Supporting busy people to take advantage of doing administrative procedures
This policy quickly received great consensus from local people. At the Tan Thuan Ward Public Administrative Service Center, Mr. Dang Nguyen Khanh came to carry out procedures to certify his job application early. Due to the nature of work continuously going to work during the week, it is very difficult for him to take leave on weekdays.
The government resolves procedures on Saturday from July 10, helping busy people like me to take advantage of getting papers easily. The processing process is fast, and officials support enthusiastically, so it doesn't take much time to wait" - Mr. Khanh shared.
At the Public Administrative Service Center of Binh Thanh ward, Mr. Do Hung Thao also completed the certification of signatures and certified citizen identification cards in less than 30 minutes. Mr. Thao expressed his satisfaction that the procedures took place quickly.
Ms. Tran Thuy Minh Y - Deputy Director of the Tan Thuan Ward Public Administrative Service Center - said that people come to complete procedures on Saturday morning mainly to certify and receive civil status results; land records only arise 1-2 cases, even some days are not available. Certification procedures are resolved on the spot, while land and civil status records are received and transferred to specialized departments for processing. Opening on weekends helps meet unexpected needs, supporting workers who cannot take leave during office hours.
Flexible operation and personnel problem
Opening on holidays creates additional personnel pressure for local authorities. After the merger, the Tan Thuan Ward Public Administrative Service Center will only have 4 staff members, while receiving 100-200 dossiers every day due to the area having an export processing zone and a port system.
Because core positions such as civil registration, notarization and land require officials to be on fixed duty, it is impossible to rotate working shifts, and the pressure of work on weekdays and holidays is very high on the staff.
There are times when dossiers are piled up, I myself also directly go to the counter to support the staff from receiving and checking dossiers to signing on the spot to avoid congestion. The locality really hopes that in the future, higher levels will have special mechanisms or supplement staff to regenerate labor for grassroots civil servants" - Ms. Minh Y confided.
From a local perspective, Ms. Vu Thi Hoi Diem, Deputy Director of the Public Administrative Service Center of Binh Thanh ward, informed that the number of people coming to transact on Saturdays usually starts to increase from after 8:30 am to 11:30 am. To create maximum convenience, Binh Thanh ward is developing a plan to bring mobile working groups to neighborhoods on Saturday mornings.
At the same time, Binh Thanh ward also operates a separate application integrated via Zalo, allowing people to proactively make appointments in advance. When they arrive on time as registered, people are prioritized to receive them immediately after the case is being processed, thereby minimizing waiting time at the counter.
Launchpad for online public services
Assessing the policy of resolving administrative procedures on Saturday, Dr. Nguyen Tran Nhu Khue - Head of the Department of Commercial Law, Van Lang University - said that this is an important step in the process of transitioning from "administrative management" to "service administration".
Maintaining working on holidays shows a profound change in management thinking when putting people and businesses at the center.
However, to create long-term motivation, Dr. Khue believes that the government needs to ensure two factors in parallel: Improving service quality and protecting the legitimate rights of cadres and civil servants directly performing tasks.
There needs to be a commensurate remuneration mechanism through reasonable rotation, supporting travel costs for officials traveling far, and ensuring full salary, allowances and compensatory leave time according to regulations" - Dr. Khue emphasized.
In addition to the preferential treatment regime, it is necessary to promote digital transformation, online public services and remote work to shorten the processing time of dossiers. The effectiveness of the Saturday morning working model needs to be assessed by satisfaction level, on-duty dossier rate, number of people self-checking procedures online and rationality in personnel arrangement, avoiding formality and waste of resources.
