The 2020 PAPI report, released on April 14,indicated that in 2020, the percentages of respondents seeing bribes asnecessary for jobs in state agencies, health-care services at district-level public hospitals, land useright certificates, fair treatment by primary school teachers, and the grantingof construction permits continued declining since 2016, the first year of the2016-2021 government term.
As many as 18 provinces and cities madesignificant progress in the control of corruption in the public sector lastyear compared to 2019. Out of the 16 best performers, seven are from the south,four from the central region, and three from the north. As in previous years,Ben Tre performed well overall in this dimension. Six provinces experiencedsignificant setbacks in 2020, with Ninh Thuan and Ninh Binh had the largestdeclines.
Nine out of the top 10 performers in controllingcorrupt behaviours in local administrations and public services are central andsouthern provinces. Quang Ninh, Dong Thap, Ben Tre, Quang Tri, and Quang Namare the top five performers in this indicator.
Compared to the 2016 findings, personalrelationships have become less important in all provinces and cities, implyingthat local administrations may have paid greater attention to a fairrecruitment of state employees. However, personal relationships remain veryimportant for five public office positions at the commune level, even among thetop performers.
The control of corruption in the public sectoris one of the eight dimensions in the PAPI survey. The others are theparticipation at local levels, transparency in local decision making, verticalaccountability towards citizens, public administrative procedures, publicservice delivery, environmental governance, and e-governance.
PAPI is a flagship governance programmeinitiated by the UN Development Programmes in Vietnam since 2009. It measuresand benchmarks citizens’ experiences and perception on the performance andquality of policy implementation and services delivery of all 63 provincial administrationsin Vietnam to advocate for effective and responsive governance.
Over 14,700 citizens were interviewed for the2020 PAPI Report. This is the largest number of citizens to participate since thesurvey was first conducted nationwide in 2011. For the first time, the surveyalso gathered responses from citizens with temporary residence registrationstatus. Nearly 300 migrants were surveyed in six provinces and centrallygoverned municipalities (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Bac Ninh, Da Nang, Dong Nai,and Binh Duong)./.