HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) released their report on the Public Administration Reform Index 2016 (PAR Index 2016), in which the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) came in first place for the second year in a row.

At 92.68 percentage points, the SBV outranked 19 ministries and ministry-level agencies on MHA’s Reform Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators PAR Index, which was released on May 30, 2017.

The MHA rate government agencies based on sub indexes of administrative procedure reform including improving the quality of civil servants and public employees and modernising administration, via social studies of the impact of administrative improvement.

On average, the SBV has improved significantly in all sub indexes. The 2016 PAR Index result shows the bank efforts to modernise administrative matters, from the Governor to lower level units both central and local, as well as commercial banks across the country.

The SBV also made regular reviews to adjust its subordinate agencies’ functions and apparati, such as administrative procedures and civil servants’ performances in accordance with legal regulations.

Besides the SBV, nine other ministries and agencies achieved a PAR Index of more than 80 per cent, namely the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Another ten ministries landed between 70 per cent and 80 per cent, including the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Health and the MHA itself.

The average PAR Index value for 2016 across the 19 ministries and agencies is 80.94 per cent. The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs came last with 71.91 percentage points.

According to the MHA, improvements on the PAR Index are evident of capability and responsibility reform efforts by agencies and civil servants. — VNS