Anhui has selected 4 counties (districts) for pilot projects, and the reform of small county institutions has been promoted through research in multiple provinces | Department | Shanxi | Pilot | Provincial Party Committee | Reform | Population | Institutions

The institutional reform of small counties is being rapidly piloted and implemented in Anhui.

A reporter from Pengpai News found that on July 17th, a netizen left a message on the leadership message board of People's Daily, suggesting to promote the institutional reform of small counties with a population in Anhui Province.

The netizen stated that in order to reduce the administrative costs and financial burden of counties, improve the operational efficiency of functional departments, and promote high-quality development of counties, many regions such as Shanxi have implemented institutional reforms in "small population counties". For counties with relatively small populations, they have significantly streamlined and compressed their institutions and personnel, simplified their procedures, improved their efficiency, and reduced wage and operating expenses.

The netizen believes that there are also many counties and districts in Anhui Province with a population of less than 300000. It is suggested that our province learn from the reform experience of Shanxi and other places, streamline and compress the organization and personnel structure of small population counties, and adjust the ratio of total population to financial support personnel to a reasonable range.

In response to this, the Compilation Office of the Anhui Provincial Party Committee stated on July 25th that county-level governance is an important part of promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, and plays a crucial role in national governance. The Anhui Provincial Party Committee attaches great importance to county-level governance and requires the Provincial Party Committee to learn from the reform practices of Shanxi and other regions, and explore county-level governance models that adapt to the characteristics of small population counties. According to the requirements of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Party Committee Compilation Office conducted in-depth research, carefully planned, and made a lot of preliminary preparations, proposing relevant suggestions for the pilot reform of institutions in small population counties in Anhui Province.

The Anhui Provincial Party Committee Editorial Office stated that with the approval of the Provincial Party Committee Editorial Committee, four counties with relatively small permanent populations have been selected throughout the province to carry out pilot reforms of small county institutions, and a special team for reform work in the province and related cities and counties has been established to coordinate and promote the pilot work. According to the division of responsibilities, the Provincial Party Committee Editorial Office conscientiously implements the requirements of the reform pilot work of the Provincial Party Committee Editorial Committee, conducts multiple in-depth investigations in pilot counties, and understands the progress of the work; Organize relevant officials from pilot counties and cities to visit Shanxi Province for inspection and learn from experience and practices; In conjunction with pilot counties, we will study and coordinate specific measures to optimize the establishment of party, government, and public institutions, and focus on optimizing the responsibility system and organizational structure of small population counties, effectively reducing the burden of financial support. At present, various pilot tasks are being carried out in an orderly manner. Next, we will actively and steadily promote the pilot work of institutional reform in small population counties in conjunction with the new round of local institutional reform.

According to a previous report by Pengpai News, the website of the Bowang District Government in Ma'anshan, Anhui Province, announced on March 29 this year that in order to implement the requirements of the Provincial Party Committee Editorial Committee on the pilot work of institutional reform in small population counties, Wang Tao, Deputy Director of the Power and Responsibility List Department of the Provincial Party Committee Editorial Office, and his delegation recently conducted a survey on the pilot work of institutional reform in small population counties in Bowang District.

The permanent population of Bowang District is 162000. According to the news, Wang Tao and his delegation held a special symposium around the fields of economic regulation and social management, exchanging basic information and existing problems in the economic and social development, functional operation, government management, grassroots governance, and other aspects of the entire region. They extensively listened to the opinions and suggestions of the district's department heads on reform work.

According to official disclosure, in November 2022, Bowang District of Ma'anshan City was designated as a pilot area for innovation in the reform and governance model of small population counties in the province. The plan is to use about a year to conduct research, exploration, and simulation to innovate new models of modernization in county governance.

In addition to Anhui, other provinces such as Hunan, Shanxi, and Qinghai have also been actively promoting the pilot reform of small population county institutions recently.

For example, according to the news of "Loufan Organization" on WeChat official account, on June 7, Zhang Jixiang, deputy director of the Editorial Office of the CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee, and Chen Long, deputy director of the Editorial Office of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee, visited Loufan County to investigate the pilot work of institutional reform in small population counties.

According to the news, the research team carefully reviewed the historical background, reform process, highlights, characteristics, and effectiveness of the institutional reform in Loufan County, and inquired in detail about the experience and practices of the operation of the majority system and comprehensive administrative law enforcement reform. They also discussed and studied the current work. The research team pointed out that Shanxi province took the lead and creatively proposed the institutional reform of small population counties. As the second batch of reform pilot projects, Loufan County takes a quasi political direction, strengthens its mission and responsibility, and carves out a reform path with Loufan characteristics, providing reference and reference for the reform of the province and even the whole country. The achievements are worthy of recognition, and the experience is worth summarizing.

There are a large number of small counties with a population of less than 150000 in Shanxi Province, and there are prominent problems such as imbalanced proportion of financial support personnel and overcrowding. Since 2020, six pilot counties in Shanxi Province have been exploring institutional reform in small counties with a population. The focus of reform includes increasing the restructuring and integration of party and government institutions with similar functions, and transforming "single soldier combat" into "corps siege"; Simplify the middle level of party and government departments, streamline the establishment of internal institutions, improve communication between superiors and subordinates, and address the issue of multiple political outlets; Significantly streamline and compress the organization and personnel structure of public institutions, implement quota management in county-level public institutions, and promote the sinking of staffing resources.

Prior to the current round of inspection by the Hunan Provincial Party Committee Editorial Office, from February 20th to 24th this year, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Party Committee Editorial Office and the Autonomous Region Research Office had conducted joint research in Shanxi to learn from the pilot experience of institutional reform in small population counties in Shanxi Province.

Inner Mongolia introduced that through this joint research, the research team has gained a detailed understanding of the main practices, experiences, and achievements of the pilot reform of population small counties in Shanxi Province. Next, the editorial office of the Party Committee of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region will carefully organize and summarize the results of this external research and learning, and form a research report on the relevant situation, providing decision-making reference for "optimizing institutions, improving efficiency, and saving costs" in Xiaoqi County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

At the end of May this year, the Maduo County Committee appointed a new department leadership team for the pilot of institutional integration in small population counties. On June 4th, the leadership group for the pilot project of institutional integration in Maduo County held a work promotion meeting to further deploy and promote the pilot work. The leadership teams of various new departments attended the meeting. After the meeting, detailed arrangements were made for the work related to institutional listing, certificate replacement, official seal revocation, drafting of "three fixed" and "nine fixed" regulations, and personnel transfer. The relevant departments at the county level provided detailed explanations on the process standards for office allocation, vehicle allocation, asset transfer, fund allocation, official seal engraving, financial asset audit, and other related reform matters.

Maduo County is the administrative county with the smallest population and organizational structure in Qinghai Province. Due to the small size of the organizational structure, the division of organizational functions is too detailed, and there are many similar functions among departments, resulting in the dilution of organizational resources, leading to the small size and scattered strength of various functional institutions, and the inability to fulfill organizational functions effectively.

According to the pilot implementation plan for institutional integration in Mado County's "small population county", after institutional integration, the party and government institutions in Mado County will be streamlined from 25 to 20, and the number of public institutions will be adjusted and optimized from 31 to 28. The law enforcement teams in the five fields of cultural market, transportation, and urban management will be streamlined from 5 to 1, and the number of bureaus with less than 4 people will be reduced by 8.