PM Nguyen Tan Dung. Photo by nld.com.vn

“I was once informed of a case in which an official arranged 300 positions before he retired," Dung said. "He should be held responsible for any problems that arise from that."

This was unbelievable!

Earlier, the director of HCM City's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Nguyen Thanh Rum, had made the shocking decision of promoting 30 staff in his department right before his retirement.

However, the most shocking prior-to-retirement decision was back in 2011 when former chief government inspector Tran Van Truyen promoted 60 officials at department level before leaving his post.

And now it is clear that what Rum and Truyen did were nothing compared to that done by the official revealed by PM Nguyen Tan Dung.

The official who could arrange positions for 300 staff must hold a major position in a government agency, because this number is equivalent to the total number of staff at the office of a city or provincial people's committee.

The public may wonder how many among these 300 staff would be able to do their jobs properly. It is difficult to tell exactly, but basing on Deputy PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc's recent statement that up to 30 percent of local public servants aren’t capable of doing their jobs, some 100 were probably not worth the promotion. As PM Phuc said, these are the kind of people who  "every morning go to work and then go home in the evening without doing anything really useful".

The public should be angry when knowing that many of these 300 staff may get promotions not for their ability and efforts but for their relationships and bribes following NA Deputy Do Van Duong's comment that the government is spending a quarter of the state budget on paying employees.

If only the PM was harder on these officials as outlined in a proposal from NA Deputy Duong Trong Nghia on March 29, “If the PM dismissed ministers and provincial chairmen when they did not fulfil their tasks, and if the PM issued stricter punishments for leaders of state enterprises responsible for serious wrongdoings, there would be less violations by state officials.

Yes, if only the PM took harder actions!