Chapter 577

At the meeting, Lu Fan hinted that after the city-wide institutional reform concludes, he will step down from his post as Nanyuan City Municipal Party Secretary; at that time, a position will open up both on the Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee and among the Vice Mayors, which will be filled by promoting from among the County Party Secretaries, thereby freeing up some leadership posts for the institutional reform.

Hearing this, Mayor Su Xiang Hai and Deputy Secretary Wang Hong felt reassured; indeed, it's good to lean on a big tree! With the secretary in place, their advancement is guaranteed.

On February 10, Yang Bo, the first director of Nanyuan City's Development and Reform Commission, was the first to submit the "Institutional Reform Plan"; Lu Fan personally reviewed and approved it.

On February 12, the Municipal Development and Reform Commission held a mobilization meeting for public institution institutional reform, and Municipal Party Secretary Lu Fan attended the meeting.

At the meeting, Yang Bo announced: following the spirit of the Municipal Party Committee's documents, the 15 public institutions under the Municipal Development and Reform Commission are included in the reform scope. For public institutions with similar responsibilities, single functions, and scattered setup, following the principle of 'merge where possible, reduce where possible, abolish where possible,' efforts will focus on merging and streamlining small, scattered, and weak public institutions.

After the reform, the public institutions under the Municipal Development and Reform Commission were streamlined by nine, with three newly established, one retained, one newly set up, and one kept as is, reducing the institution staffing quota by 128 positions.

Lu Fan fully affirmed the Municipal Development and Reform Commission's work style and effectiveness, which were a step ahead, and said that all city-level departments should look up to it; the Municipal Party Committee will coordinate and arrange for surplus leadership cadres, supporting the reform of the Municipal Development and Reform Commission.

Within just a week, they had completed the reform for the municipal-level department with the most staff; various units, upon hearing the news, sprang into action and successively submitted their "Institutional Reform Plans".

Municipal Organization Department Head Feng Guanqiao, the director of the Municipal Institutional Office, and the head of the Human Resources Bureau simply moved into Municipal Party Secretary Lu Fan's office to work on the job, studying the submitted "Plans" from morning till night.

On February 13, the Municipal Parks Bureau held a mobilization meeting for public institution reform, with great intensity! Streamline 15 public institutions! Cut the institution staffing quota by 705!

On February 14, the Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Bureau held a mobilization meeting for public institution reform, streamlining eight institutions: three to be retained, two to maintain the status quo, and one to have its affiliation adjusted.

The Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau held a mobilization meeting, integrating the original 21 public institutions into six, streamlining 15 public institutions.

On February 15, the Municipal Industry and Information Technology Bureau held a full-system mobilization meeting, streamlining five public institutions, retaining four, and reducing the institution staffing quota by 72.

The agricultural system's public institutions were streamlined to ten!

On February 16, the public institutions under the Municipal Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau were streamlined from twenty-six to ten; Municipal Party Secretary Lu Fan attended the unveiling ceremony and emphasized that the newly established units should raise their standing, unify their thinking, implement responsibilities firmly, keep steady steps, keep pace, ensure the reform's main content is fully completed; they must enforce discipline strictly, hold to the bottom line, and resolutely ensure orders are carried out and prohibitions observed.

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Various units successively took action, vying to be first in carrying out institutional reform, because everyone knows that Secretary Lu will not always hold two posts; when he leaves, the city will inevitably undergo a large-scale personnel adjustment, and reform of public institutions is everyone's best opportunity to perform. If they do the job well, they stand a good chance of being promoted and given greater responsibility, making the benefits of their current unit seem trivial.

Municipal-level departments, following the timelines and work requirements set by the Municipal Party Committee, benchmarked against standards, reverse-scheduled work periods, and fully pushed forward the implementation of reform tasks, adhering to the principles of 'establish before breaking, no establishment no breaking' and 'first combine then rationalize' to advance reform, ensuring that thinking remains orderly, work does not stop, teams do not scatter, and vigor does not wane.

By the end of February, municipal-level departments had satisfactorily completed the public institution reform task: abolishing and merging small-scale, under-tasked, development-mismatched, low-social-benefit public institutions, the municipal public institutions were greatly streamlined from 389 to the current 216, recovering a total of 4,700 institution staffing positions.

The 42 newly established municipal public institutions have all been equipped with leadership teams, completed corporate registration as public institutions, and displayed their plaques externally, carrying out work under their newly assigned functions.

As for the recovered institution staffing quota, Lu Fan's idea is to allocate part of it toward the public service sector, fully supporting universal, basic, and safety-net livelihood construction to safeguard public health, veteran services, talent introduction, cultural development, and other undertakings. The remaining 30%–40% will be completely sealed off to ease the fiscal burden.

Starting March 1, the institutional reform of all counties and districts in Nanyuan City kicked off.

On March 2, Nan County fired the first shot, focusing on the requirements of 'slimming down' and 'improving quality,' it resolved issues of overlapping institutional functions, cross responsibilities, and low efficiency, consolidating 186 public institutions involved in the reform into 40, and reducing the institution staffing quota from 2,136 to 856.

On March 3, the Zhenping County Party Committee issued a notice launching the county-wide public institution reform, requiring that all personnel transfers, post changes, promotions, and rank elevations be suspended outright! For those already on the agenda, postpone the procedures for reporting appointment filings; for those who have completed recommendation and inspection, stop submitting them for review; for those who have not yet conducted recommendation and inspection, stop conducting them! Effective immediately, no further personnel filing or approval will be accepted! A blanket cut, all units must implement this unconditionally.

On March 4, Municipal Party Secretary Lu Fan conducted research on the institutional reform of public institutions in Wolong District, emphasizing that Wolong District is the 'main show' of the city-wide reform; one must fully grasp the reform spirit, stay close to Wolong's realities, adhere to law, regulations, and institutional needs, and genuinely reshape substantive public institutions. Targeting inaccurate functional positioning, dispersed forces, and the mixing of politics and administration, vigorously consolidate and merge institutions. Enforce political discipline strictly, ensuring that thinking remains orderly, teams do not scatter, work does not stop, and intensity does not wane. Promptly assess and resolve risks and contradictions, so that new and old institutions replace each other smoothly and orderly, and transferred personnel are properly placed.

After the research concluded, Lu Fan had a half-hour private conversation with Wolong District Party Secretary Li Yuan.

During the talk, Lu Fan straightforwardly proposed recommending Li Yuan for the position of Executive Vice Mayor of Nanyuan City.

Li Yuan replied with gratitude: 'I will always remember the secretary's kindness in promoting me! From now on, whenever you give an order, secretary, I will faithfully carry it out.'

Lu Fan has been pondering personnel adjustments in the city these past few days: Mayor Su Xiang Hai will serve as Municipal Party Secretary, Deputy Secretary Wang Hong will be promoted to mayor, and Executive Vice Mayor Zhao Haorui will be adjusted to Deputy Municipal Party Secretary; this had long been decided and will not be changed.

After careful consideration, Lu Fan intends to adjust Li Yuan to Executive Vice Mayor, Propaganda Department Head Li Mu Ci to Vice Mayor on the Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee, United Front Work Department Head Gao Bao to be promoted as Chairman of the Municipal Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and Municipal Party Committee Secretary Dou Zhengyang to be adjusted as Wolong District Party Committee Secretary.

As for Discipline Inspection Committee Secretary Du Wenlong and Organization Department Head Feng Guanqiao, they will remain unchanged for now; Lu Fan plans to strongly recommend Du Wenlong for a position in a higher-level Discipline Inspection Commission, whether central or provincial. As for Feng Guanqiao, he will see if he can be transferred to another city to serve as Deputy Municipal Party Secretary or Executive Vice Mayor.

In this way, the posts of Propaganda Department Head, United Front Work Department Head, Municipal Party Committee Secretary, and two Vice Mayors will be vacant; Lu Fan prepares to promote five outstanding County Party Secretaries to work in the city, while the remaining County Party Secretaries will rotate posts, moving from 'weak counties' to 'strong counties' and from 'small counties' to 'large counties'.

Next, five bureau directors will be selected from municipal-level departments to serve as County Party Secretaries, with the initial intention being for finance, development and reform, administrative approval, transportation, and agriculture.

Then, five county chiefs will be selected to return to the city to serve as the directors of these five major bureaus, and another five individuals will be chosen from among deputy county party secretaries and the heads of municipal-level departments to take up the posts of county chief.

Finally, a batch of people will be promoted to fill vacancies; after going through this round of adjustments, a total of forty to fifty individuals will be promoted, given greater responsibility, or transferred—this is the charm of personnel work! Just five positions can completely shift the city's personnel landscape; each person moving forward a small step will ultimately lead to universal satisfaction.

After the overall plan was set, Lu Fan began frequently talking with leading cadres, releasing some ambiguous signals in advance, at the very least making it clear during promotions who the key to the problem is.

Having painted a grand 'big pie,' the leaders at all levels of Nanyuan City became energized as if injected with chicken blood, and public institution institutional reform turned into a political task and the top priority of the moment, with all counties and districts vying to be first to launch work.

On March 10, the Provincial Reform Leading Group, the Provincial Party Committee Organization Department, and the Provincial Party Committee Institutional Office conducted an evaluation and acceptance of Nanyuan City's public institution reform pilot work, marking the completion of the public institution reform work in Nanyuan City.

In this reform pilot, Nanyuan City adhered to combining 'slimming down' with 'strengthening,' and carried out extensive consolidation of 'small, scattered, and weak' institutions and units of the same type and nature.

At the municipal and county levels, they abolished and merged ten department-affiliated government service centers and seventeen department-affiliated information centers; at the county level, they conducted cross-departmental, cross-field integration of seventeen units concerning regional governance, grid management, and inspection and testing; they consolidated 440 units belonging to departments with similar functions into 152.

They consolidated the five types of social insurance administration agencies into a 'one-stop service,' directly reducing the total number of municipal and county-level social insurance administration agencies from sixty-two to seventeen.

At the township level, the abolished public institutions are of the 'seven stations, eight houses' type, mainly: (1) real estate management offices, agricultural machinery stations, agricultural technology stations, water conservancy stations, urban construction stations, family planning stations, cultural stations, broadcasting stations, economic management stations, passenger transport stations, etc.; (2) stations and houses under dual management by county-level departments and townships, including judicial offices, land offices, finance offices, police stations, forestry stations, courts, and clinics, etc.; (3) institutions under 'item-by-item management,' including tax offices, post offices, power supply stations, industry and commerce offices, and credit cooperatives, etc. All these institutions were merged into township economic development service centers and township social development service centers.

They no longer retain municipal public institutions with ten or fewer staff or county public institutions with five or fewer staff, effectively enhancing the overall function of public institutions, further improving duty performance, and effectively stimulating public institution vitality.

Across the city, a total of 1,105 public institutions were included in the scope; through reform optimization and streamlining, they were reduced to 681, recovering 8,755 institution staffing positions, eliminating weak points, and promoting optimal allocation of public institution resources.

When the results of the public institution reform were tallied, nobody expected that Nanyuan's reform intensity would be so great, simply shocking to hear!