Evaluation of cadres associated with judgement of emulation and commendation at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics

The Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics - Photo: hcma.vn

1. Evaluation of cadres at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics

As an organization directly under the Party Central Committee, the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics (Academy) has the function of training and fostering middle-level and senior leaders and managers, cadres in political and theoretical science of the Party, State and socio-political mass organizations; scientific and theoretical research on Marxism - Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought, studying the Party and State’s viewpoints, guidelines, policies and laws, political science, leadership and management science, contributing to providing scientific arguments for the formulation of viewpoints, guidelines and policies of the Party and State. The Academy currently has nearly 2,200 cadres, civil servants and public employees (hereinafter collectively referred to as cadres).

In all periods, the evaluation of cadres at the Academy is duly concerned and properly directed. Since 2017, with the close direction of the Party Committee and the Academy’s Board of Directors, the process of cadres’ evaluation has been carried out more thoroughly and in a more orderly manner, with a close connection between evaluation and the work of emulation and commendation. The Academy has concretized the Party’s policy, the State’s regulations on cadres’ evaluation, emulation and commendation into specific regulations and uniformly applied throughout the Academy such as Instruction No. 468-HD/HVCTQG dated October 30th, 2017, Instruction No. 530-HD/HVCTQG dated November 22nd, 2018, Instruction No. 910-HD/HVCTQG dated October 9th, 2019, Instruction No. 348-HD/HVCTQG dated October 8th, 2020, Instruction No. 418-HD/HVCTQG dated October 4th, 2021.

The results of evaluation and classification of cadres have become the basis for considering and awarding emulation titles and forms of commendation at all levels. Cadres’ evaluation and judgement of emulation titles and rewards are conducted in a comprehensive, multi-dimensional manner, associated with more specific products, gradually reducing emotionality; the process of cadres’ evaluation and judgement of emulation titles and commendation forms is conducted closely, openly, and transparently. Therefore, the results of cadres’ evaluation and judgement of emulation titles and rewards have become more and more qualitative, individual evaluation goes hand in hand with collective evaluation.

The main advantages of cadres’ evaluation at the Academy in recent years can be summarized as follows:

First, establishing criteria for cadres’ evaluation which are consistent with the implementation of the Academy’s tasks.

The Academy’s guiding documents on cadres’ evaluation are built on the basis of the Party’s regulations and current relevant laws such as Law on Cadres and Civil Servants of 2008; Law on Public Employees 2010; Decision No. 286-QD/TW dated February 8th, 2010 of the Politburo; Regulation No. 132-QD/TW dated March 8th, 2018 of the Politburo; Decree No. 90/2020/ND-CP dated August 13th, 2020 of the Government, etc., and at the same time, in close cooperation with the Academy’s current regulations such as Decision No. 5029/QD-HVCTQG dated October 26th, 2017 promulgating regulations on cultured behavior of the Academy and political schools of provinces and centrally-governed cities; Decision No. 882/QD-HVCTQG dated March 1st, 2001 promulgating the Regulations on researchers of the Academy; Decision No. 881/QD-HVCTQG dated March 1st, 2005 promulgating the Regulations on experts of the Academy; Decision No. 1211-QD/HVCTQG dated April 1st, 2015 promulgating the Regulation on standards, duties and working regime of lecturers at the Academy. For the standard of “excellent completion of the assigned task”, the standard of “being initiative in work”, the Academy has researched and built a system of achievements to replace the initiative standard in the direction of closely following the specific job position of the Academy cadres such as exceeding the quota of lecturing hours, exceeding the number of journal articles, becoming book editors, participating in research projects, winning awards in professional fields... Hence, the regulations on cadres’ evaluation have been improved and gradually adapted to the performance of the Academy’s assigned tasks.

Second, the results of cadres’ classification have created a basis for accurately assessing the performance of cadres’ responsibilities and duties.

With the method of grading and classifying cadres’ according to the benchmark scale and a number of other criteria and conditions, the Academy has assessed more accurately the level of performance of the cadres’ responsibilities and duties. In 2018, the ratio of cadres classified as excellently completing their assigned tasks was 13.38%, successfully completing their assigned tasks 79.11%, completing their assigned tasks 6.88%, failing to complete their assigned tasks 0.43%, and unclassified 0.2%. In 2019, these figures were 14.75%; 79.27%; 5.74%; 0.24% respectively while no officers were not classified. In 2020, these rates were: 21.72%; 71.74%; 5.74%; 0.55%; 0.25% respectively. The above data shows that the ratio of different degrees over the years is stable. Particularly in 2020, the rate of cadres classified as having successfully completed their assigned tasks was 8% higher than in 2018 and 7% compared to 2019. It is because the Academy has increased the rate of cadres that has excellently completed their tasks out of the total number of cadres classified as having successfully completed their tasks from 20% in 2018 and 2019 to 30% in 2020. The percentage of cadres classified as having successfully completed their assigned tasks is always lower than the rate prescribed by the Academy also shows that the evaluation of the unit is more substantive, not just trying to have “full of excellent rate”. It is important that, through the results of the cadres’ evaluation, the Academy can identify cadres who do not complete their tasks to make necessary adjustments in the management and use of cadres.

Third, the results of cadres’ evaluation are used as a basis for other stages of personnel work; emulation and commendation work; assessment and quality rating of party members; and the implementation of other policies for Academy personnel.

Only when the cadres’ evaluation process has been conducted seriously and methodically, both in the preparation of documents as well as in the organizational and implementation steps, will the cadres’ evaluation results be officially recognized. The Academy has used the results of cadres’ evaluation as a basis for the appointment, re-appointment, consideration for promotion of professional titles, the extension of working time, payment of additional income bonuses, emulation and commendation bonus; evaluation and ranking the quality of Party members, etc., specifically:

Regarding the conditions for appointment, the cadres proposed to be appointed must have at least 03 consecutive years until the time of the appointment process to be evaluated and classified as having completed their task or higher (applicable from 2019).

Regarding consideration for promotion of professional titles, the cadres must have at least three consecutive years until the time of consideration for promotion to be assessed as having successfully completed their tasks or higher (applicable from 2018).

Regarding rewards, the cadres who have excellently completed their tasks for two consecutive years are recommended to be awarded with the Certificate of Merit by the President of the Academy. If having 5 years of excellently completing their task or more, the cadres will be considered for commendation at higher levels such as the Prime Minister’s Certificate of Merit, or the Labor Medal.

Regarding the additional income bonus, the cadres who have excellently completed their tasks are rated A, successfully completed their tasks are rated B, and completed their tasks are rated C. Those who have not completed their task are not eligible for this bonus (applicable from 2018).

Fourth, the evaluation of cadres is implemented uniformly, democratically, openly, and transparently throughout the Academy and at the same time with the summary and judgement of emulation titles.

According to the Academy’s current regulations, the cadres’ evaluation is performed by the direct manager of the cadres and is applied uniformly from the departmental level to the Academy level. The evaluation results are based on the self-assessment and rating of the individual cadres, the comments of the Party committee, the manager, and the entire personnel of the unit; finally, the assessment and comments of the head of the unit. At the end of the evaluation conference, the head of the unit must publicize the evaluation and rating results in his/her unit. For the Academy level conference, before the Academy’s President issues a decision to recognize the evaluation and rating results, the Academy also consults all personnel on the cadres’ evaluation results within 07 working days. The democratic, public and transparent evaluation and grading process has received high consensus from Academy personnel. Meanwhile, the time of cadres’ evaluation and classification is organized together with the annual review of emulation titles to ensure records and administrative procedures, contributing to creating favorable conditions for officials to submit their documents for reward proposals.

In general, the Party committees and leaders of the units have closely directed the cadres’ evaluation. As a result, the cadres’ evaluation has ensured democracy, objectivity, fairness and accuracy, creating a favorable environment for personnel to improve their qualifications and capacity to meet the requirements of assigned tasks.

2. The association between cadres’ evaluation with the work of emulation and commendation.

Over the years, the evaluation of cadres and the judgement of emulation titles and rewards have been managed and implemented synchronously and uniformly throughout the Academy. The cadres’ evaluation is associated with the judgement of emulation titles, which has ensured the quality of the commendation work, avoiding formalities, reducing administrative procedures and time for organizing conferences. The simultaneous implementation of cadres’ evaluation and the judgement of emulation titles, and the merging of these two activities into one guiding document have received positive support from most of the units.

Cadres’ evaluation contributes to making the judgement of emulation titles and reward forms simpler. The documents guiding the evaluation of cadres, the regulations on emulation and commendation have omitted the specific emulation criteria for each personnel’s job position. The evaluation of emulation titles is simpler because the level of task performance has been shown in the results of cadres’ evaluation, while still ensuring the compliance with the provisions of current law. The use of cadres’ evaluation results shortened the process of judging emulation titles, and at the same time helped emulation and commendation work become more substantive.

3. Solutions to improve the effectiveness of associating cadres’ evaluation with judgement of emulation and commendation.

First, it is imperative to strengthen the leadership and direction of the Party Committee and the Academy’s President for cadres’ evaluation and emulation and commendation work.

The Academy’s Party committee, the Academy’s President, and heads of affiliate units pay due attention to leading and directing the development of standards and evaluation criteria for each type of cadres; in which, the evaluation criteria must ensure comprehensiveness (on work aspects for the collective, on the requirements of quality and capacity for individuals), specificity according to the requirements of each job position, but with focus and relevance to reality. It is necessary to associate the responsibilities of the heads of the Party committees, agencies, and units with the quality of performing political tasks and grassroots democracy regulations. Directing agencies and units to strictly follow the process, standards, criteria, and principles in cadres’ evaluation, and emulation and commendation work; ensuring consistency between the results of the quality evaluation of performing political tasks by collectives and cadres with the results of judement of and proposal for rewards in emulation movements and performing political tasks of the Academy. It is also required to strengthen monitoring, supporting, and inspecting the performance of cadres’ evaluations of agencies and units in the emulation sessions, periodical school year, unexpected tasks, scientific research tasks. It is important to direct agencies and units to well implement communication and education to put emulation activities into the practice of cadres’ work, study, and daily life.

Second, it is necessary to continue to improve the system of documents guiding the performance of cadres’ evaluation associated with emulation and commendation in the direction of maximizing qualitative achievements in performing assigned tasks.

It is significant to clearly define the purpose of cadres’ evaluation in order to accurately and objectively assess the capacity to perform assigned tasks, continue to perform stages of personnel work such as planning, training, fostering, rotation, appointment, dismissal, reward, even discipline. In addition, the objective of cadres’ evaluation must be determined to gear towards judgement of emulation and commendation titles in accordance with the issued criteria. Completing the system of criteria for evaluating and ranking cadres and judgement of emulation and commendation, focusing on specific conditions and standards for each emulation object in each organization. Consolidating the structure and composition of the emulation and commendation councils at all levels, upgrading and perfecting the organizational apparatus, and full-time, part-time officers in charge of emulation and commendation at the Academy and its affiliated institutes. Using a variety of methods of performance evaluation in emulation and commendation activities. Flexibly applying the assessment of learners to teachers in taking feedback sheets for judgement of emulation and commendation. Using grading for scientific research works of lecturers; flexibly applying innovation criteria to the results of scientific research projects at all levels. It is required to continue to organize well the contest “Excellent lecturers at all levels”.

Completing regulations on standards and procedures for assessing the performance of responsibilities and duties of cadres associated with judgement of emulation and commendation. The Academy’s leaders direct the development of a system of criteria for evaluating the performance of cadres’ tasks according to the capacity and quality of the work performed; clear categorization into the following subjects: leaders and managers; specialists and equivalents, lecturers. Renewing the process of evaluation and judgement of emulation and commendation to comply with current regulations and simplify administrative procedures, combining meetings in the process of evaluation and judgement of emulation and commendation according to the principles: launching the emulation movement according to the evaluation criteria to classify the level of task performance and judge emulation titles, rewards according to annual contributions. It is able to apply the formula: results of judgement of emulation and commendation equal to the level of evaluation standards and the result of grading plus the number of votes of the emulation and commendation judgement councils at all levels.

Third, it is required to consolidate the inspection of cadres’ evaluation, and judgement of emulation and commendation

Determining the correct principles, methods and contents of inspection to build the process of inspecting and evaluating the performance of cadres and focusing on innovating methods of assessment, focusing on conditions and standards in the judgement of emulation and commendation.

Fourth, it is important to strengthen the coordination between units in the Academy to improve the quality of cadres’ evaluation associated with judgement of emulation and commendation.

Establishing a mechanism of coordination among the Department of Training Management, Department of Scientific Management, Board of Emulation - Commendation, Board of Inspection, Office and so on to synchronously perform the evaluation in association with judgement of emulation and commendation of the Academy’s cadres. Improving the sense of responsibility of each individual to ensure the quick and effective implementation of the assigned works in accordance with the functions and tasks of each unit.

Dr. NGO THI HAI ANH

Department of Organization and Personnel,

Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics