The Ministry of Home Affairs requires provinces to self-score the 2019 Administrative Reform Index objectively and comprehensively.

On the morning of January 6, in Vinh city, the Ministry of Home Affairs held a conference to summarize the overall program of state administrative reform for the period 2011-2020 and the plan to determine the Administrative Reform Index for 2019.

Attending the conference were comrades: Pham Minh Hung - Director of the Department of Administrative Reform, Ministry of Home Affairs; Le Ngoc Hoa - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; representatives of the Department of Home Affairs of 31 northern provinces and cities. Photo: Thanh Le

Comprehensive and objective assessment

Speaking at the opening of the Conference, Comrade Pham Manh Hung - Director of the Department of Administrative Reform, Ministry of Home Affairs emphasized: This Conference aims to collect opinions from localities to comprehensively assess the implementation situation and results of the goals and tasks of the State Administrative Reform Master Program for the period 2011 - 2020.

On that basis, propose orientations, solutions and administrative reform tasks in accordance with the Party's policies and guidelines and the requirements of national construction and development in the new situation, towards building a modern and professional administration suitable for the region and the world.

At the same time, the Ministry of Home Affairs deployed new points of the Project "Determining the Administrative Reform Index of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities" to guide the People's Committees of provinces and cities on self-assessment and scoring to determine the Provincial Administrative Reform Index in 2019.

The Ministry of Home Affairs requires localities to self-score to determine their local Administrative Reform Index in an objective and comprehensive manner; and link this index to the socio-economic development and business investment environment of their locality.

"From the results of sociological surveys and self-assessment results of localities, the Ministry of Home Affairs will classify and rank the results of the Administrative Reform Index of ministries, branches and localities in 2019 around February 2020" - said comrade Pham Manh Hung.

Comrade Pham Manh Hung delivered the opening speech at the conference. Photo: Thanh Le

Discussions at the conference, opinions exchanged by the provinces suggested that the summary and evaluation must ensure comprehensiveness, science, objectivity, practicality, and effectiveness; multi-dimensional evaluation, ensuring accurate results achieved on the contents of administrative reform work.

Delegates' opinions focused on clarifying the results and goals achieved, the reasons for the goals not achieved, synthesizing and analyzing data to clarify the results in implementing the administrative reform program in each stage; proposing amendments to the criteria, component criteria, and scoring methods in the Administrative Reform Index to be more suitable to local realities.

At the same time, propose key orientations, tasks and solutions for administrative reform in the 2020 - 2030 period...

Building a professional and modern administration

Speaking at the conference, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Ngoc Hoa affirmed: Nghe An province has also implemented many solutions to promote administrative reform, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management, and improve the quality of service to the people.

Accordingly, the work of issuing documents has been innovated; mechanisms and policies serving state management have been built, amended, supplemented and completed promptly.

Administrative procedures in state management fields have been reformed in a simplified manner, reducing implementation time. Some fields have been reviewed and implementation time has been reduced by over 30%. The quality of cadres, civil servants and public employees has been gradually improved to meet the requirements of state management and advisory work. Public finance has been reformed to facilitate management and reduce the burden on the state budget.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Ngoc Hoa spoke at the conference. Photo: Thanh Le

Nghe An has established the Provincial Public Administration Service Center; the one-stop shop and inter-connected one-stop shop at all levels have been consolidated and improved to create more favorable conditions for people, organizations and businesses in transactions. The satisfaction rate with public administrative services and public career services provided by the province's state agencies increases annually.

The organizational apparatus at all levels has been streamlined, reducing 92 internal units and 35 public service units, reducing 20 commune-level administrative units (from 480 units to 460 units), and reducing 1,991 hamlets, villages, blocks, and communes.

The application of information technology in state agencies is focused on the deployment of shared, interconnected software at all levels, specialized software, email systems, online meeting systems... which have better supported administrative reform, contributing to improving the efficiency of management and work handling of cadres and civil servants.

Representative of Hai Duong Province Department of Home Affairs gives comments on scoring method to determine Administrative Reform Index. Photo: Thanh Le

Up to now, 100% of provincial departments, branches, district and commune People's Committees of Nghe An have sent and received documents via the interconnection system; paper documents have been abolished (except for confidential documents).

The province has applied high-level online public services (level 3, level 4) to facilitate transactions between people and businesses with state agencies. At the same time, discipline and administrative order in agencies and units have been enhanced; the relationship between state administrative agencies and people and businesses has been improved.

Based on the results achieved in the coming time, the province focuses on solutions towards a professional and modern administration to better serve people and businesses.

Inspecting administrative reform work in Hung Loc commune (Vinh city). Photo: Thanh Le

Concluding the conference, Director of the Department of Administrative Reform - Ministry of Home Affairs Pham Manh Hung acknowledged and highly appreciated the comments of the localities.

The Ministry of Home Affairs receives and synthesizes the opinions and proposals of the provinces to develop a summary report on the overall program of state administrative reform for the period 2011-2020 to ensure quality, comprehensiveness and scientificity. On that basis, develop a feasible next-phase Administrative Reform Program that is consistent with the country's long-term socio-economic development strategy.