[Vnbiz] Government workers cannot be realestate agents?

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear chi Diu Thuong & CACC,

Thanks for posting, chi Ziu.  Of course that the government has to worry
about conflict of interest and abuse of power by officials.  So some of the
regulation that aims at these problems make sense, such as this part in chi
Diu Thuong's posting:  Cán bộ, công chức không được làm tư vấn cho các doanh
nghiệp, tổ chức kinh doanh, dịch vụ và các tổ chức, cá nhân khác ở trong
nước và nước ngoài về các công việc có liên quan đến bí mật nhà nước, bí mật
công tác, những công việc thuộc thẩm quyền giải quyết của mình và các công
việc khác mà việc tư vấn đó có khả năng gây phương hại đến lợi ích quốc gia.

But to be fair to government workers, the restriction has to be reasonable.
Section 19 of Phap Lenh Cong Chuc chi Ziu Thuong posts appears to be too
broad:  "Người đứng đầu, cấp phó của người đứng đầu cơ quan, vợ hoặc chồng,
bố, mẹ, con của những người đó không được góp vốn vào doanh nghiệp hoạt động
trong phạm vi ngành, nghề mà người đó trực tiếp thực hiện việc quản lý nhà
nước."  Say, if I work in the Ministry of Justice in charge of lawyer
regulations, then my wife cannot be a lawyer?  Or if I am in charge of
regulating real estate, my wife cannot be a real estate agent?

The issue here is conflict of interest (both real conflict and appearance
of conflict).  Then we just have to make the decision on a case-by-case
basis to avoid conflict of interest.  Say, if I am working in Ministry of
Justice on a general rule for the legal procession, the fact that my wife is
a lawyer probably has no bearing on my decision.  And if my boss or I feel
that it may have some bearing on my job, then I just have to stay away from
that issue and let my colleagues at the Ministry of Justice handle that
issue.  Meaning, I "recuse myself" from the case (to prevent conflict of
interest).

The government should have enough rules to keep government officials away
from conflict of interest (and other problems), but it also needs to be able
to keep good people in the government.  Too much unnecessary restrictions
will push away good workers.  And the government needs good workers.  Chi
Ziu is absolutely correct when saying that government workers are leaving
the government en mass because of low salaries and too many unnecessary
restrictions.

My proposal is that:

1.  Allow department heads to be creative and flexible in forming working
schedule for their workers. Say, in the previous example, I propose a four
10-hour-day work week (while the office itself can be open for five 10hr
days, 10 hrs more than a typical office), and give the workers 3 days off a
week.  Or some other arrangement that is convenient for workers (and
also good for the office), like coming in to work from 6 am to 2pm, or from
12 pm to 7pm.  These kinds of arrangements are called flex-time (for
flexible time).  The head of an agency should be allowed to be creative in
this matter to make his agency effective (just like you run your own
business).

2.  Revamp the regulations governing government workers, so the workers
understand conflict of interest and know how to avoid them, but are still
allowed to do their own private business or private jobs if they wish.

Of course, as you go up in ranking in the government, you will face more
restrictions.  But the rule is always the same:  Restrictions should be
placed only when needed.  And if the rules can be applied on a case-by-case
basis, then work on this basis, instead of using blanket prohibitions.

One of the best ways to prevent conflict of interest is to require
government workers to report to their boss what kind of jobs or businesses
they are doing outside the government office, so that the agency may sense
when some conflict of interest may be involved.

The government has to compete with private companies for good workers.
Government, using people's tax money, will never be able to compete with top
private money, but if it is smart enough, it may be able to structure its
working environment sufficiently pleasant to keep lots of good workers.  Not
everyone goes after top money, because top money usually carries with it top
stress.  Besides,  working for the government may give us a better sense of
serving our people.  If we take all these into consideration, we should be
able to structure a very good working environment for government workers.

Have a good day!

Hoanh
_________

2008/2/17 Ziusha T.A. <ziusha at gmail.com>:

> [ Vietnam Business Forum ]
>
>
> Dear anh Hoanh and CACC,
> According to Ordinance on State Officials (Phap lenh Cong chuc *
> 01/1998/PL-UBTVQH10*) which is still in enforcement, Article 17 seems to
> provide regulations for matters of your concern:
>
> Cán bộ, công chức không được thành lập, tham gia thành lập hoặc tham gia
> quản lý, điều hành các doanh nghiệp tư nhân, công ty trách nhiệm hữu hạn,
> công ty cổ phần, hợp tác xã, bệnh viện tư, trường học tư và tổ chức nghiên
> cứu khoa học tư.
>
> Cán bộ, công chức không được làm tư vấn cho các doanh nghiệp, tổ chức kinh
> doanh, dịch vụ và các tổ chức, cá nhân khác ở trong nước và nước ngoài về
> các công việc có liên quan đến bí mật nhà nước, bí mật công tác, những công
> việc thuộc thẩm quyền giải quyết của mình và các công việc khác mà việc tư
> vấn đó có khả năng gây phương hại đến lợi ích quốc gia.
>
> Chính phủ quy định cụ thể việc làm tư vấn của cán bộ, công chức.
>
>  Furthermore,
>
> Điều 19: Người đứng đầu, cấp phó của người đứng đầu cơ quan, vợ hoặc
> chồng, bố, mẹ, con của những người đó không được góp vốn vào doanh nghiệp
> hoạt động trong phạm vi ngành, nghề mà người đó trực tiếp thực hiện việc
> quản lý nhà nước.
> As to brokage, I could not yet found the direcrtly regulated rules but
> general principles "No "outside" business for state officials", which aimed
> for officials' dedicacy, transparency to state duties, are still hard to
> brake. These principles, along with low level of salary, are the main
> reasons of the latest trend of state officials to be employed in private
> sectors.
> Have a nice weekend!
>
> Diu Thuong
>
>
>
> On 2/17/08, Tran Dinh Hoanh <tdhoanh at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > [ Vietnam Business Forum ]
> >
> >
> >
> > Dear CACC,
> >
> > According to the following article, government workers are not allowed
> > to be real estate agent (to help home buyers and sellers buy and sell
> > homes).  My question is why?
> >
> > Everyone has been saying that government doesn't pay their workers
> > enough.  Wouldn't it be better to let workers making money on other jobs in
> > their free time, instead of embezzling public funds and engaging in
> > corruption activities?
> >
> > (If I am the head of a government agency, I would propose that my
> > workers work 4 days a week, 10 hours a day--arranging schedule so that the
> > office itself is open 5 days a week, 10 hours a day, more time than a
> > typical government office that opens only 8 hrs a day--so that everyone will
> > have 3 days off in a week to do their own things, like sleeping or making
> > money on their own business or other jobs).
> >
> > Have a great day!
> >
> > Hoanh
> > __________________
> >
> --
Tran Dinh Hoanh, Esq., LLB, JD
Washington DC
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.saigon.com/pipermail/vnbiz/attachments/20080217/33fc495d/attachment.html