Digitising records of cadres and civil servants for transparency, limiting errors

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Trương Hải Long

 Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Trương Hải Long spoke to the Vietnam News Agency about digitising records of cadres, civil servants and public employees to help limit errors in appointment work.

What is the latest developments of the database on cadres, civil servants and public employees in state agencies?

In June 2020, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc signed Decision No 893/QD-TTg approving the plan to build a national database of civil servants and public employees in state agencies.

The overall objective is to build, manage, update data regularly, organise the exploitation, use and storage of national databases of civil servants and public employees in a synchronised manner nationwide, contributing to improving the efficiency of the management of civil servants and public employees in state agencies towards modernisation as one of the important components in the process of constructing and building e-government, towards a digital economy and society.

The database collects, integrates and shares data on civil servants and public employees in state agencies to serve the policymaking process of the Prime Minister and State agencies.

To perform the assigned tasks, the Ministry of Home Affairs is developing the database and signed and promulgated the Decision approving the cost and contractor selection process in the investment preparation stage; approving the feasibility study report and implementing the bidding packages in the project preparation stage. During the period from April to December 2022, we will conduct the implementation of bidding packages and trial operations. The project is expected to be completed and officially put into operation in January 2023.

Why is the database necessary?

The Party, State and Government always pay attention to and attach importance to the development of information technology application in the activities of State agencies, identifying this as the driving force contributing to the promotion of innovation.

On that basis, ministries, branches and localities, including the Ministry of Home Affairs, have actively implemented the development of e-Government. As an agency that advises and assists the Government and the Prime Minister in reforming, reorganising the apparatus, streamlining the payroll, managing civil servants and public servants, in the past, the Ministry of Home Affairs has many initiatives contributing to the construction of a democratic, professional, modern, streamlined, and effective state administration in the spirit of the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress.

The aim is improving the efficiency of the management of cadres, civil servants and public employees. It is one of the important components in the process of building e-Government towards a digital economy and digital society.

This can ensure the connection and sharing of information and data with the database of cadres, civil servants and public employees of ministries, branches and localities; national database in other fields, contributing to the process of building and developing e-Government.

What are the difficulties you are facing?

The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Home Affairs to assume the prime responsibility for building a national database to connect and share data with the national database on population; coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security in exploiting and taking advantage of information from the National Population Database to ensure that there is no duplicate collection of information.

The ministry will also exchange information and data with the Ministry of Public Security to integrate it into the citizen’s identity card.

The Ministry had set up a steering committee to supervise the work and a working group to assist the committee. On March 18, the Ministry of Home Affairs had a meeting with the Police Department for Administrative Management of social order and agreed on a plan to connect and share information between the National Population Database and National database on cadres, civil servants and public employees and Database on associations and funds (Non-governmental organisations). There are currently no problems.

When the database is connected and shared with the National Database on population, how will it facilitate management agencies?

It will save the cost of updating information and ensure the synchronisation and uniformity of information of databases nationwide.

This database will facilitate the exploitation, use and ability to search for information of cadres, civil servants and public employees; ensure the speed of accessing and exploiting information quickly.

Can we expect that the database will help avoid errors in the appointment of cadres and civil servants? In some cases, some individuals have been disciplined for certain violations, even given prison sentences, but later on, their records are still clean and still get appointed as a leader of state agencies or units.

I think that the implementation of the national database will ensure transparency in management. Digitising the records will limit the situation of missing data at the management unit, the records are managed throughout from the central to the local, thereby partly helping the agency State management to limit errors in the appointment work as in the past.

To have a complete data system, it is very important to check and verify information about cadres, civil servants and public employees. Can you share the current approach of the Ministry of Home Affairs?

When building the database, the Ministry of Home Affairs attaches great importance to building a “correct”, “sufficient”, “clean” and up-to-date database.

Data from ministries and local agencies must be verified and identified to the level of each employee. The records must be digitally signed by employee before being updated on the system of the national database. The data is fully checked according to the documents and technical standards issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Another task when connecting to the database is to review, amend and supplement regulations to serve the reception and settlement of administrative procedures. How is this task being performed by the ministry?

We will make the most of the information of the National Population Database to declare personal information when performing administrative procedures. This information will be stored in the software system to handle administrative procedures for the purpose of reuse when that citizen continues to request other administrative procedures.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has amended and supplemented the Regulation on organisation and operation at the One-Stop-Shop unit in handling administrative procedures at the Ministry. Accordingly, personal information declaration section registered to handle one administrative procedure will be stored in the software system and can be reused for other procedures, if any. VnExpress News