Reforms in governance at slow pace: latest survey

Out of the six dimensions, the one that has dropped the most is Participation at Local Levels, where three out of four sub-dimensions declined in scores. For example, village head elections are largely symbolic, with practices such as having fewer than two candidates to choose from and candidates being suggested by the authorities becoming common.  

The Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) is a policy monitoring tool that provides data on citizens’ experience with governance, public administration and public services at the national and provincial level. For the 2014 PAPI survey, nearly 14,000 randomly selected citizens nationwide were interviewed.

 

“By providing evidence of citizen experiences, PAPI and the data it generates is seen as a mirror that reflects how local governments perform,” said UN Resident Coordinator in Viet Nam Dr Pratibha Mehta. “The ultimate aim of PAPI is for this evidence to be used to fix problematic areas and ensure good governance and quality services for all citizens – thereby improving the reflection provinces see in the mirror.”



In 2014, the dimensions on Transparency and Vertical Accountability saw insignificant improvements. For example, on average only eight out of 100 people know about, have read and trust publicized notices about their commune’s budget.

The Public Administrative Procedures dimension also displayed little improvement in overall levels of citizen satisfaction. The law specifies that land use right procedures should take maximum 30 days. However, a third (34 per cent) of applicants had to wait 100 days to get their paperwork, and 8 per cent had to wait between 100 to 720 days for the final result.  

In Public Service Delivery there have been slight improvements in the quality of basic infrastructure and law and order. However, satisfaction levels with the quality of public district hospitals have fallen. Meanwhile, public primary education scores the lowest among the four public services measured. Poor quality teaching, bribery and irregular feedback from schools are the three key challenges that citizens are concerned about.

Finally, respondents also noted little improvement in the Control of Corruption dimension. The biggest shift was in the increased number of respondents agreeing that corruption and bribery are of concern in various areas of provincial public service delivery. For example, within state employment nearly half of respondents at least partially agree that bribes are necessary in order to get a job in the public sector. 



The survey also asked respondents about their experience with bribery in order to obtain services in hospitals and primary schools. An estimated 12 per cent had to pay a bribe for hospital services, while 30 per cent of respondents with children in primary school had to pay bribes. These numbers have increased since 2012, when 10 per cent had to pay a bribe for hospital services and 12 per cent for primary education.

For the 2014 PAPI survey new questions about land transparency and compensation were added. Amendment to Land Law took effect in July 2014, before PAPI 2014 survey started. So data collected can serve as baselines for monitoring the law implementation.

The data shows that far fewer respondents reported having land seized than in previous years, with five per cent reporting their own family or a neighbor had land taken. Those losing land continue to be concentrated in the Northwest region, while citizens in the Mekong River Delta, Southeast and South Central regions reported low levels of land seizures.

In terms of compensation, the majority of those reporting that they or their relatives had land seized said they received monetary compensation. However, more than one fifth still reported that they received no compensation at all. At the same time, only 36 per cent of those who had their land taken in the past year said they received fair compensation.

Similar to previous years, there is wide variation in PAPI scores within provinces, implying significant differences in provincial governance equality. For example, Vinh Long, Long An and Binh Duong provinces seem to provide high quality governance and public services to nearly all of their citizens, while Cao Bang, Ninh Thuan, Dien Bien and Quang Nai provide low governance quality and public services and citizens there experience high inequality.

Notes for editors:

The Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) is a policy monitoring tool that reflects citizen experiences with central to local governments in performing their governance, public administration and public service delivery functions. PAPI measures six dimensions: participation at local levels, transparency, vertical accountability, control of corruption, public administrative procedures and public service delivery. The survey has been implemented nationwide each year since 2011.

PAPI is a collaboration between the Centre for Community Support and Development Studies (CECODES), the Centre for Research and Training of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front (VFF-CRT) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The PAPI initiative has been co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and UNDP since 2011. The full 2014 PAPI Report and more in-depth analysis can be accessed at: www.papi.vn.

For more information, contact: 

Nguyen Viet Lan

UN Communications Team

Tel: (+84 4) 3822 4383, ext: 121

Email: nguyen.viet.lan@undp.org

Dang Hoang Giang

CECODES

No. 16, 34/23 Alley, Nguyen Hong St.  Ha Noi

Tel: (+84 4) 3573 8496. Fax: (+84 4) 3573 8497

www.cecodes.org