: adhere to the combination of "slimming" and "fitness", and within a reasonable and sustainable range, we should resolutely reduce what should be reduced, and vigorously strengthen what should be strengthened.
At the provincial level, except for schools and hospitals, the proportion of "531" shall be streamlined (that is, institutions shall be streamlined by no less than 50%, and the establishment of institutions shall be streamlined by no less than 30%, of which the proportion of financial appropriation shall be reduced by not less than 10%), and in principle, public institutions with less than 16 staff at the section level and public institution establishment shall no longer be retained, and "shell units", "zombie units" and public institutions that have completed specific historical tasks will be abolished.
At the city and county level, with reference to the provincial practice, it will be streamlined according to the "421" ratio. At the same time, the implementation of the provincial municipal institutions at the same level of the "dual control" of the proportion of streamlining, the quota of institutions (the proportion of provincial municipalities and Jiyuan Demonstration Zone at the same level of institutions is not less than 25%, and the number of institutions retained does not exceed the provincial limit), the division level institutions in accordance with the idea of "total reduction, city and city reduction, gap reduction" to determine the number of streamlining quotas and set the number, to avoid "one size fits all" and "whipping fast cattle" and other problems. After the reform, the quota of the establishment and organization of the undertaking recovered shall be used by the city and county levels as a whole, and "reducing the upper and lower levels, and reducing the counties to make up for the townships" is encouraged.
In terms of the effectiveness of the reform, the Henan Provincial Party Committee Office summarized it from three aspects: "overall optimization of layout and structure", "more scientific allocation of resources" and "significant improvement of guarantee efficiency".
The Henan Provincial Party Committee Office also mentioned that at the provincial level, in addition to schools and hospitals, public institutions have been streamlined by 60.7 percent, and 137 public institutions with less than 16 staff at the section level and public institution establishment and 137 "shell units" have been abolished, and the number of career establishments has been reduced by 46.9 percent, the number of department-level leadership posts has been reduced by 9.3 percent, and the number of department-level leadership posts has been reduced by 25.5 percent.
At the city and county level, 44.3 percent of the institutions included in the scope of the reform were streamlined, and 23 percent of the establishments were streamlined, of which 13.7 percent were fully funded. The problem of "small, scattered and weak" public institutions in the province has been basically solved, and the distribution of institutional establishments between regions and departments has become more balanced.
For example, 5,638 people will be assigned to the counties (cities and districts) of the provincial reform, and more than 3,300 will be approved for scientific and technological innovation platforms such as the Provincial Academy of Sciences, Songshan Laboratory, and Shennong Seed Industry Laboratory, and the work force of relevant institutions such as education, medical and health care, and cultural relics protection has been strengthened as needed.
Recently, the reform of public institutions in Henan has aroused heated discussions. Picture/Screenshot of network video
News extension line: Section-level institutions are no longer retained, why is Henan's reform on the hot search
On April 13, the topic "Henan no longer retains section-level institutions in principle" rushed to the hot search on Weibo.
The reform of public institutions is an important part of the reform of state institutions, and it corresponds to the needs of the transformation of government functions. At present, a new round of reform of local institutions is being promoted, and many localities have come up with their own plans. Henan's promotion of the reshaping reform of public institutions is actually not a special case.
As early as 2020, the central government identified nine pilot provinces across the country. For example, as of October 2021, a total of 2,735 public institutions in Heilongjiang Province have been streamlined, with more than 83,000 employees reclaimed, and as of May 2021, the number of institutions directly under Shanxi Province has been reduced from 1,205 to 370, a reduction of 69%......
The topic of the reform of public institutions in Henan rushed to the hot search on Weibo, highlighting the high attention of the society to the relevant reforms in the context of the public examination. However, many articles have simplified the key message of this news to "Reform of Henan Public Institutions: In Principle, Section-level Units Will No Longer Be Retained", which is actually inaccurate.
You must know that according to the complete information disclosed by Henan officials, "in principle, public institutions with less than 16 staff at the section level and public institution establishment will no longer be retained", in fact, there is a prefix - except for schools and hospitals.
This is because schools and hospitals represent the rigid needs of people's livelihood services, while the society's requirements for education and medical care are constantly increasing, and there is a general problem of insufficient investment in the past, so it must be continuously strengthened, not weakened.
In fact, Henan has also made it clear that this reform highlights the "combination of slimming and fitness", and will focus the freed up resources on compulsory education, basic scientific research, basic medical care, public culture and other areas of people's livelihood.
In a word, we must resolutely reduce what should be reduced, and continue to strengthen what should be strengthened. At the same time, objectively, the "decrease and increase" of the allocation of resources is also conducive to ensuring the smooth progress of the reform.
As for public institutions below the section level and below the establishment of 16 institutions, in principle, they will no longer be retained, and the reasons are not complicated. Because these units are often at a relatively low level, or the role of independent functions is not prominent enough, it is easy to bring about the disadvantages of "the tail is too big to fall", and it can also be replaced by integration.
Taking this as the focus of streamlining also echoes the problems pointed out by the Henan Editorial Office before, some institutions have problems such as overlapping functions, scattered and repetitive settings, and a high proportion of "small scattered and weak".
Then, for example, Henan's practice of "in principle no longer retaining public institutions with a section level and an establishment of less than 16 people" may not necessarily be replicated in every locality.
Moreover, streamlining the establishment and organization is not the whole purpose of the reform of public institutions. This is because, in addition to the pursuit of reducing the financial burden, the more essential purpose of the reform is to straighten out the relationship between government and enterprises, improve service efficiency, and better meet the needs of governance modernization.
From this point of view, the key to objectively evaluating the real effect of the reform of public institutions is to see whether the level and quality of public services have been truly improved and whether social vitality has been stimulated. As for how to reduce the specifics, it is completely possible for all localities to "give full play" to local conditions.
Of course, under the current background, the reform of public institutions in various localities is also facing some common practical backgrounds, such as the increasing pressure on local finances. Therefore, from the perspective of reducing the fiscal burden and getting used to "living a tight life", the intensity of reform may require new considerations.
In addition, the reform of public institutions should also be properly coordinated with the needs of institutional reform, and if it is not synchronized, new problems may arise that remain. Therefore, it is necessary to do a good job of corresponding work connection.
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Source: Decision Journal
The official website of Henan Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Beijing News, etc