Joint Circular No. 79/2009/TTLT-BNNPTNT-BNV guiding the ranking of public service units and state-owned services under the agriculture and rural development sector.

JOINT CIRCULAR

Guidelines for ranking public service units and public services under the agriculture and rural development sector

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Pursuant to Decision No. 181/2005/QD-TTg dated July 19, 2005 of the Government on classification and ranking of public service organizations and public services, after coordination with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Ministry of Interior, the following guidelines for ranking public service units and public services under the agriculture and rural development sector are hereby issued:

PART I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of Regulation and Applicability

Public service units and public services that are ranked by competent state agencies according to these joint circulars are public service units and public services with legal personality, having separate accounts and seals, performing functions to serve state management or providing public products and services as stipulated in Article 15 of Decision No. 181/2005/QD-TTg and other public service units and public services (not specified in this Decision) currently operating in the agriculture and rural development sector, including the following types of organizations:

1. Agricultural Extension Centers (or Agricultural Extension - Fisheries Extension Centers).

2. Clean Water and Environmental Sanitation Centers for Rural Areas;

3. Survey Teams for Agricultural, Forestry, and Irrigation Planning;

4. Stations, Farms, Centers: plant protection, animal protection, veterinary, seed breeding or experimental crop and livestock, aquaculture;

5. Management Boards of Fish Ports and Fish Wharfs under the management of the agriculture and rural development sector;

6. Management Boards of Specialized Forests (national parks; nature reserves; scenic protection areas; scientific research and experimental forests);

7. Management Boards of Protective Forests (from forest farms converted to forest management boards);

Article 2. Subjects Not Subject to Application

1. Public service units and public services without legal personality, directly subordinate to public service units and public services mentioned in Article 1 of these joint circulars. The head and deputy heads of such units shall be entitled to the equivalent position allowance of Deputy Directors and Deputy Deputy Directors of public service units and public services ranked according to these joint circulars.

2. Public service units with income, self-financing all regular operational expenses, belonging to the organizational types mentioned in Article 1 of these joint circulars, which have been decided by competent state agencies to be converted into enterprises, shall be ranked according to enterprise ranking guidelines issued by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs.

3. Universities, colleges, vocational high schools; vocational training institutions (schools or centers); scientific and technological organizations; medical facilities for diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitation; magazines under the agriculture and rural development sector shall follow the ranking guidelines issued by the relevant ministries managing education and training, labor, invalids, and social affairs, science and technology, health, information, and communication sectors.

Article 3. Purpose, Principles, and Implementation Period of Ranking

1. The ranking of public service units and public services aims to specifically determine the leadership position allowances for the heads, deputies of the heads, and chiefs and deputies of assisting organizations within public service units and public services; to determine the positions and organizational scales of each unit in accordance with the分级体系管理。

2. The ranking of public service units and public services must ensure compatibility with the nature, characteristics of activities, and investment and development capabilities for each type of organization under the agriculture and rural development sector, and shall be determined based on the criteria set out in the appendices attached to these joint circulars.

For public service units and public services not clearly defined in terms of organizational type or already specified in Article 15 of Decision No. 181/2005/QD-TTg but placed directly under general bureaus, bureaus, general companies, state-owned companies under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development or Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development (hereinafter referred to collectively as Departments), or state-owned companies under provincial People's Committees, they must be ranked in accordance with Chapter II of these joint circulars to ensure reasonable correlation in the application of leadership position allowances between the direct supervising agency and the public service units and public services directly subordinate to it.

3. For public service units and public services without specific ranking criteria, the ranking shall be carried out according to the principle:

a) Units directly subordinate to higher-level supervising agencies shall be ranked higher than those directly subordinate to lower-level supervising agencies;

b) The heads and deputies of the heads of units shall be entitled to the leadership position allowance equivalent to that of Deputy Directors or Deputy Deputy Directors of the direct supervising agency of the public service units and public services.

4. Public service units and public services that have been ranked, if during their operation they meet the conditions for re-ranking according to the criteria stipulated in the appendices issued along with these joint circulars, the competent authority shall consider and decide on re-ranking after a period of five years (sixty months) from the date of the ranking decision. In special cases below, re-ranking shall be carried out as follows:

a) If public service units and public services change their organizational form, alter their direct supervising level, merge or split (collectively referred to as organizational restructuring), the competent authority shall immediately consider re-ranking from the time the organizational restructuring decision takes effect;

b) If public service units and public services continuously develop and meet the criteria for higher ranking stipulated in the appendices issued along with these joint circulars before the five-year period, they may be considered for early re-ranking to the next higher level, but not earlier than three years (thirty-six months).

Chapter II

SPECIFIC PROVISIONS ON RANKING OF PUBLIC SERVICE UNITS AND PUBLIC SERVICES

Article 4. Classification of public service units and state-owned enterprises

1. The National Agricultural Extension Center, the National Clean Water and Rural Environmental Sanitation Center under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall implement leadership position allowances equivalent to the department level within the Ministry (head of unit: 1.0; deputy head of unit: 0.8; Head of Department and equivalent: 0.6; Deputy Head of Department and equivalent: 0.4).

2. Provincial agricultural extension centers, provincial agricultural and fisheries extension centers shall be classified as second and third rank (Annex 1).

3. Provincial clean water and rural environmental sanitation centers shall be classified as second and third rank (Annex 2).

4. Agricultural, forestry, and irrigation planning investigation teams at the provincial level shall be classified as second and third rank (Annex 3).

5. Plant protection stations, animal protection stations, veterinary stations, breeding or experimental plant and livestock stations, aquaculture stations shall be classified as second and third rank (Annex 4).

6. Fish port management boards, fish landing site management boards shall be classified as second and third rank (Annex 5).

7. Specialized forest management boards: national parks, nature reserves, scenic protection areas, scientific research forests (Annex 6):

a) National parks shall be classified as first, second, and third rank; among which, national parks under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall be classified as first and second rank, while those managed by local authorities shall be classified as second and third rank.

b) Management boards of nature reserves, scenic protection areas, scientific research forests shall be classified as second and third rank.

8. Protective forest management boards shall be classified as second and third rank (Annex 7).

The classification for protective forest management boards converted from state-owned timber enterprises with legal personality shall be carried out according to the provisions of this Joint Circular.

Article 5. Table of leadership position allowances based on classification of public service units and state-owned enterprises

Chapter III

AUTHORITY, DOCUMENTS, AND PROCEDURES FOR CLASSIFICATION

Article 6. Authority to decide on classification

1. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development decides on the classification of public service units and state-owned enterprises under the Ministry;

2. The Chairman of the People's Committee of the province decides on the classification of public service units and state-owned enterprises in the agriculture and rural development sector under provincial management;

3. The Minister managing the sector, the Board of Directors of state-owned corporations and economic groups established by the Prime Minister decides on the classification of public service units and state-owned enterprises operating in the agriculture and rural development sector under their direct management.

Article 7. Documents for requesting classification

1. Request for classification;

2. Decision on establishment or conversion of organization (if applicable).

For public service units classified based on criteria set forth in the annexes issued along with this Joint Circular, in addition to the above documents, the following must also be submitted:

3. Calculation results of points based on average data of the three consecutive years prior to the year of requested classification;

4. List of officials, civil servants, and employees currently working at the unit (applicable to units with classification criteria);

5. Report on approved revenue and expenditure for the three consecutive years prior to the year of requested classification;

6. List of equipment and basic facilities serving professional work;

7. Other relevant documents related to classification criteria.

Article 8. Agency Receiving and Examining Applications

1. The Cadre and Civil Servant Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall receive and examine applications for ranking submitted by public service units and public services under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

2. The Personnel Departments under the People's Committees of provinces shall receive and examine applications for ranking submitted by public service units and public services under the agriculture and rural development sector managed by the province.

3. The organizational agencies of ministries, sectors, state-owned corporations, or economic groups established by decision of the Prime Minister shall receive and examine applications for ranking submitted by public service units and public services under the agriculture and rural development sector managed by the ministry, sector, corporation, or economic group.

Article 9. Time Limit for Ranking Decisions

Within thirty days from the date of receipt of complete and valid applications, the competent authority must issue decisions on ranking public service units and public services.

Chapter IV

IMPLEMENTING PROVISIONS

Article 10. Effective Date

1. This Circular takes effect forty-five days from the date of signature.

2. For public service units not specified in this Circular, they shall be ranked according to the principle set forth in point b, Clause 3, Article 3 of this Circular.

3. Project Management Boards under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and localities shall apply ranking according to the guidelines of this Joint Circular as follows:

a) Agricultural Project Management Boards, Central Water Resources Project Management Boards, and Forestry Project Management Boards under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: Rank one.

b) Regional Water Resources Investment and Construction Management Boards under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: Rank one, rank two (according to the scoring guidance in Appendix 8).

c) Provincial Water Resources Project Management Boards: Rank two, rank three (according to the scoring guidance in Appendix 8).

Article 11. Implementation Organization

1. Public service units that have been ranked since the effective date of this Joint Circular must re-rank accordingly.

2. Public service units or their direct supervisory authorities shall submit applications for ranking to the competent authority within thirty days from the effective date of this Joint Circular.

3. After receiving the decision of the competent state authority regarding the ranking of public service units, the appointing authority shall re-determine the leadership position allowances for eligible recipients from the date the unit is ranked.

4. Subordinate units of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, provincial people's committees, ministries, sectors, and state-owned corporations or economic groups established by decision of the Prime Minister shall annually report by March 15 of the following year on the implementation of ranking public service units and public services under their management according to Appendix 9 issued with this Joint Circular.

During implementation, if there are any difficulties, please reflect them to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for coordination with the Ministry of Home Affairs to study and resolve.