Mekong Delta: State employees unexpectedly ‘emigrate’

17:20' 30/04/2008 (GMT+7)
The People's Committee of Ngoc Hien District, Ca Mau Province
VietNamNet Bridge - A series of state employees in provinces in the Mekong Delta have quit their jobs, resulting in a scarcity of talents within state agencies.
Losing tons of money on training
More than 310 state employees in Ca Mau province have quit their jobs in the past three years.
The reason, according to the Ca Mau Department of Home Affairs, is low income. State employees aren’t able to support their families and the pay is incommensurate with their abilities.
Some provinces in the Mekong Delta, such as Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Hau Giang, have issued many preferential policies to attract talents to state agencies. Particularly, Ca Mau spends between VND28-30 billion (US$1.75-1.875 million) for training and improving the qualifications of its state employees. This is a large fund for a small province like Ca Mau.
According to the Ca Mau Department of Home Affairs, the province trained more than 93,000 state employees from 2001 to 2007, including 5,976 people at the graduate level, over 500 people at post-graduate level and 3 trained abroad. In this period, other Mekong Delta provinces like Bac Lieu, Hau Giang and Soc Trang also invested VND25, 20 and 30 billion in this task, respectively.
Can’t hold state employees
Nguyen Binh Dang, Director of the Project Management Board of Ngoc Hien district, Ca Mau province, said: “Most of our staffs live in Nam Can (30km from Ngoc Hien district by river-way). Sometimes they miss the ferry so they have to come to the office by high-speed boat, which is very costly.”
As the trip is very difficult, engineer Phan Hoang Phong, an employee of the Ngoc Hien District Project Management Board, said goodbye to the agency to seek a new job at Vinashin Ca Mau, which is based in Nam Can.
Le Van Khang, Vice Chairman of the Ngoc Hien Commune People’s Committee, said the committee doesn’t have a spacious office yet. Over 90% of the committee lives in Nam Can and they have to go to the office by ferry. As the working and travelling conditions are poor, many employees are discouraged.
Ngoc Hien is the remotest district of Ca Mau. It is surrounded by two big rivers which boast no bridge.
Cao Van Thuong from Tan An commune said: “To do any administrative formality, I have to wake up at 3 in the morning to go to the People’s Committee (of Ngoc Hien district). I’m a hamlet office but my allowance is not sufficient to pay for travelling costs.”
In Bac Lieu province, state-owned hospitals are losing their best doctors to private ones. Tran Van Khanh, Director of the Bac Lieu General Hospital, said since 2000, his hospital has lost seven experienced doctors.
Policies need to be changed
At present, all state employees are under a common salary policy. Both technicians and normal employees enjoy the same wage levels. Each province applies its own policies in attracting talents.
The People’s Committee of Ca Mau province has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to raise the salaries of state employees, especially commune-level officials: state employees’ monthly incomes must be equal to or higher than the average received by workers of non-state agencies.