After the election rules for civil and military officials were finalized, Shenxi called Zheng Hongfang over and instructed him, "Qiaozhen will be the first pilot town for the selection of civil servants. You bear a great responsibility!"
If the pilot program is successful, it will provide positive feedback to other regions, gain public support, and make it easier for selected civil servants to overcome their psychological barriers and wholeheartedly serve the people.
After all, grassroots civil servants do not hold official positions. Like other workers, they are employed under a contract system and their work is subject to public scrutiny. The pressure they face is unimaginable.
If you don't do a good job, you will not only lose your civil servant position, but you will also be subject to investigation and possibly trial.
However, civil servants do indeed enjoy good benefits. Their salaries are stable and much higher than those of ordinary workers, which is a natural consequence of their hard work and the supervision they receive.
As the pilot town, Qiaozhen bears this responsibility, a difficult task. Failure to succeed would jeopardize the leader's important mission.
Zheng Hongfang suddenly felt a lot of pressure, but this pressure was in sync with the potential for future recognition. If he did well, his superior would definitely pay attention to him, and then he would have a chance to follow him as a subordinate.
Those who followed the leader envied Zhao Rong. Even a fool could guess the position Zhao Rong would achieve in the future; the leader valued him highly.
Zheng Hongfang also wanted the leaders to pay more attention, so let's start with a pilot program and let him stand out!
He replied with great excitement, "Yes, sir, I will live up to your trust."
The greater the responsibility, the more opportunities there are to make a contribution; others would love to take on this responsibility but can't.
Zheng Hongfang immediately consulted with the town's existing leadership team, since the existing leadership team would not be changed for the time being. These people had also received the news that local people could not serve as local leaders, and they would need to undergo assessment and reassignment in the future.
If they follow Zheng Hongfang and do this well, they might be able to advance further; otherwise, they will gain no merit and, if they are assessed, they might even be kicked out of the leadership team.
Therefore, when Zheng Hongfang mentioned the selection of grassroots civil servants, they all gave their full support. Since it concerned their own interests, they naturally wanted to perform well.
Qiaozhen has begun a vigorous selection process for grassroots civil servants.
The exam paper was designed by Shen Xi and drafted by Qi Xiuwen. After all, it was the first civil servant selection exam paper, and Shen Xi personally came up with the questions.
The contents are very diverse, including the laws and regulations of the imperial court, the new regulations of Bian'ai County, how many towns and villages there are in Bian'ai County, the content and policies of village infrastructure construction, the infrastructure plans of towns and county towns, the grain yield and harvest in rural areas, the development of irrigation canals, and even some details, such as how many eggs a hen can lay in a year, how to resolve disputes among villagers, the management of orchards and the control of pests, etc.
The reason why the exams cover such a wide range of topics is mainly because these grassroots civil servants need to interact with ordinary people. If they don't understand the daily lives and production needs of ordinary people, how can they serve them?
Of course, these questions were not beyond the scope of the curriculum. The main reason was that Shenxi had already asked Di Yingxue to draft documents a month ago. Each document recorded different things and was distributed to towns and villages. Every village had one, and every town also had one.
Furthermore, village chiefs and township officials are required to be familiar with and teach the local people.
The different events recorded encompass a variety of details, and the content of the exam lies within these details. If you truly put your heart into it, you will not fail to reach the level required for admission.
If you don't meet the hiring standards, it only means that you haven't put in the effort. If you don't pay attention, then you're not qualified to be a grassroots civil servant.
As Qi Xiuwen drafted the document, his lips twitched slightly: "The chief's questions are really too varied and have no discernible pattern. It's as if he's just setting questions at will, but the central theme remains the same: all sorts of national affairs and people's livelihood."
Qi Xiuwen knew the answers to these questions by heart. When Shen Xi issued these documents, Qi Xiuwen had already memorized them. After all, as the Premier, he couldn't possibly be unfamiliar with them.
He also greatly admired his superior; how did the superior acquire so much knowledge? It seemed that the superior had truly read extensively before.
This only deepened my respect for Chenxi.
After Shen Xi finished setting the questions, he said to Qi Xiuwen, "This is just the first test paper. In the future, the selection test papers for grassroots civil servants will not necessarily be based on documents. There will be some innovative questions. We need more people who can think independently to be civil servants. This way, they can handle people's affairs more flexibly. After all, people's affairs are all kinds of things and cannot all be presented according to documents."
"For example, the incident in Lingtou Township this time, if we say it was a sudden event, then it could be, but from the overall perspective, it was a malignant tumor that had been accumulating over the years. Apart from Ge Sishu, who was just a junior clerk at the time, no one else paid any attention to it. They just did whatever Ge Liang said without any personal thought."
“Until Ge Liang was executed, apart from a few officials who were in cahoots with him, the other officials were still dumbfounded. They couldn’t believe that Ge Liang would do such a thing, nor could they believe that Ge Liang could do it under the noses of so many officials. In fact, if they had really paid attention, they would have noticed something was wrong long ago.”
Qi Xiuwen nodded: "Sometimes, mediocre officials and muddle-headed clerks can cause great harm to the people. This has nothing to do with whether they are corrupt or accept bribes, but only with their ability and dedication."
This explains why sometimes incompetent and muddle-headed officials, even if they are as honest as water, can cause more harm to the people than capable corrupt officials if they lack the heart to truly serve the people and the ability to hold their positions.
Of course, neither of these is ideal. Shenxi chooses capable officials who are truly good and dedicated to serving the people.
She is in charge of vetting good officials, but the people themselves must choose good administrators.
Officials are all her civil servants. Officials are government civil servants who represent the government to issue overall policies and manage the important affairs of a region. Junior officials are grassroots civil servants who implement policies, represent the various needs of the people, and truly do everything for the people.
Even the village chief is not appointed by the people of each village. He is appointed by other villages through assessment and is a government civil servant. The village cadres under the village chief are contracted grassroots civil servants, most of whom are appointed by the villagers themselves.
Village officials below the village chief have no real power; they are merely personnel who do the work. However, they have the right to supervise the village chief's behavior, and if there is anything inappropriate, they can appeal to the authorities.
Mutual checks and balances are more conducive to the stable development of a region, preventing the phenomenon of one entity becoming too powerful and nurturing a dangerous force from emerging.
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