Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security has removed six general departments, 60 departments, and nearly 300 lower-level divisions as part of a major restructuring.

The information was announced during a conference attended by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Hanoi on Tuesday.

The organizational changes are in line with a government decree signed on August 6, Major General Luong Tam Quang, head of the ministry’s office, said at the gathering.

“Units which have similar and relevant mechanisms, functions, and missions have been merged,” Quang elaborated.

Leaders of the scrapped departments and general departments will be allowed to continue their current duties or be transferred to other positions after the ministry reviews their performance, the official told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

During his speech at the event, PM Phuc urged the country’s police force to focus on fighting crimes and promoting the law-abiding spirit.    

He tasked the sector with developing personnel and preventing any degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle to build a pure and strong public security force. 

Major General Le Van Cuong, a former official of the Ministry of Public Security, stated that the restructuring is “revolutionary.”

The ministry now has a leaner, simpler, and more effective apparatus, Cuong elaborated.

The restructuring will also further purify the police sector, following recent punishments imposed upon many police officials, namely Nguyen Thanh Hoa and Phan Van Vinh among some others, Cuong continued.

Vinh, who retired as director general of the Ministry of Public Security’s police general department in July 2017, and Hoa, former head of the ministry’s hi-tech crime prevention unit, were previously arrested for their involvement in a large-scale online gambling ring.

They were both charged with “abusing positions and powers while performing duties” and had their honorary title as a People’s Public Security Officer stripped by the state president.

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