Last lesson: "Diagnosing the pulse" correctly to have a "treatment" solution
(Baonghean) Coincidentally, not long after the results of the inspection of public service performance at 4 departments and branches were approved by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee (February 13, 2012), the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) also announced the provincial competitiveness index in 2011, according to which Nghe An moved from 53rd place in 2010 to 49th place in 2011. Although there has been a change, it is still in the middle group, so Nghe An still has a lot of work to do...
The results of the inspection of public service performance at 4 departments and branches have reflected and reached the criteria of the provincial competitiveness index. These are very important indicators (in terms of legal institutions, policies for developing the private economic sector, and the time and cost that businesses spend on administrative procedures) accounting for nearly 30% of the PCI ranking criteria.
However, the recent inspection of public service performance has only taken place at 4 provincial departments and branches out of nearly 20 provincial focal points at the request of the Provincial Steering Committee on anti-corruption and provincial inspection. Although the inspection process, the delegation received close instructions from the provincial leaders, which was a great advantage, it was also somewhat of a pressure, so it was not possible to "capture" all the essence, because this was a type of thematic inspection that was announced in advance. The biggest gain of the inspection was that the delegation had some quite objective and accurate assessments, catching the "disease" of one of the manifestations of the administrative apparatus, which is the phenomenon of "stalling" for slow processing of records and cases...
Learning more, we learned that in order to conduct the above inspection of public service performance and have a truly objective and accurate conclusion, without affecting the normal activities of cadres and civil servants, due to the short time (the inspection period is within 20 - 25 days at 4 agencies), the presiding agency, the Provincial Inspectorate, had to prepare a very elaborate outline, detailing each required content; for any work that did not meet the requirements, a record and form were made for the relevant person to explain and report. Therefore, after obtaining the results, not only the Provincial People's Committee but also the Government Inspectorate, when returning to work, also highly appreciated the results of this thematic inspection of the Provincial Inspectorate and said that this is an experience and lesson for other provinces to learn from...
In fact, through contact and understanding with people and businesses, the quality of public service implementation at the grassroots level (commune, ward) and above (district, town) is what is worth paying attention to and checking.
Many projects and works, although the provincial leaders have given clear and open opinions and instructions, when they reach the grassroots level, they still encounter countless reasons why the projects and works cannot progress. There are large projects in the province's health sector, with the same amount of work, the same amount of capital, the same time of investment decision and commencement, but the project in another province has been completed and put into use for a few years, while the project in the province has only completed the construction and installation part and has not yet set an inauguration date due to problems in compensation, site clearance and capital arrangement and allocation.
The investor of an office project said that although hundreds of seals were lost, the investment and construction procedures at the provincial level had been completed, but the remaining parts related to the commune and ward levels were stuck for years. The reason was simply because the most difficult and "bone-breaking" stage was site clearance and compensation. The investor was a department or agency, but had to beg and "rely" on commune officials for the simple reason that site clearance could not be done without the local government.
Some project owners said that when they come to the locality to carry out site clearance work, if they meet a responsible and dedicated officer, then there is nothing to say, but if they meet an administrative person who "just goes home after work with a briefcase", even if they do not want to, in order to get the job done, the project owner is forced to ask for help, by persuading the local officer to go somewhere to discuss the work. There are even cases where if the invitation is not skillful or for some reason it is not easy to meet the local leader to work. This is a shortcoming in the administrative management mechanism but also a manifestation of the corruption that has been pointed out by many department and industry leaders at many meetings...
Some project owners, in order to get things done, have to "bribe" or allocate some funds for local officials to actively handle project procedures.
The Provincial Inspectorate leader said: The inspection of public service performance at departments and branches is the first step in grasping and correcting negative manifestations of the staff and civil servants. In the near future, the Provincial Inspectorate will advise the Provincial People's Committee to develop a thematic inspection plan in a number of management areas, key investment projects in the fields of finance and land; increase surprise inspections; at the same time, propose the province to assign responsibility to the leaders of departments, branches and People's Committees of districts, cities and towns to inspect the responsibilities of heads, inspect the public duties of civil servants at the one-stop transaction department, focusing on implementing Decree 63/2010 of the Government on administrative procedure control.
Currently, along with approving the results of the civil service inspection, the Provincial People's Committee is directing the inspected departments and branches to assign offices with civil servants who are slow in processing documents and records to organize reviews and take appropriate disciplinary actions; leaders of departments and branches develop and perfect the code of conduct for civil servants; leaders of departments and branches need to strengthen inspection, supervision and monitoring of civil servants. In addition, the delegation also recommended reviewing regulations and procedures for processing documents and work that are not appropriate for timely amendment; when assigning work, it is necessary to base on the volume and nature of the work to stipulate the processing time and the deadline for reporting results in accordance with the provisions of law and practice.
The results from the above inspection of public service performance, together with the assessments and analysis from the PCI provincial competitiveness assessment last year, will provide useful suggestions and solutions to improve public service performance, contributing to building an increasingly healthy, professional and effective administration; for the benefit of the people and businesses.
Nguyen Hai
