VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Home Affairs announced the 2012 results of the public administration reform index (PAR INDEX 2012), on which Ha Noi received 82.79 per cent.

An employee of the Ha Noi Tax Department accepts an application from a resident. The capital city ranked high on the public administrative reform index for 2012 with a score of 82.79 per cent.

Among the nineteen provinces and cities with indexes over 80 per cent, Da Nang ranked first with 87.14 per cent, followed by the southern provinces of Ba Ria – Vung Tau (86.14 per cent), HCM City (83.83 per cent) Dong Thap (83.44 per cent) and An Giang (83.25 per cent). Northern Quang Ninh Province ranked nineteenth with 80.21 per cent.

Thirty-three provinces saw rather good results (between 70 per cent and 80 per cent), 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 to 70 per cent) 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 to 67.68 per cent) 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 per cent, 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 per cent to 81.18 per cent.

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

"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," Nguyen Thai Binh, Minister of Home Affairs, told An Ninh Do thi (Security and Cities).

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.

Source: VNS