PAR INDEX: PILOTING AND NEXT STEPS

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1 PAR INDEX: PILOTING AND NEXT STEPS Presentation by Mr. Phạm Minh Hùng Deputy Director, Department of Public Administration Reform (PAR) Ministry of Home Affairs I. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM MONITORING AND EVALUATION INDICATORS (PAR INDEX): AN ESSENTIAL TOOL IN MONITORING AND EVALUATING PAR PROCESS During the period, PAR process in Vietnam has been implemented comprehensively and uniformly following a Master Plan (MP) that the Prime Minister ratified by his Decision No. 136/2001/QĐ-TTg of 17/9/2001. The MP ascertained that PAR be executed in every aspect of the administrative system, namely institutional reform, administrative apparatus reform, improvement of civil servants capacity, public finance reform, and modernization of the administration. The objectives were to build a democratic, clean, strong, professional, modernized, effective, and efficient administration embedded by the rule-of-law principles under the Party s leadership; to develop a team of civil servants and public officials who are appropriately qualified to meet the demand of the nation s course of development. Review of the last 10 years of PAR implementation indicates that the PAR process has gained important outcomes in every dimension of the administration, making positive contribution to the nation s economic development and democratization of the society, accelerating international integration, further enhancing and sustaining stable political and social conditions for the country. However, along the process of monitoring and evaluating the PAR implementation, the Government of Vietnam had no proper tools to assess in a scientific, objective, and quantifiable manner whatever outcomes that have been achieved from the PAR implementation by ministries, sectors and localities. The work of assessment remained qualitative, subjective and yet lacked a participative approach from the civil society. It was therefore hard to ascertain the level of success, as well as the level of objectives achieved. This also created difficulties to management and evaluation of the MP results; on the other hand, it was hard to rank ministries, sectors, and localities based on their PAR achievements. One of the plausible solutions was to develop a set of Public Administrative Reform Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators (PAR Index) that will be applied in 1

2 monitoring and evaluating the PAR outcomes by ministries, sectors, and localities. With the support from the Project of Strengthening capacity of Viet Nam s government agencies for improving and enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of public administration reform, PAR Index has been developed. The Index is regarded as a new management tool in implementing the MP, which can assure a scientific, systematic, and result-based approach for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) PAR implementation. The Index also mobilizes a much higher level of citizens and organizations participation into PAR evaluation, the PAR results and impacts are also assessed in a more practical and objective manner. The adoption of the PAR Index indicates the Government s vigorous determination in improving the quality and effectiveness of MP implementation for the period. This determination is indicated in the following points: Firstly, the Index evaluates comprehensively, practically and objectively how the MP is implemented at the ministry and provincial levels (evaluation of PAR implementation, outcomes and impacts are included). Secondly, understandings of strengths and weaknesses in the MP implementation help ministries, sectors and localities identify needed adjustments related to objectives, contents and solutions, with an aim to improve the quality and effectiveness of PAR implementation at ministries, sectors and centrally affiliated localities. Thirdly, the evaluation of PAR outcomes is quantifiable; this makes annual comparisons and ranking between ministries, sectors and localities for their PAR MP implementation possible. II. PAR INDEX: THE CONTENT 1. Composition of PAR Index PAR Index follows closely the PAR MP contents. It is made separately for ministry level and provincial level. Its structure flows from PAR areas to indicators and sub-indicators. At the ministry level, PAR Index consist 7 areas, including PAR management, administrative procedure reform, reform of state administration apparatus, building and improving the quality of the team (officials, public servants, and civil servants), innovation of management mechanism for public administration agencies and public service delivery units, modernization of state administration, and performance of area management function. These are the most common areas of ministries and ministry-level organizations corresponding with 2

3 their state management functions (the Office of Government excluded). The 7 areas are divided into 30 indicators and 79 sub-indicators. At the provincial level, PAR Index consists of 8 areas that reflect localities PAR functions, including PAR management, administrative procedure reform, reform of state administration apparatus, building and improving the quality of the team (officials, public servants, civil servants), innovation of management mechanism for public administration agencies and public service delivery units, modernization of state administration; development and dissemination of legal papers at localities, and implementation of One-Stop-Shop and Inter-Agency One- Stop-Shop. Accordingly, the 8 areas are divided into 32 indicators and 85 subindicators. 2. Scoring methodology and rating PAR Index scoring is a combination of internal evaluation (evaluation from inside the administrative agency) and external evaluation (evaluation from outside). Due to the level of complexity and the existence of unquantifiable elements in the PAR process, the evaluation work is designed as a combination of PAR process evaluation and PAR outcomes/impact evaluation, with an annual frequency. When the evaluation starts, ministries, sectors and localities collect their information and reports in accordance with the criteria pre-defined in PAR Index. MoHA, by their state management function, will evaluate through monitoring the collected information and reports, as well as conducting a survey. This evaluation method is seen as a proper way to assure pro-activity and accountability by administrative agencies, whilst assuring objectivity by external actors participation into the evaluation process. The survey targets differently between ministries and provinces. The details are as follows. - At the ministry level: 6 target groups, namely National Assembly s deputies (MPs), officers from Party s organization, managerial officers at ministries (from department-level upwards), socio-political organizations, citizens, and large-sized enterprises. - At the provincial level: 4 target groups, namely provincial People s Council deputies; citizens; enterprises; managerial officers in the localities (from department-level upwards). Selection of the above described survey target in principle assure objectivity and representativeness, in which the participation by officers from Party s organizations, state authority (National Assembly, People s Councils that perform 3

4 the function of monitoring administrative agencies activities), by socio-political organizations that perform the function of monitoring institutions, mechanisms, policies managing sectors, by managerial officers who directly perform state management over the administration and enterprises, and by citizens who are beneficiaries from the administrative system. PAR Index adopts a 100 scored scale for evaluation. The Index is calculated as a percentage between the evaluation scores and the maximum score. There is a synthesis indicator called the year s public administrative reform monitoring and evaluation indicator, and sub-indicators for the corresponding areas and criteria. III. PAR INDEX: PILOT AND OUTCOMES In implementing MoHA Minister s Decision No. 1953/QĐ-BNV of 8 Dec 2011, MoHA has ratified a plan that rolled out a pilot adoption of PAR Index at Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), and 6 provinces and cities namely Thai Binh, VinhPhuc, Ha Tinh, Ba Ria Vung Tau, Can Tho and Hai Phong. The piloted locations have executed training and propaganda on the objectives and content of PAR Index, collected information and reports for their year 2011 s PAR implementation following MoHA s guidelines. As planned, MoHA collaborated with consultants and piloted agencies to execute a survey on target groups for external information. Based on a synthesis of PAR implementation reports and the survey, PAR Index 2011 is as follows. - At the ministry level: MOIT attained a score of 63.7; MARD 61.4 and MONRE Bộ Công thương Bộ NN&PTNT Bộ TN&MT 10 0 Bộ Công thương Bộ NN&PTNT Bộ TN&MT Figure 1: PAR Index Year 2011 (three piloted ministries) - At the provincial level: Cần Thơ attained 82.08; Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu 76.53; 4

5 Hải Phòng 73.13; Hà Tĩnh 70.41; Vĩnh Phúc 68.93; and Thái Bình Cần Thơ Bà Rịa Vũng Tàu Hải Phòng Hà Tĩnh Vĩnh Phúc 10 0 Cần Thơ Bà Rịa Vũng Tàu Hải Phòng Hà Tĩnh Vĩnh Phúc Thái Bình Figure 2: PAR Index Year 2011 (six piloted localities) The piloted PAR Index has reflected relatively accurately and objectively the achievements in terms of PAR efforts in the year 2011 of the piloted agencies. It also bore itself the value for sharp comparison and rating between the piloted. In addition, adoption of the Index also helps the analysis of sub-indicators for each area, criteria, surveyed group. This allows us to analyze the strengths and weaknesses for each PAR-related area for each agencies; it also reveals how different groups rated differently on the piloted agencies PAR achievements. These are crucial information that helps to adjust objectives and contents as well as to pinpoint PAR-related solutions for each year at ministries, sectors and localities in a flexible and practical manner. MoHA has organized review workshops to conduct a comprehensive assessment on the piloting outcomes. At those workshops, ministries, sectors and localities paid high attributes to the necessities, practicality and feasibility of the PAR Index. The workshop attendees also gave valuable insights and comments that helped MoHA to improve the PAR Index for a later refinements and largescaled adoption, starting from the year 2013 onwards. IV. NEXT STEPS 1. PAR Index will be refined by readjusting the content of some indicators, sub-indicators, and scaling for a more practical approach; survey targets are redefined to assure higher objectivity and accuracy in surveys. With a refined PAR Index, MoHA Minister will ratify the Development and implementation of PAR Index Proposal by the end of November Subsequently, the Index will be 5

6 adopted uniformly across ministries, centrally affiliated provinces and cities from the year 2013 onwards. 2. MoHA will hold a workshop that announces and releases PAR Index by December Guidance documents will be composed, propaganda activities and training on how to implement PAR Index be conducted at ministries, centrally affiliated provinces and cities. 4. Parallel to its annual implementation, the Index will be subject to continuous studies and reviews for further improvements that will assure higher practicality and appropriateness with ministries, sectors, and localities. Abbreviations used in this translation MARD: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development MoHA: Ministry of Home Affairs MOIT: Ministry of Industry and Trade MONRE: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment M&E: monitoring and evaluation MP: Master Plan PAR: Public Administration Reform 6

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