HCMC adopting various measures for administrative reform

Civil status officials in An Phu Dong Ward of District 12 are processing administrative procedures for citizens (Photo: SGGP)

In the 3^rd quarter meeting of the HCMC Steering Committee for Administrative Reform on October 17, Director of the HCMC Department of Home Affairs Huynh Thanh Nhan informed certain obstacles in performing the task, including weak public service provision, unfulfilled online payment goals, a high rate of overdue documents, tardiness in digitizing documents and data establishment, unsuccessful in organizational arrangement.

Besides the challenge of a huge document quantity to process, failures in reaching the assigned goals are caused by loose discipline and ineffective leadership of administrative units’ managers.

Therefore, Chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee Phan Van Mai asked that directors of state departments and agencies as well as the local authorities must shoulder their responsibilities more effectively. Any overdue documents need urgent processing. Administrative procedures should be reviewed to eliminate unnecessary steps, to better implement IT and digital signatures for processing papers, and to increase cooperation among state units in responding to the public.

Particularly, the Chairman requested that any civil servants slow in processing administrative documents must be listed and announced. He also issued Directive No.6 on increasing the responsibility of civil servants, improving the effectiveness of administrative reforms, and modernizing operation methods to better serve the community and businesses.

Also, all administrative procedures within the power of a state unit must be publicly announced so that citizens and businesses are aware and able to monitor. Leaders of state units are in charge of the quality of administrative procedures, public services, and results of digital transformation in operational methods. This should be one criterion to assess the performance of these leaders as well as the corresponding state units each year.

All localities in HCMC are urged to determinedly carry out digital transformation and process administrative procedures online to reduce the processing time.

At the end of September, Doan Thi Thanh Huong (temporarily living in An Phu Dong Ward of District 12) gave birth to her second child and registered for a birth certificate via the e-Portal of the district. About 10 days later, she received the certificate, along with a medical insurance card for the baby. She felt truly satisfied with this online public service as it saved her much time and effort. She joyfully shared that in the past, she had to send necessary documents to her hometown for a birth certificate; but now with online services, all she needs to do is to take picture of the documents and fill in an online form.

This is a positive result of the integration in digital transformation between the Justice unit and the Police Station of An Phu Dong Ward. Thanks to this integration, the justice officer can confirm the accommodation information with the police, followed by an issuance of a birth certificate with an ID number and a medical insurance card for the baby in need.

Citizens are rating their satisfaction level for the services of civil servants in District 12

Chairman Nguyen Van Duc of the District 12 People’s Committee said that to increase the effectiveness of administrative reforms, his district has applied various measures, including authorizing heads of some specialized offices to carry out the tasks with the power of the district People’s Committee. A software piece using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing technologies is launched to manage natural resources, environment, and urban areas.

The district tries to combine related administrative procedures to reduce handling time. Out of nearly 20,000 submitted documents, about 19,000 have been timely processed.

In the upcoming time, District 12 is going to increase the responsibilities of state unit leaders in administrative reforms and administrative procedure processing. It is also planning to check the organizational arrangements as well as decentralization and authorization tasks, the number of civil servants and public employees in non-profit state units, the decision to lay off unnecessary staff, and the implementation of policies for those laborers and part-time employees in each ward in 2023.

Similarly, the Hoc Mon District Division of Urban Management applies the model of one-time issuance of a house number certificate and a construction permit to reduce the processing time of these administrative procedures from 25 days to 11 days and the visit times from 6 to 2.

The Economic Division of District 5 is also able to reduce the processing time of the administrative procedure for the establishment of a household business and domestic goods flow thanks to its cooperation with related state units of justice and tax. Some procedures have their handling time drop by half or even from 2 days to only 3 business hours.

Chairwoman of the District 5 People’s Committee Truong Minh Kieu stated that her organization has used IT applications to handle administrative procedures. It also pays particular attention to improving the professional skills of its staff and updating technical infrastructure to create a tight network from the district to ward levels. Integration among state units is encouraged in processing administrative procedures. specialized offices in each ward and the whole district are actively using practical software pieces for document management, electronic one-station services, online public services, and digital signatures.

Based on the achievements of competitiveness index in 2022, District 5 has actively adopted 10 solutions to increase the performance of state budget management and the annual work programs of the district People’s Committee and its ward units.