Performing administrative procedures through the Post: civilized and convenient

Vietnam Post is the only postal enterprise that was assigned by the Government to manage public postal network in Vietnam. With 13,000 serving points reaching to the commune level and over 41,000 staffs, Vietnam Post has been and shall continue to be the extension arm of administrative agencies in reforming administrative procedures in various sectors and in various regions.

On 19^th October 2016, the Prime Minister promulgated Decision 45/2016/QD-TTg on receiving dossiers and returning results of administrative procedures through public post service.

Currently, 100% of the central Ministries and agencies that generate administrative procedures as well as regional units have announced the list of administrative procedures performed through public Postal service.

Signing Ceremony between Tuyen Quang Provincial People's Committee and Vietnam Post

Implementation situation in Tuyen Quang

On 26^th September 2017, in Tuyen Quang province, Vietnam Post and Tuyen Quang Post Office signed a cooperation Agreement with the Provincial People's Committee, departments, agencies and Committee at district level on service implementation of receiving dossiers and returning results of administrative procedures through public postal services.

At present, the Provincial People's Committee has issued decisions approving 2,246 administrative procedures to receive dossier and return results through public postal service (including 1,825 under jurisdiction of departments, agencies, 302 district administrative procedures, 119 commune administrative procedures).

The Provincial Post Office has organized training courses and issued documents regarding operation guidance for the staffs of serving points. The service is being carried out at 57 serving points, including 25 Post Offices and 32 Community Post Offices.

Detailed information regarding the service have been displayed at majority of the serving points under the forms of mica shelf, standee, statement of charges, statement of service quality standard, portfolio of documents included in the dossier…  

Connecting the information network: the Provincial Post has coordinated with the Department of Information and Communication to connect the information network of Vietnam Post with the Public administration System in Tuyen Quang for the service of receiving dossier and returning results of administrative procedures through public postal services.

Thus, to perform administrative procedures through the Post, at this time, civilians and enterprises can simply access the Web Portal of relating administrative agencies (Ministries, Provincial / Municipal People's Committees, departments, agencies…); the Web Portal for Online Public Administration of Vietnam Post at the address: https://hcconline.vnpost.vn or website:  dichvucong.tuyenquang.gov.vn can be accessed for further information and guidance regarding dossier of administrative procedures to be received and returned through public postal service.

People can perform administrative procedures at Provincial Post Offices or Community Post Offices.

Otherwise, civilians are advised to get to the nearest Post Office to receive guidance and full support for dossier preparation. Customers shall then bring the completed dossier to any Delivery Post Office to register for the service. The staff of Post Office will check the validation of application document and proceed to seal the dossier before updating all relevant information into the Post’s software.

Postal staff shall forward valid dossiers to the administrative agency for execution, continuously check and collate during the process before signing the Records of dossier handover eventually. By the appointment date defined by the administrative agency, the Postal staff shall come to receive results, make Records of dossier exchange before deliver to the customer’s address quickly and accurately.

Achievement after nearly a year of implementation

Nearly a year after the Agreement between Vietnam Post and the local authorities was signed, the administrative procedures through public postal service are generated mostly on the returning end and rarely on the receiving end. In several serving points, almost no case of receipt was registered.

The service volume mainly comes from the units which have implemented the service before signing the cooperation agreement, such as Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, Provincial Social Insurance and Provincial Public Security.

The results achieved in the first 6 months of 2018 reached 7,623 items, with over VND 185 million of revenue. The quality of the service is guaranteed as there is no case of loss, misplacement, asthma, damage or internal content being affected while ensuring delivery time in accordance with regulations. No complaint about service quality was received.

Difficulties encountered

One of the biggest difficulties currently lies in the fact that the scale of service propaganda couldn’t reach every communes and wards, resulting in many people not being aware of the service. In addition, most people still have the habit of performing the procedure directly the with administrative agency, or the psychological fear that their original document could be lost in service, also not being used to getting to the Post to submit their dossiers. Several administrative procedures have high requirement in term of dossier, thus making people coming to the administrative agencies themselves for consultancy.

The online receipt of dossier remains limited as people and enterprises are not actively using level 3, level 4 public services implemented by provincial government agencies; Reception of the postal staff is sometimes awkward as the supporting technology device is not connected.

In addition, some administrative agencies, despite already signing cooperation agreement in providing services through the Post, have yet to direct their departments to implement in a drastic way, resulting in ineffective coordination. At present, the announcement of administrative procedures performed through public postal service has been done, yet the implementation requires, aside from guiding documents, coordination with local departments and agencies to provide operational training for all relevant staffs. However, the training has not been carried out widely at all administrative level thus in several regions, service implementation remains slow.

People come to perform administrative procedures at Son Duong Post Office

Receiving dossiers and returning results of administrative procedures through public postal service shall bring about significant change to the execution of administrative procedures, additionally raising the quality of administrative services, providing additional option for organizations and individuals to perform administrative procedures, and most importantly, respecting people's willingness to choose the method of performing administrative procedures they want.

When the administrative agencies is not under intense pressure from performing administrative procedures, the unit’s specialists could spend more time focusing on their specialized tasks. Aside from saving people the time and cost of travel and still handling their requests and complaints, receiving dossier and returning result of administrative procedures through public postal service also serve to reduce negativism and exaction in the process. Furthermore, the cutback on travel vehicles and time should substantially contribute to reduce traffic jam and accidents all over Vietnam.

The satisfaction level of enterprises and people when performing administrative procedures is a measure of professionalism and efficiency in the operation of the local administrative system. In the future, relevant units shall strictly implement all the contents signed in the cooperation agreement between Vietnam Post and Provincial People’s Committee, as well as District and Municipal departments and agencies in the province.