Hanoi eyes further improvements in public services quality

Hanoi aims to further improve its performance in the Public Administration Reform Index (Par Index), rising above its 10th position last year to ensure a higher quality of public services and public satisfaction.

Citizens submitting administrative requests at Thanh Tri District People's Committee. Photo: The Hanoi Times

This year, Hanoi targets the PAR Index score to reach 92.55, four points higher than the 88.54 points recorded last year and moving up one or two places in the ranking.

To realize this goal, the municipal People’s Committee has released an action plan to maintain the last year's high scores of sub-components and assign the Department of Internal Affairs to map out measures and address fields in which modest grades were scored.

Among the key criteria, the city’s authorities stressed the significance to improve the public satisfaction rate in receiving and handling civil complaints by at least 3-5% compared to last year.

In this regard, the city is scheduled to issue guidance for public servants in receiving and handling petitions from individuals and organizations, along with simplified procedures for the public to submit their concerns and recommendations more conveniently.

The authorities also identify that the performance of grassroots agencies plays an important role in the general improvements of the city.

This prompted new initiatives from districts and communes to enhance the public experience in carrying out administrative procedures.

In Ha Dong District, the authorities have put into use a facial recognition system for queue management. People coming into the district’s office would have all their data stored in the city database and used for future processes.

Meanwhile, the Hang Bai Ward (Hoan Kiem District) has proposed the launch of “five administrative procedures without delay”. Eight months since the start of the initiative, 1,800 out of 4,000 requests have been processed under this model helping save time for the public, with processing time down from half or one day to around 15 minutes.

This model has now been adopted in all 18 wards under the Hoan Kiem District.

In addition, Hanoi continues to promote the one-stop-shop model in dealing with administrative procedures at all-level agencies.

According to the city’s guidance, all one-stop-shop are now required to list phone numbers, addresses, and emails of the competent authorities for the citizens to file complaints in case of having difficulties in this regard.

Each agency has also been equipped with computers so that people showing up can submit their requests online.

Vu Thu Ha, director of Hanoi’s Department of Internal Affairs, noted there has been strong progress in the city’s efforts to improve the quality of public services, but acknowledged more investment is needed to better help grassroots-level agencies in dealing with administrative procedures.

A survey on public satisfaction in Chuong My District showed that 100% of respondents are satisfied with the authorities’ performance.

Chairman of the District’s People Committee Nguyen Dinh Hoa said the city currently lacks equipment, human resources, and software to enhance users’ interaction when processing online public services.

Hoai Duc District also faces a similar situation, as the authorities are calling for further investment from the city to upgrade the IT system amid the rising number of users.

In 2021, Hanoi’s Public administrative reform index (Par Index) hit 88.54 points and ranked 10th out of 63 provinces and cities, with improvements seen in the quality of state governance; administrative reform; public finance reform and modernization; and evaluation of the impacts of administrative reform to the people, organization and socio-economic development.

The Satisfaction Index of Public Administration Services (SIPAS) of Hanoi in 2021 was 80%, marking the fourth consecutive year that the city continued to hold the top-tier ranking.