Local units and departments in Hanoi have recorded significant improvements in the Public Administration Reform (PAR) Index in 2020, in which 18 districts and three departments earned scores of over 90 out of 100 points, the highest to date yet.

Citizens apply for administrative procedures at Nam Tu Liem district. Photo: Thanh Hai

Recent PAR Index results of districts and departments in Hanoi released on May 5 revealed the Department of Finance ranked first among municipal departments and units, scoring 92.76 points, while Cau Giay district topped the districts and wards being graded at 94.22 points.

A number of districts have shown significant improvements in administrative reforms, including Thanh Tri ranking 6^th with 91.68 points from 23^rd in 2019, My Duc (7^th from 15^th), Thanh Xuan (9^th from 17^th), Thanh Oai (17^th from 28^th); Department of Justice (3^rd from 16^th).

Deputy Chief of Office under the Department of Finance Nguyen Trung Dung attributed the department's push for simplification of administrative procedures to its strong performance in PAR Index.

“All 16 administrative procedures under the competence of the Department of Finance have been provided online at an advanced stage of 3 and 4 out of the four-scale level,” Dung told Hanoitimes.

“Last year, the Department processed all 3,194 applications online at stages 3 and 4 on time,” he added.

A representative of the Cau Giay district said the priority is to maintain frequent communication between the authorities and citizens.

“In the district’s online portal, there has been a section dedicated to people’s feedback,” stated the representative.

As a district having the biggest improvement in the PAR Index 2020, Head of the Internal Affairs Unit under Thanh Tri district Nguyen Van Loi said the local authorities have been training public servants on enhancing people’s satisfaction during the process of realizing administrative procedures.

Eyeing higher public satisfaction

For this year, Hanoi targets to further improve the satisfaction rate of citizens, organizations and businesses in dealing with administrative procedures by at least 85%; at least 99% of applications to be processed on time; 100% of public servants at ward-level People’s Committees are aware of requirements under the PAR Index.

“The Department of Finance would continue to prioritize applying IT in resolving administrative procedures, along with raising individual responsibility in the process,” said Dung.

PAR Index is a major instrument to assess administrative reform for departments and people’s committees at district-, ward-levels.

Last year, over 1,600 public services in Hanoi, or over 80% of the total, were available online, while the number of documents processed through the online public services portal reached over 2.2 million. Hanoi has also integrated 223 public online services into the national services portal.