What is a public service unit? Conditions, purposes – With examples

Let’s learn: Definition of public service units (with examples). Purpose, establishment conditions, financial autonomy mechanism & regulations on public service units.

What is a public service unit? 

A public service unit is defined in Clause 1, Article 9 of the 2010 Law on Public Employees as follows: a public service unit is an organization established by a competent state agency, political organization, or socio-political organization in accordance with the provisions of law, has legal entity status, provides public services, and serves state management.

Usually, public service units are research institutes, hospitals, schools… under competent state agencies. 

For example:

• Hanoi Law University under the Ministry of Justice;
• University of Industry under the Ministry of Industry and Trade; 
• Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics under the Ministry of Education and Training;
• Military Hospital 115 is under the Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City.

➤ The management structure of a public service unit includes:

1. Public service units are assigned complete autonomy in performing tasks, finance, organization, and personnel;
2. Public service units have not been given complete autonomy in performing tasks, finance, organization, and personnel.

➤ Public service units are classified according to the competent authority that established them, including:

1. Government units;
2. Public service unit under the Ministry of Justice;
3. Public service units belonging to other entities as prescribed by law;
4. Public service units under the People’s Committees of provinces and centrally run cities.

Purpose of building public service units

Public service units are established for the purpose of:

1. Providing public services for which the state is responsible, to ensure service to the people in the fields of: health, education, science or fields that non-public units cannot meet;

Ensure the provision of basic health and education services in mountainous, border, island, remote areas, areas with difficult socio-economic conditions, and areas with ethnic minorities;

2. Plan, organize, and reorganize the public system in the direction of identifying priority areas for development, ensuring economical and effective use, and focusing resources to improve the quality of activities. Activities of public service organizations and units are not for business purposes or profit-making;
3. Building and developing a team of civil servants with professional ethics, qualifications and expertise to meet increasingly high demands, especially in the field of public service provision.

Conditions for establishment and regulations on public service units

Article 5 of Decree 120/2020/ND-CP stipulates the conditions for establishing public service units:

1. Meet the criteria for establishing a public service unit according to specialized legal regulations;
2. Clearly define the goals, functions and tasks of the public service provider, serving state management;
3. The minimum number of employees is 15 people (except for units providing basic and essential public services);
4. In accordance with the national sector planning/network planning of public service units (if any) approved by the competent authority;
5. Have a working office/land allocation project for building a working office approved by a competent authority (if building a new office), have necessary equipment, human resources and operating expenses according to regulations.

Financial autonomy mechanism of public service units

Public service units operate under an autonomous mechanism, meaning that the unit is given the right to take responsibility for and decide on revenues and expenditures that do not exceed the framework prescribed by the state. 

➤ The financial management mechanism of public service units prescribed in Decree 60/2021/ND-CP is in the direction of clearly separating revenue sources, specifically:

1. Revenue from public service activities;
2. Revenue from leasing public assets: the unit implements legal regulations on management and use of public assets and has the project of leasing public assets approved by the competent authority;
3. Revenue from production and business activities; joint ventures and associations with individuals and organizations according to the law, with projects approved by competent authorities in accordance with the functions and tasks of public service units.

➤ The autonomy mechanism of public service units is divided into 4 types according to Decree 16/2015/ND-CP including:

1. Unit self-insures regular expenditure;
2. Private units guarantee a part of regular expenses;
3. Unit self-insures regular and investment expenditures;
4. The unit is guaranteed regular expenditure by the state.

Distinguishing between public service units and non-public service units

Non-public career units and public career units have the following differences:

1. Non-public units are established by individuals, businesses, social organizations or in association with foreign organizations, have legal status, independent accounting, have their own seal and accounts.
   For example: 

• Tam Anh General Hospital;
• Hong Bang International University;
• University of Technology – Hutech.

2. Non-public units operate under the enterprise model, are managed, recruited, and use labor based on labor relations according to regulations, so employees at non-public career units do not receive salaries from the state budget;
3. Non-public units owned by individuals, enterprises, social organizations or associated with foreign organizations should be autonomous in investment activities in building facilities, self-insure costs based on non-state budget capital and operate according to the law;
4. Non-public units are established according to state planning and plans to develop education, healthcare, culture, sports, science and technology, etc.

In short, non-public units are established with the purpose of improving the quality of education, healthcare, science and technology… promoting economic development, following the state plan but operating independently according to the business model.

>> See more: Business and company establishment services – From 1,000,000 VND.

Frequently asked questions about public service units

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