Hanoi (VNA) – Findings from the 2017 Provincial Governance and PublicAdministration Performance Index (PAPI) Report, which was released in Hanoi onApril 4, showed a significant turnaround in citizens’ perceptions andexperiences in corruption in the public sector.

Atotal of 14,097 citizens randomly selected from all 63 provinces and citieswere interviewed for the 2017 PAPI, which assesses citizen experiences withnational and local government performance in governance, public administrationand public service delivery.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, KamalMalhotra, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam,said: “The 2017 survey results are mixed and reveal both encouraging andworrying trends. Particularlynoteworthy is the reversal in the downward trend since 2013 in control ofcorruption in the public sector.”

“Citizens report improvements in both theirperceptions and personal experiences. However, the PAPI scores are still belowthe levels found in 2012, so although the direction of change is positive, muchwork remains to be done to fight corruption - to ensurethat the findings of the 2017 PAPI report do not represent a temporaryaberration but signal the start of a systemic and fundamental reversal of whathas been a worrying longer-term trend on corruption,” he said.

Australian Ambassador toVietnam Craig Chittick commended PAPI as a data gold mine for Vietnamese policymakers and researchers seeking to implement policy reform and improvegovernment performance.

The ambassador said that Australia will be the mainsponsor of PAPI for the next three years, providing a total of 2.9 million USD.“This support falls under the umbrella of the Aus4Reform program, which issupporting the Government of Viet Nam to deliver higher, more inclusive, andbetter quality economic growth,” he said.

Ofthe six governance areas measured in 2017, the greatest gain was seen in control of corruption in the public sector. Citizens reported improvements in both their perceptions and personalexperiences: only 17 percent said they directly experienced bribery whenapplying for land use rights certificates, down from 23 percent in 2016, andthe proportion experiencing bribery when using public district hospitalservices fell to 9 percent in 2017 from 17 percent in 2016.

Citizensreported several positive trends related to political participation at the local level in 2017. Thelargest increase was in the proportion of citizens reporting that localprojects were monitored by Community Investment Supervision Boards: the ratesurged from 21 percent in 2016 to 34 percent in 2017.  A higher proportion of citizens also reportedhaving a second candidate to choose from in village head elections – up from 42percent in 2016 to 49 percent in 2017.

Citizensreported that overall provincial performance in vertical accountability improved slightly. In2017, about 25 percent of respondents across the country said they met villageheads to discuss a problem, an increase of about 3 percent from 2016. For thosewho met with village heads, about 83 percent rated the meeting as successful,down from 85 percent in 2016.

Resultsalso show good progress made by all provinces in public administrative procedures. Overall,citizens said they were more satisfied with procedures at local one-stop shopsin three out of the four services that PAPI measures (certification,construction permits, and personal documents), and they reported a significantincrease in accessing one-stop windows for land use rights certificates (upfrom 79 percent in 2016 to 86 percent in 2017).

Finally, the 2017 PAPI Report looks at overall provincial performance.Scores for all of the country’s 63 provinces and cities increased in 2017compared to 2016, and seven saw significant improvements.

PAPI is a policy monitoring tool that assessescitizen experiences and satisfaction with government performance at thenational and sub-national levels in governance, public administration andpublic service delivery. Since its pilot in 2009, PAPI has directly interviewed103,059 Vietnamese citizens nationwide. PAPI measures six dimensions: participation at locallevels, transparency, vertical accountability, control of corruption, publicadministrative procedures and public service delivery. The survey has beenimplemented nationwide each year since 2011.

PAPI is a collaboration between the Centre forCommunity Support and Development Studies (CECODES), the Centre for Researchand Training of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front (VFF-CRT), the Real-TimeAnalytics and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).-VNA