The Hanoi People’s Committee has conducted a survey on public satisfaction over services provided by the authorities of departments, units, districts, and wards in the city.

Staff work on administrative procedures at Ba Dinh People's Committee. Photo: Thanh Hai

Findings from the survey are expected to encourage the authorities to continue improving their services and operation for greater efficiency.

The target in this survey, carried out in early October, would be individuals and representatives of organizations engaging in administrative procedures at 20 departments and 30 districts/wards and the result would be submitted to the municipal People’s Committee before December 31, 2021.

Hanoi’s authorities collected 1,250 samples at departments/units and 4,800 others at districts/wards, which were delivered by the post to ensure safety during the pandemic.

The Hanoi Institute for Socio-Economic Development Studies (HISEDS) is responsible for carrying out the survey with support from the Department of Internal Affairs.

Last year, Hanoi scored 85.15% in the Satisfaction Index of Public Administration Services (SIPAS), an improvement from 80.09% in 2019.

This resulted in the city being ranked  33rd out of 63 provinces/cities, up 19 places from the previous year, which is Hanoi’s highest score since the first SIPAS edition in 2017, and the third consecutive year it has attained a score of over 80%.

However, the SIPAS, conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs, also pointed out shortcomings that the city needs to address as it assesses the performance of localities in public services based on five criteria including “access to service”, “administrative procedures”, “civil servants”, “service outcome” and “compliant settlement”.

Hanoi’s Department of Internal Affairs in a recent report acknowledged there remains a large gap of 10.01%  for the city to reach the top of the ranking, requiring significant endeavor to close it, while the improvement in the “access to service” category has not lived up to expectation as the score in this respect was only  1.71%.

Regarding the expectation from the citizen and organizations, the SIPAS pointed out 56% of 2,520 respondents in Hanoi look for more simplification of administrative procedures, 44% expect shorter processing time, 42% for delivery of service results via post, and 41% call for greater promotion of online public services at advanced stages of 3 and 4.

Among the five central-level cities, Hanoi is the second-highest scoring city only after Haiphong in second place out of 63 provinces/cities (scoring 93.57%), and above Cantho (38/63 or 84%), Ho Chi Minh City (43/63 or 84%), and Danang (47/63 or 83%).