Cao Tuyet Lan from Linh Trung Ward of Thu Duc City in HCMC came to her ward’s People’s Committee to certify copies of some personal documents. At the entrance, she was instructed to follow necessary medical steps like QR code scanning, temperature checking, and medical declaring. She then submitted her documents and moved to an airy area waiting for the results.
“Now it takes a few more minutes for required medical steps, but I understand it is for our own sake, so I happily follow them”, said Ms. Lan.
This is a typical scene happening in all state offices in HCMC from the beginning of this October, when citizens were welcomed for administrative procedures after the social distance period. Chairman of Linh Trung Ward People’s Committee Tran Quoc Hung shared that on average his office has 200 visitors each day for administrative procedures (mostly related to social security policies, personal document certifying, accommodation and land procedures), 3-4 times as high as the time before the outbreak.
Chairwoman of Ward 10 People’s Committee (in Phu Nhuan District) Tran Thi Hue informed that since the demands for administrative procedures related to social security and copy certifying of residents grow, her office has to mobilize all staff to answer the needs. There are officers assigned to deliver detailed medical instruction for visitors from the entrance. Certain businesses even ask for certifying hundreds of documents a time, so her office has a special section to receive them and return when they are finished.
Some state offices with a small surface area like the People’s Committee of Co Giang Ward in District 1 has to use their front yard as a temporary waiting area for citizens, who will then take turn to go into the office one by one to finish their administrative procedure. All results will be returned the next day. Around two-thirds of the office staff are designated to perform pandemic prevention measures in neighborhoods, carry out the vaccination process, and deliver social security packages to those in need.
HCMC People’s Committee has asked all state offices sited in the city to follow three stages when resuming their operation, with the first one beginning from October 1-31, the second from November 1, 2021 to January 15, 2022, and the third after January 15, 2022.
It also encourages citizens to use online public services more and only come directly to state offices for urgent work. Those coming to these offices need to possess either a Covid-19 green card or negative Covid-19 test result with a yellow card.
District 7 People’s Committee reported that since the beginning of this October, it has received over 400 documents online, 300 of which have been successfully processed. Vice Chairman of District 7 People’s Committee Le Van Thanh said that his district has already integrated administrative reform into the Operation Center for Pandemic Control and Economic Recovery of District 7 to increase the performance of online document processing.
Particularly, all 195 level-3 administrative procedures have been upgraded to level 4, and citizens can submit as well as receiving results via post without the need to directly visit state offices. The Center forms links between the District People’s Committee, the land registration office, the tax office, and the People’s Committee of all wards so that the localities can monitor document handling progresses.
Online administrative procedures are wholeheartedly promoted among state offices and organizations in HCMC. Many localities have sped up the implementation of IT to acquire necessary tools for document receiving processing and upgrading the levels of administrative procedures. Citizens and businesses can also use the face recognition technique to register for administrative procedures and track the progress of their documents.
Director of the HCMC Department of Information and Communications Lam Dinh Thang shared that all state offices in HCMC should accelerate the use of IT in administrative reform, especially in online level-3 and level-4 administrative procedures in order to minimize direct contact and increase the work performance.
HCMC People’s Committee has just issued a dispatch asking related agencies in 21 districts and Thu Duc City to update and adjust the list of special and urgent administrative procedures in each field allowed to deliver results directly, including registration for nationality, birth certificate, death certificate, and marriage certificate (juridical sector), registration for security methods, changes in land use, ownership of houses and related assets (natural resources, environment, and public property management sector).
The localities are allowed to add more procedures into this list according to their specific situations.
