Saturday for the people

On September 11, 2010, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 70/2010 regulating working on Saturdays every week (except holidays, Tet, and other days off as prescribed) to receive and handle administrative procedures at 6 provincial-level agencies, 15 district-level units, and 199 commune-level units. This is a step in state administrative reform towards the goal of building an administration for the people. However, in the implementation process, there are still some concerns and worries....

As one of the localities with a fairly large population (about 12 thousand people), when Decision 70 was issued, the People's Committee of Van Dien commune (Nam Dan) implemented the 7th working day to receive and resolve administrative procedures for the people. Because the propaganda work was well implemented through the loudspeaker system and integrated into the meetings of unions and hamlets, many people understood this policy and proactively went to the People's Committee of the commune on Saturday to resolve documents related to administrative procedures. The most crowded is still the certification of documents related to land, notarization of copies of documents related to college, university and labor export applications (on average, the commune has to certify about 160-170 applications per year). Mr. Nguyen Van Chien - office staff in charge of the one-stop department said: "Implementing working on Saturdays creates convenience for people, avoids jostling, waiting, and wastes time, while reducing work pressure for civil servants." In addition to Van Dien commune, currently in Nam Dan district, there are 6 other localities that have registered to work on Saturdays: Thi Tran, Khanh Son, Nam Giang, Nam Kim, Kim Lien and Hung Tien.

One-stop shop of the Provincial People's Committee Office on Saturday

For many provincial agencies and units such as the Motor Vehicle Inspection Center (Department of Transport), the Southeast Economic Zone Management Board, "Saturday for the People" is not only a responsibility but also to reduce work pressure during the week. As the brain agency advising the Provincial People's Committee in management and operation, the workload to be resolved every week is very large, so for officers and civil servants of the Provincial People's Committee Office, going to work on Saturdays and Sundays has become very normal. Mr. Vo Hong Duong - Deputy Head of the Provincial People's Committee Office said: Although the number of customers coming to do transactions on Saturdays is less than usual, they are usually necessary documents transferred from departments, branches and sectors. Therefore, on Saturdays, the Provincial People's Committee Office has arranged the relevant departments in a reasonable and scientific manner. All stages are managed and clearly displayed on the agency's computer system through document management and operation software. Each stage, each processing step clearly shows the time, progress, and processing status. With this method, almost all files are resolved quickly, on time. According to statistics, up to 97% of files are returned on time and before the prescribed time, without causing inconvenience to customers coming to transact.

However, through research at some wards and communes, it seems that people are still not used to working on Saturdays. Mr. Mai Ngoc Luong - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Truong Thi Ward said: Although the new regulation has been widely announced on loudspeakers, ward radios and in residential group meetings, the number of people coming to do procedures on Saturdays is still much lower than usual. In addition, for many reasons such as: no funding for overtime, not being able to arrange staff, not much work pressure..., some wards and communes are in the area of ​​working on Saturdays but have not implemented it or do it seasonally (such as doing procedures for children to study at university or work abroad...).

The Department of Information and Communications is one of six provincial agencies registered to work on Saturdays, but recently this unit submitted a request to the Department of Home Affairs to withdraw from the list with the reason "it is not necessary because there are not many administrative documents to be resolved". The most difficult thing now is still the issue of arranging compensatory leave and the cost of paying overtime for civil servants working on Saturdays. According to regulations, working hours on Saturdays are the same as other normal working days; civil servants working on Saturdays will be arranged to take another day off, ensuring 40 hours of work per week according to regulations. However, in reality, due to the specific nature of the work, units cannot arrange compensatory leave for civil servants.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Trach - Chief of Office of the Provincial People's Committee said: According to the guidance of the Ministry of Finance, in case cadres and civil servants work 40 hours as prescribed and work overtime on Saturday without being compensated (or are arranged to take compensatory time off but the number of hours taken off is not enough to the number of hours worked on Saturday), the overtime pay on Saturday is determined as: Overtime pay = Hourly wage x 200% (or 300%) x Actual number of overtime hours. In case cadres and civil servants work 40 hours as prescribed, work overtime on Saturday and are arranged to take compensatory time off on another day of the week, the overtime pay is also determined according to the above formula but will apply 100% for overtime hours on a regular Saturday; the 200% rate applies for overtime hours on a Saturday that falls on a holiday.

However, currently, most units are having to balance their budgets to support in the spirit of autonomy and self-responsibility. Some localities, especially commune-level units, have limited budgets, so the regime for officials and civil servants to work on Saturdays is mainly balanced by the revenue from the one-stop shop. However, officials and civil servants, especially in communes and wards in rural and mountainous areas, still do a good job of receiving people on Saturdays. Mr. Vo Dinh Van - Head of the Department of Administrative Reform of the Department of Home Affairs also affirmed: Decision 70 is implemented entirely on the basis of voluntary registration based on the nature and needs of state administrative agencies and units and the actual needs of citizens. To effectively implement "Saturday for the People", currently, some localities have proposed that there should be a source of allocated funds and specific instructions on paying overtime on Saturdays to ensure the rights of officials and civil servants; Consider arranging work on Saturday reasonably and scientifically depending on the situation, nature and workload of each agency, unit and the actual needs of citizens to avoid wasting time, human resources and funds; promote propaganda work on mass media so that people can grasp and be more proactive, avoiding the situation of sometimes being "overloaded" with documents on weekdays and sometimes being sparse and deserted at transaction departments, handling administrative procedures on Saturdays.

Khanh Ly - My Ha