'A constructive government is where people find support when doing administrative procedures'

Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Bich San shared when discussing the Draft Decree on the one-stop, one-stop mechanism in handling administrative procedures.

The draft Decree on the one-stop shop and inter-connected one-stop shop mechanism in handling administrative procedures is in the process of collecting opinions and has attracted the attention of many people and experts.

VOV reporter interviewed Associate Professor Dr. Pham Bich San - sociology expert on this issue.

Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Bich San talks with VOV reporter.

PV:Although it has been identified as a key task of the state administrative procedure reform program for the 2011-2020 period, there are still many problems in handling administrative procedures. What do you think is the cause?

Mr. Pham Bich San:There are two issues here: administrative procedures and administrative procedure reform. This also shows two levels of problem solving.

The first level shows that life has many unexpected things that can happen, while administrative procedures only mention a very small group, about 30% of basic situations that happen, the remaining 70% requires creativity and flexibility of administrative staff. However, this creativity and flexibility is also the fertile ground for arbitrariness and annoyance. The nature of life stories has many things that require the person handling them to have enough qualifications to handle them.

Second, we should know that administrative procedures are means, procedures comply with larger administrative orientations. The administrative procedures of a governing state will be different from those of a constructive state, a building state.

For example, the administrative procedures for death certificates have been improved, but in the end, they still do not work. If the administrative staff considers that people have to come and ask for a death certificate, the story will be different. If the civil servants consider it their responsibility to solve this for the people, the story is completely different. Therefore, the story of procedures and administrative reform are two different things.

PV:For a long time we have been too familiar with personnel arrangement and streamlining the payroll, but why is the change still slow, sir?

Mr. Pham Bich San:Perhaps it is necessary to review the arrangement and streamlining of the payroll with which subjects and components.

In principle, administrative staff need to be trained meticulously and specifically, but I think that the current administrative staff's qualifications are uneven. Most administrative staff do not clearly understand what administrative procedures need to be done, and how administrative situations need to be handled.

In the apparatus, the qualifications of administrative staff should not be too different, but must be people with equivalent qualifications so that the apparatus can run smoothly.

I think that, over the years we have tried to reform and streamline the payroll, but the ultimate story is still how we intend to arrange and deploy the materials, and training needs to be rethought.

PV:In recent times, although the Government and the Prime Minister have given strong directions in reforming administrative procedures, it is not difficult to see the inertia of the work implementation levels. How do you explain this situation?

Mr. Pham Bich San:There are many reasons, maybe because the administrative apparatus is too complicated; maybe because the number of people is too large, the qualifications of administrative staff are not suitable.

When the administrative apparatus is too complicated, departments always tend to look at each other, wondering who, which department should be responsible for solving this problem, from which arises the situation of pushing responsibility to each other. From pushing, it can also cause administrative records to be extended not by days, by weeks, but sometimes indefinitely.

As Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said when he was still Deputy Prime Minister, “30% of the staff go to work with an umbrella in the morning and come home with an umbrella in the evening.” When there are too many administrative staff, everyone shows that they are important and have a role in that apparatus. To have a role, they start to scrutinize and review files, “digging up work to do.” Therefore, having too many administrative staff is also something that cannot make the administrative apparatus neat.

Fortunately, I was taught in an administrative school more than 30 years ago. I found that administrative skills were taught very little, while political orientation was taught a lot. When graduating from school, administrative civil servants must be able to do certain things, with a certain level of proficiency. Among them, an important requirement is to meet and satisfy the people.

If we want to build a creative government, people and businesses will come to the administration as a place to rely on to solve problems.

PV: In your opinion, what is the solution to eliminate civil servants who, for the benefit of themselves, their locality, their ministry, or their industry, cause trouble for the people?

Mr. Pham Bich San:In my opinion, the first thing is to design an administrative system that measures work efficiency. If there is no measure, you will be forced to leave the system.

To evaluate effectiveness, those in the administrative apparatus, from staff to commanders, must have specific responsibilities, along with specific sanctions. If they fail to complete their tasks, that officer must leave.

Currently, there is a situation where cadres evaluate each other, so there is often a sense of deference, without taking into account work efficiency. Furthermore, commanders often do not have sufficient authority. When they do not have sufficient authority, their responsibilities are also unclear.

PV:Accountability is a concept that seems to be quite new in our country. In your opinion, should accountability be a mandatory provision in the performance of public duties?

Mr. Pham Bich San:The story of transparency and accountability seems to have been mentioned a lot recently, but I don’t think this is new to our country. Because since the feudal period, there have been 4 words “dang, binh, chinh, truc”. Dang means transparency, and transparency must go hand in hand with accountability.

So who should we be accountable to? The administrative apparatus must be accountable to the people and businesses – the taxpayers who built this apparatus. That is the most important point. In my opinion, this should be the focus in the near future.

PV:Thank you sir./.

According to VOV