Efforts to digitize administrative procedures in the land sector

The Provincial Public Administration Service Center invested in an A3 scanner to digitize documents when receiving and processing them.

Processing time increased

Digitizing records in receiving, processing, and returning results of administrative procedure (TTHC) settlement aims to form an electronic data management warehouse of organizations and individuals at the Provincial Public Service Portal. Thereby, helping to improve the efficiency of public service provision of state administrative agencies, creating the most favorable conditions for organizations and individuals to perform TTHC, contributing to accelerating the progress of building e-Government, towards Digital Government. However, due to the characteristics of large records, the process of digitizing TTHC records in the land sector encounters many difficulties.

On average, each day, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment's Reception and Results Department at the Provincial Public Administration Service Center receives 50-70 files. Previously, each file received and processed by officials and civil servants took about 10 minutes, but now, when all files are required to be digitized, the processing time is extended to 30-40 minutes.

Mr. Ngo Van Minh, a civil servant of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said that the number of documents received was large, with many components. There were documents in the land sector with many pages, and the drawings were all large in size. In addition, the lack of equipment to scan large-size documents (A0, A1) made it very difficult for the officers and civil servants receiving them to digitize.

From April 1, 2022, the Provincial People's Committee requires 100% of the records received and processed at the Public Administration Service Center to be digitized. Accordingly, the receiving staff must photocopy the records, convert them into electronic documents on the information system and database and be responsible for the completeness, integrity and accuracy of the contents according to the paper version; digitally sign the digitized documents, and transfer the records to the competent agency or unit for settlement.

There is still a gap between requirements and practical basis for implementation.

Implementing digitalization, civil servants of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment must spend 30-40 minutes to process administrative procedures.

Overcoming difficulties

As one of the localities with the highest rate of digitization of records in the province, Ninh Giang district also faces many difficulties in digitizing administrative procedure records in general and the land sector in particular. Mr. Vo The Anh, Deputy Chief of Office of Ninh Giang District People's Committee, said that the land sector currently accounts for over 30% of the total number of records received at the district level, while the components of records in this field are numerous, the machinery and equipment for digitization are limited, and some officials and civil servants are not familiar with the digitization process, which has significantly affected the quality and digitization rate of records...

To overcome the difficulties in digitizing administrative procedure records in the land sector, Ninh Giang district has made the most of the facilities of units and individuals (smartphones, iPads) to serve the digitization of records. For records with land planning drawings using large paper sizes, organizations and individuals are requested to provide pdf files when handling administrative procedures to facilitate the conversion of records to electronic versions.

For the Provincial Public Administration Service Center, when implementing the digitization of administrative procedure records, in addition to utilizing the scanners that had been invested in before, the center invested in an A3 paper scanner. For large paper sizes, the staff receiving the records overcomes this by using a smartphone to take a photo of the entire drawing and convert it to an fdf file, then convert it into an electronic document.

Ms. Nguyen Thi An, Deputy Head of the Internal Affairs - Administrative Procedure Control Department, Office of the Provincial People's Committee, said that in the past time, the Provincial Public Administration Service Center regularly inspected and urged relevant civil servants and public employees to seriously implement the digitalization of administrative procedure records in receiving and handling administrative procedures in general, and in the land sector in particular, during the process of receiving, handling and returning results of handling administrative procedures. Monthly, the results of implementation of each department and branch are summarized. The unit invests in machinery and equipment to serve the digitization of records; organizes training and regularly exchanges and shares experiences in the digitalization of records between cadres and civil servants of departments and branches working in receiving and handling administrative procedure records at the Provincial Public Administration Service Center...

Overcoming difficulties, from April 1 to December 8, the provincial departments and branches received over 136,000 records, of which nearly 126,000 records were fully digitized, reaching over 93%. The rate of digitization of administrative procedure settlement results accounts for nearly 85%. However, according to Ms. An, the digitization of records and results of administrative procedure settlement in the field of natural resources and environment is still low. Currently, the rate of digitization of results of administrative procedure settlement under the Department of Natural Resources and Environment has only reached over 71% of the resolved records.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy, a civil servant at the Office of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said that in the coming time, the department will strengthen training and professional guidance for officials and civil servants of relevant departments to raise awareness, enhance skills and expertise to ensure the implementation of tasks of digitizing administrative procedure records in a unified and effective manner. Timely update the code of administrative procedure results and the file components of administrative procedures to speed up the progress of updating, connecting, sharing, and reusing digitized results in accordance with regulations and strive to digitize all administrative procedure records received, processed, and returned by the end of 2022.

PV