Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative said that, after 10 years, the Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) has continued to be an effective tool to contribute to improving public governance in Vietnam.
More than 14,300 randomly selected people from 63 provinces and cities nationwide were interviewed according to the PAPI 2018 study, which assessed citizen’s experiences with national and local government performance in governance, public administration, and public service delivery.
The PAPI 2018 report showed many improvements in the surveyed areas. People said that harassment in public health and primary education has been reduced and they were more satisfied with most basic public services.
Administration at primary levels also saw more interaction with people. The scores regarding the issuance of construction permits and one-stop-shop services at commune and district levels also increased.
However, a number of people said that there remained harassment in the issuance of land use right certificates and the number of officials using public funds for private purposes did not decrease. In particular, people across the country believed that the quality of water sources in their residential areas were worse than three years ago.
Nearly 60% of the interviewed people said that corruption at commune level went down in the past three years and only 50% of people said that corruption at national level has tended to decrease.
Hanoi posted total PAPI scores of 42.32 out of 80, ranking among the cities with the low scores.
