Danang takes lead in administrative reforms

Among the nineteen provinces and cities with indexes over 80%, the southern province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau was placed second with 86.14%, followed by HCM City (83.83%), Dong Thap (83.44%), and An Giang (83.25%). Northern Quang Ninh Province ranked nineteenth with 80.21%.

Thirty-three provinces saw rather good results (between 70-80%), including the northern provinces of Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, Thai Nguyen and Bac Ninh, the central province of Ha Tinh and the southern provinces of Long An, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh and Tien Giang.

The moderate group (67.68-70%) consisted of five provinces: southern Binh Phuoc Province, the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum and the northern provinces of Hung Yen, Tuyen Quang and Hoa Binh.

Finally, six northern provinces performed poorly (62.58-67.68%) including Bac Kan, Lai Chau, Ha Giang, Son La, Cao Bang and Dien Bien.

In term of ministries and ministerial - level agencies, the Ministry of Justice topped the list with 82.47%, followed by the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, with indexes ranging from 80.58-81.18%.

The Health Ministry was at the bottom of the ministerial-level public administration reform index with 64.78%. Other poorly performing agencies included the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, with 67.06%; the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, 67.19%; and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, 69.75%.

"The index is an important foundation for ministries and localities to assess their strong and weak points in order to improve administrative reforms in the upcoming years," said Nguyen Thai Binh, Minister of Home Affairs.

However, because this is the first time the ministry has implemented the PAR INDEX, agencies are still facing difficulties in planning and implementing the evaluation. Databases concerning public administrative reforms are insufficient and some ministries are late in submitting reports, while many self-evaluations are not in accordance with instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Documents to check the results are also inadequate.

"This year was determined to be a year of institutional reforms, so building a professional public affairs system is important," said Nguyen Si Dung, Vice Chair of the National Assembly Office.

He suggested that civil servants from the level of deputy ministry down should be selected through examinations and overall satisfaction with state-owned agencies being be evaluated via the Internet.

"The criteria for evaluating a director of a transport department is the congestion situation of the province he manages, not the way he satisfies others," he added.