Delegate Hoang Minh Hieu pointed out the waste of having many applications and software on administration and public services.

Speaking at the discussion on this content, Mr. Hoang Minh Hieu - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Law Committee, delegate of Nghe An Delegation, stated that applying information technology is considered one of the solutions to implement savings and combat waste.

Overview of the discussion in the hall about the implementation of policies and laws on practicing thrift and fighting waste in the period 2016-2021. Photo: Quochoi.vn

In fact, in recent times, the application of information technology in our country has achieved many remarkable results, especially in awareness. Perhaps digital transformation has never been mentioned so much in the media as it is today.

The delegate of Nghe An Delegation agreed with the assessment in the Report of the monitoring delegation that there are still shortcomings, losses and waste in the management, use, investment and purchase of information technology applications and software.

According to him, there are four reasons. First of all, there is duplication in the construction of information technology applications. Currently, the situation of one content, "one problem" but many different applications is quite common.

Typically, during the period of preventing and fighting the Covid-19 epidemic, there was a time when people's phones had several applications for health declaration. The construction of these applications may not have used the State budget, but they were also social resources; not to mention the confusion and time-consuming process for people during use.

Or in State agencies, although the nature of work and the process of handling office work are similar, each State agency uses different platforms to handle work; even within the same agency, each department, bureau, and unit uses different platforms. This causes costs both in the construction process as well as in data connection.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee, Deputy Head of the National Assembly's Supervisory Delegation Nguyen Phu Cuong presented the report of the delegation supervising the implementation of policies and laws on practicing thrift and combating waste in the 2016-2021 period. Photo: Quochoi.vn

Along with that, about the effectiveness in using information technology applications. Currently, some online public services still require people and businesses to declare and provide information many times. Many people think that online operations and submission of documents are not really convenient and smooth, and they have to ask civil servants for direct guidance to be able to declare documents.

The situation is similar for civil servants. There are cases where civil servants have to process operations on multiple software programs, increasing work and processing time. Electronic data has not yet completely replaced paper documents, causing additional burdens for agencies and organizations when they have to perform electronic and manual activities in parallel.

Mr. Hoang Minh Hieu - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Law Committee, delegate of Nghe An Delegation spoke at the discussion. Photo: Quang Khanh

Investment, according to delegate Hoang Minh Hieu, is also not synchronous, also causing waste in information technology application. There is a situation where information technology applications are built depending on project resources, without taking into account the operational organization plan, so after the project ends, these applications are not used, information is not updated regularly. After a short time, they are upgraded or a new similar application is built.

The construction of databases also lacks vision and planning. According to recent statistics, only about 1/3 of ministries, branches and localities have issued a list of databases. Therefore, it leads to duplication and lack of connection in the organization of databases.

It is noteworthy that recently there has been a trend in many draft laws to include provisions on the establishment of databases to serve the implementation of these laws.

Delegates of Nghe An delegation at the discussion session. Photo: Quochoi.vn

From the above situations, the delegate of Nghe An delegation proposed that in the draft Resolution on monitoring results, it is necessary to stipulate more clearly and specifically about strengthening thrift practice and combating waste in the application of information technology. This is especially important in the context that in the near future, the investment capital for the application of information technology and digital transformation is expected to increase.

Along with that, there needs to be tools to assess the necessity and effectiveness in building or upgrading information technology applications of State agencies; especially the building and provision of online public services must focus on the convenience and ease of use for the people, avoiding wasting people's time and effort in using these services.

Delegates of Nghe An delegation at the discussion session. Photo: Quochoi.vn

Mr. Hoang Minh Hieu also proposed to soon complete the construction of a comprehensive list of databases in State agencies; clearly define the responsibilities of each sector and field in the construction of State databases and strengthen the connection between databases to avoid the case of many State agencies collecting and building databases; thereby, ensuring both efficiency and not causing inconvenience and wasting time for people and businesses.

“It is necessary to continue to improve the institution in applying information technology and digital transformation to create synchronization in the transition from providing public services in direct form with paper documents to online form with electronic documents. Without this synchronization, parallel processing will be a huge waste of both time and resources,” said the delegate of Nghe An Delegation./.