Firm Commitment to Sustaining Reform Momentum

After nearly three years of implementing Resolution 16-NQ/TU dated October 14, 2021 of the Quang Nam Provincial Party Committee, administrative reform in the province has made significant progress, despite ongoing challenges. Quang Ngai province has identified key issues and implemented targeted solutions, particularly in personnel management, to enhance leadership roles in administrative reform. Ms. Tran Thi Kim Hoa, Director of the Department of Home Affairs, Quang Nam province, granted an interview on this effort to our reporter.

Could you briefly introduce remarkable results after nearly three years of implementing Resolution 16-NQ/TU of the Quang Nam Provincial Party Committee?

In the past three years, the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Committee and localities issued many instructive documents on administrative reform and achieved some outstanding aspects:

On institutional reform, from 2021 to 2023, the Provincial People's Council promulgated 109 resolutions and the Provincial People's Committee issued 125 legal documents to promptly materialize guidelines and policies to ensure the constitutionality, legality and consistency of the legal system.

On administrative procedure reform, the Provincial People's Committee issued three documents on decentralization of administrative procedures. The provincial information system for settling administrative procedures has been operated following the merger of the Provincial Public Service Portal and the Provincial Electronic Single-window System. Fully online administrative procedures have been integrated, with online payments made on the National Public Service Portal. The Provincial People's Committee also launched a project on implementation of the mechanism for assigning businesses that provide public postal services to undertake a number of tasks in the process of guiding, receiving and digitizing documents and returning settlement results of administrative procedures. All 16 provincial departments and agencies have completely transferred the receipt of administrative procedures to the Provincial Post Office. 13 out of 18 districts and cities have transferred 100% of administrative procedures. 19 out of 241 communes, wards and towns transferred all 114 administrative procedures.

On administrative organizational reform, the Department of Home Affairs advised making a master plan for arranging district- and commune-level administrative units in 2023 - 2025 and submitting it to competent authorities for consideration and approval. The construction and ratification of the Job Position Project in administrative agencies and public service units has been completed according to regulations.

On civil service regime reform, the Provincial People's Committee issued the Regulation on assessing and ranking the quality of public employees and workers at administrative agencies and public service units. The committee submitted it to the Provincial People’s Council for promulgation. Staff streamlining is carried out regularly.

On public finance reform, in late 2023, the province adopted an independent and self-responsible mechanism for the use of payroll and administrative expenses at 488 out of 498 state agencies (98%). Autonomous mechanism is applied to 879 out of 894 public service units in the province (98.3%).

On building and developing e-government and digital government, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision 3567/QD-UBND dated December 27, 2022 approving the ICT Architecture for smart city development in Quang Nam province. The Qoffice centralized document management system, digital certificate and digital signature applications are deployed to all governmental agencies from the provincial to local levels; connected with the government document axis and integrated with specialized digital signatures to serve the sending and receipt of electronic documents. The province has merged the Provincial Public Service Portal with the Electronic Single-window Information System and connected with the National Public Service Portal. The province has provided and publicized 1,305 online services on the National Public Service Portal. The institutional mapping system at https://bandotheche.quangnam.gov.vn provides monitoring information and statistical data on the progress of settling administrative procedures, the rate of online applications and online payments.

In addition, communications on administrative reform are carried out drastically and consistently, with focus on conveying the province's focus and determination on administrative reform and unifying awareness and actions among administrative staff, thus improving their quality and service to the people.

Over the years, Quang Nam has promoted comprehensive administrative procedure reforms

Quang Nam province received low scores and rankings in the 2023 Satisfaction Index of Public Administrative Services (SIPAS) and Public Administration Reform Index (PAR Index) introduced by the Ministry of Home Affairs. What are the causes of this and how will it be improved?

In 2023, the province’s SIPAS Index scored 78.44%, ranking 59th out of 63 provinces and cities, rising 3.44% and advancing two places from 2022 (four out of five contents climbed and one content slid). The province's PAR Index 2023 reaches 84.60 points, ranking 56th, up a place from 2022.

Declining contents have been identified for years but not yet addressed, including slow settlement of administrative procedures at the district and commune levels, repeated unresponsiveness of settlement results on the single-window electronic application, low rate of full online service settlement,  

To deal with PAR Index weaknesses, the province will focus on improving administrative procedure reform criteria by requiring civil servants to strictly follow the guiding documents of the Provincial People's Committee, regularly using the provincial information system of administrative procedure settlement to receive and resolve administrative procedures, seriously and strictly handling cases where documents are processed late and intentionally delayed, clarifying the responsibility of agencies, localities and civil servants to receive and solve late administrative procedures, informing and guiding organizations and individuals to submit documents online and adopt online payment for administrative procedures.

For the SIPAS Index, the province will fully, promptly provide accessible administrative procedures at single-window agencies, on the Provincial Electronic Information Portal, and on websites of relevant agencies; expand other appropriate forms of publicity; consolidate and reform operating methods, improve the quality and service of provincial and district public administrative service centers and modernize commune-level public service units in accordance with the roadmap and requirements for building digital government and smart cities; reinforce discipline, inspection and supervision together with enhancing the responsibility of local authorities and leaders in reforming  administrative procedures.

In general, the province will foster the responsibility of leaders in administrative reform. The Provincial People's Committee issued Decision 1171/QD-UBND dated May 16, 2024 on the responsibility of leaders in administrative agencies in administrative reform. The new content of Decision 1171 is the clear definition of the responsibility of executing seven tasks of administrative reform (Directing and administering administrative reform; developing and implementing legal documents; reforming administrative procedures; reforming state administrative apparatus; reforming public services; reforming public finance; and building and developing electronic government and digital government). The effect of these areas of administrative reform will be the criteria for evaluating and classifying the level of task performance of leaders. The Department of Home Affairs will also advise the Provincial People's Committee to issue a decision on establishment of a Public Service Inspection Team, and launch annual work plans to inspect the observance of internal rules, working regulations, administrative discipline, ethics and culture of public service of civil servants and public employees in performing their official tasks and duties.

Maintaining the top position in the 2023 PAR Index among departments and branches is challenging. What are the solutions to sustain reform momentum?

In 2023, the PAR Index of the Department of Home Affairs was 96.86%, ranking first among 20 departmental agencies of Quang Nam province. This was also the first year it achieved this ranking. The department will focus on directing and effectively carrying out the following key tasks and solutions:

(1) Continue to inform, disseminate, and thoroughly grasp the guidelines and policies of central and provincial authorities on administrative reform to its employees.

(2) Foster the direction and management of the Party Committee and the Board of Directors of the department in administrative reform, especially the high determination of its employees in carrying out their tasks.

(3) Intensify inspection and supervision of the roles and responsibilities of its agency leaders and employees in performing their tasks; review and provide timely solutions to remove difficulties and problems.

(4) Direct and thoroughly supervise its employees to strictly comply with administrative discipline.

(5) Effectively carry out emulation movements; review monthly performance and ranking of its employees and units.

(6) Coordinate more closely in advising, directing, operating and implementing administrative reform tasks at the department; promote its role as the standing agency of the Provincial Steering Committee for Administrative Reform and Digital Transformation, setting an example and taking the lead in implementing the directions of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee.

Thank you so much!

By Binh Minh, Vietnam Business Forum