Chapter 547: with translation of chapter title

Setting down his water cup, Lu Fan spoke solemnly: "Organization department cadres are a banner; everyone's eyes are fixed on the organization department cadres, looking to them as a model. For example, when carrying out a certain task, others will say the Organization Department does it this way. Even at quitting time, people will say, 'The Organization Department has left work, so we can leave too.'"

Of course, if there is a blemish, it will be magnified many times over. For example, violations of discipline and law; thus, once an organization department cadre violates discipline and law, the impact is quite bad. Therefore, everyone must hold themselves to stricter standards, whether it is document issuance and format standards, or work procedures and approval processes, all need to be more perfected.

Managing cadres cannot rely solely on supervision by the discipline inspection department; more importantly, we must grasp the entry point, especially to eliminate promotions of those with problems. You are the ones who hold this entry valve.

As the saying goes, "If the beam is not straight, the rafters will be crooked." Someone once told me that no matter how inadequate a person is, once they are "confirmed," regardless of any shortcomings, their assessment report will be all praise. For example, being arbitrary and domineering will be called "having charisma"; if they eat and drink all day, it will be said they have strong communication and coordination skills; if they like to pull strings, their work flexibility will be emphasized......

So, in the process of selecting and employing people and in the assessment stage, how can we be compliant? How do we confirm candidates? We must eliminate all unreasonable and incorrect personnel orientations, and reflect the recommendation process in promotions.

Everyone should engrave the words "value fairness, excel in business, have good conduct" deep in their minds, rather than cast them aside; it's like a water source: if this pool is polluted, the water released will definitely be sewage, undrinkable.

In reality, some of our leaders treat symposiums as work reporting meetings, soliciting opinions but speaking off-topic, spouting boilerplate, empty words, and self-promotion; some meetings have huge attendances, with accompanying phenomena occurring from time to time, needlessly draining the energy of the staff; some documents mechanically copy superior requirements, establishing systems by "copying the gourd," lacking practical relevance and operability; some documents are merely "going through the motions," with layers of signatures but essentially a single signature, and those involved "know nothing about the content"; some officials put on airs, only wanting to be officials, not to do work……All these are "stumbling blocks" on the path of taking exams well and forging ahead on the new journey; the Organization Department will absolutely not tolerate them!

The reason these problems arise is ultimately a misaligned performance view, a distorted power view, and a lack of responsibility. To eradicate the soil in which formalism and bureaucratism take root and spread, we must absolutely not treat saying something as having done it, or doing something as having achieved it. Keep your eyes downward, always bear in mind "Wearing the official hat to serve the people, not covering the official hat to serve oneself," and in response to the work requirements of the Provincial Party Committee and the department, act upon hearing orders, be swift and resolute, grasp quickly and finish promptly, achieving that doing one thing completes it, doing one task finishes it.

Comrades, starting today, the Organization Department should optimize work processes, avoid window dressing, reduce unnecessary formalities; meetings should be short, speeches brief, speak less about what should be done and more about how to do it, truly achieving "short if there is something to say, omitted if there is nothing"; issued documents should grasp the key points and guide practice; some thematic documents should get straight to the point, presenting substantive content, offering more concrete measures, so that what to do and to what extent are clear at a glance, enabling the grassroots to understand and implement easily.

When assessing cadres, we should observe their words and actions—not only what they say, but more importantly what they do; not only what they do, but also what they have accomplished.

I often say in Nanyuan: judge heroes by actual performance, rank seats by contribution, employ cadres based on actual performance, establishing a clear personnel orientation where the capable rise, the average step aside, the mediocre are demoted, and the inferior are eliminated, so that those who want to undertake things and dare to do so have opportunity and vigor, and those who can and are willing to undertake things have a stage and a position! That set of crooked ways doesn't work with me!

For those who are lax in work, irresponsible, and engage in formalism and bureaucratism, we must use organizational means to adjust them!

Lu Fan's speech shocked everyone in the Organization Department and plunged them into deep thought. "With a new emperor, new ministers." When leadership changes, the entire unit's work style must change; to avoid being eliminated, one must keep pace with the top leader.

Just one meeting brought about an immediate transformation in the Organization Department's work style; everyone unconsciously raised their own work standards, especially regarding reporting and updating the department head, striving to maintain practicality and efficiency as soon as possible.

In the afternoon, Political and Legal Committee Secretary Wang Jinwu came for a casual visit.

After some small talk, Wang Jinwu put forward the Political and Legal Committee's internal adjustment plan.

After reviewing it, Lu Fan said: "Adjustments of cadres at the division level and below only need to be filed with the Organization Department; is this trivial matter really worth you coming specially to tell me? Can I still 'block' it?"

Wang Jinwu laughed and said: "Our Political and Legal Committee hasn't sent cadres out for some years, leaving the interior like a stagnant pool, lacking initiative and proactivity in work. I don't expect the bureau level, I know this needs Secretary Tang's approval, but does the Organization Department have autonomy over deputy bureau level? At least let me recommend one cadre to go out, so we can rotate internally; being the Political and Legal Committee Secretary is no easy job!"

This matter put Lu Fan in a difficult position; although a vacancy had opened up, he still wanted to reserve it for Nanyuan's cadres.

After thinking, Lu Fan said: "Secretary Wang, this adjustment scope is relatively small, just those five. If there is no suitable opportunity this time, I will definitely consider it prioritized in the next adjustment."

Wang Jinwu said: "As long as you keep it in mind, that's fine; afterwards I will have our Deputy Secretary Wang He report work to you." He knew recommending cadres cannot be done overnight; first one must register and queue in the Organization Department, then wait for an opportunity.

September 3, Lu Fan returned to Nanyuan City, accompanied by Deputy Ministers Zou Weipeng and Wu Yunhui, Department of Human Resources and Social Security Director Fan Jiarui, Secretary Li Yu, Office Director Tan Yiqiao, and other leaders, responsible for arranging the provincial recruitment examination work field meeting.

Upon arriving in Nanyuan, Deputy Secretary Wang Hong and Organization Department Head Feng Guanjo were responsible for reception, while Lu Fan returned to the office to handle official duties.

Before he could even warm his seat, upon learning that the secretary had returned, Nanyuan's leading cadres flooded in to report work within less than an hour.

First, the standing committee members came to report work, mainly to congratulate the secretary. All county and district secretaries, county chiefs, and heads of municipal departments lined up in Secretary Cheng Haohao's office.

Lu Fan could not ignore personal feelings, so Cheng Haohao instructed everyone that each person should not exceed five minutes; everyone is busy, just meet briefly, exchange pleasantries, and no one is allowed to bring gifts, not even tea or cigarettes!

Thus, Lu Fan spent a day meeting with Nanyuan's leading cadres, and got no work done.

The next morning, Lu Fan directly closed doors to visitors and focused on handling work.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the provincial recruitment examination field meeting was convened.

Deputy Minister Lin Dian, who also heads the Civil Service Administration Bureau, and Deputy Minister Fan Jiarui, who concurrently serves as director of the Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, made work arrangements and announced: 33 provincial-level units and 17 provincially administered cities, demonstration zones, and aviation ports are participating in this joint examination. A total of 1,920 units are involved, with 7,002 positions to be recruited.

Nanyuan Municipal Party Committee Organization Department Head Feng Guanjo shared experience.

Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee member and Organization Department Head Lu Fan delivered an important speech: "Comrades, the provincial examination concerns the vital interests of the vast number of examinees and relates to the overall examination and recruitment work; we must strictly enforce examination discipline, crack down on cheating, maintain examination order, uphold the principles of fairness, justice, competition, and selection of the best, and truly select outstanding talents into the civil service ranks."

From the perspective of institutional design, our examination rules have nearly reached perfection; the opportunity for those involved to 'rely on connections and go through the back door' is minuscule, and the probability of success is almost zero.

I will focus on the interview: what format to adopt, how to ensure fairness and justice in interview work, which concerns the vast number of examinees and their parents, and is watched by all sectors of society. Some examinees worry whether the interview will involve 'cat grease' or whether positions will be 'internally decided'; whether interviewers will award 'favor points' or 'relationship points' and whether staff will transmit examination questions and examinee information.

To eliminate this situation, we must cut off the possible interest chain between examiners and examinees during the interview, and the interview process must be under the supervision of the discipline inspection and supervision department!

We must strictly achieve the "three isolations": examiners isolated from examinees, examination rooms isolated from waiting rooms, examination zones isolated from the outside world, implementing full closed management, striving to create a good fair competition environment for examinees' interviews.

We must strictly implement the "three draws": examiners draw lots to determine interview rooms, examinees draw lots to determine interview appearance order, staff draw lots to determine examinee grouping and corresponding rooms, so that examiners do not know beforehand which room they will interview, examinees are unclear about the order of appearance, and each examination room does not understand the correspondence between examinee groups and rooms.

We must strictly enforce the "three checkpoints": setting up gates between examination rooms and waiting rooms, and between score recording and score announcement; ensuring examiners are randomly drawn from the examiner pool, staff implement a segment-based responsibility system, with waiting room and interview examination room staff duties not crossing, thereby cutting off contact channels between examiners and staff in the interview room and examinees in the waiting room.

We must strictly enforce the "three no communications": examiners' independent scoring must not be exchanged, during the interview examiners must not communicate with staff, and during midday rest examiners from different rooms must not communicate. Examiners must conduct cross-regional communication, uniformly organized and temporarily notified; off-site examiners gather to depart the day before the interview, and before departure they still do not know where they are going.

Comrades, sunlight is the best preservative. As long as it does not involve examination secrets, everything that can be made public we will disclose to society, including on-the-spot tallying and announcement of interview scores; full audio-visual recording of the interview process ensures the interview work is traceable and verifiable; news reporters entering the examination hall directly to participate in supervision turn examination and recruitment into "competition in a glass house," using publicity to promote fairness and justice!

Finally, I emphasize one point: for corrupt practices in recruitment work, reports must be investigated, corruption must be countered, and we have zero tolerance for corrupt elements, with strict punishment!