On November 20, 2023, the Government Office issued Notice No. 476/TB-VPCP announcing the conclusions of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang - Head of the Prime Minister's Administrative Procedure Reform Working Group at a working session with various ministries and localities regarding administrative reform on November 16, 2023.
Administrative Procedure Reform Has Not Met Schedule Requirements
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang acknowledged and commended the efforts of ministries and localities in overcoming difficulties and proactively implementing tasks and solutions in administrative procedure reform.
However, it must be frankly acknowledged that implementation remains very slow and has not met the schedule requirements set forth in the 2023 Plan assigned by the Prime Minister. Several shortcomings and limitations must be addressed, such as: delayed announcement of administrative procedures by ministries affecting local disclosure; superficial restructuring of administrative procedures and public services; incomplete end-to-end digital processing of dossiers; slow and ineffective digitization with a low rate of digitized data reuse; limited data connectivity and sharing among ministries, sectors, and localities; and failure to guarantee 100% synchronization of dossier statuses on the National Public Service Portal.
The notice highlighted the root causes: leaders of certain ministries and localities have not paid adequate attention or provided resolute leadership; regulations on establishing, managing, and utilizing data across sectors remain unsynchronized; and inter-agency coordination has been inefficient, leading to prolonged processing times.
Looking ahead, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang requested Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government agencies, and Chairpersons of provincial-level People's Committees to uphold the responsibility of top leaders and decisively direct their units to implement administrative reform tasks, striving to accomplish all targets assigned by the Government and Prime Minister in 2023 under Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP, Decision No. 933/QD-TTg, Directive No. 27/CT-TTg, and guiding directives of the Working Group.
Administrative procedure reform is a key and challenging task requiring changes in established habits and methods. Therefore, ministries, sectors, and localities must strengthen coordination, communication, and experience sharing. Practice has demonstrated that under identical conditions, some ministries and localities have achieved far superior results.
Localities Are Not Permitted to Issue Administrative Procedures Unless Mandated by Law or Resolution
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang instructed ministries, sectors, and localities to focus on reviewing, reducing, and simplifying administrative procedures, while strictly controlling the issuance of new administrative procedures to ensure they are clear, practicable, and fully, publicly, and promptly promulgated in accordance with regulations.
Local authorities are prohibited from issuing administrative procedures unless explicitly authorized by law or National Assembly resolutions, or where strictly necessary to specify administrative procedures in provincial People's Council resolutions pursuant to Clause 4, Article 27 of the Law on Promulgation of Legislative Documents.
Authorities must review and propose plans to streamline internal administrative procedures, fulfilling the objective of cutting and simplifying at least 20% of administrative procedures and reducing at least 20% of compliance costs by December 2023.
Accelerate the digitization of records and administrative results, foster data reuse, and thoroughly leverage the benefits of Project 06. Ensure end-to-end digital dossier processing to eliminate situations where files are received electronically but handled internally on paper, which impedes the delivery of digital outcomes and the reuse of existing data within administrative information systems.
Publish monthly evaluation results of the Indicator Set serving citizens and enterprises in administrative procedures and public services in accordance with Prime Minister Decision No. 766/QD-TTg dated June 23, 2022.
The Ministry of Information and Communications is assigned to lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to promulgate economic-technical norms for guidance, receipt, digitization, and result delivery of administrative procedures conducted by public postal service providers in December 2023. Urgently propose amendments and supplements to Government Decree No. 73/2019/ND-CP to remove bottlenecks in IT investment management and Project 06 implementation, submitting to the Government for promulgation prior to December 31, 2023.
The conclusions also instructed the Government Office - the Standing Agency of the Working Group - to issue written requests to relevant ministries and agencies to address difficulties, obstacles, and proposals from 3 ministries and 8 localities, monitoring and reporting progress to the Head of the Working Group.
Source: Industry and Trade Magazine
