Decentralization - the key issue in operating the two-tier local government model

After merging and operating under the two-level local government model, despite the large workload and many arising difficulties, communes and wards in Lao Cai province have proactively overcome them to ensure operations according to the motto of building an effective, efficient government, close to the people.

For over 2 months, the Au Lau Ward Public Administration Service Center has always had a lot of people coming to handle administrative procedures (3 times more than before). With the spirit of "running and queuing at the same time", all cadres, civil servants and workers of Au Lau Ward are trying their best to quickly get to work, not allowing any interruption or congestion in the process of receiving and handling administrative procedures.

Comrade Pham Tien Dung - Chairman of Au Lau Ward People's Committee said: "As a locality with a large population, every day Au Lau Ward receives hundreds of administrative procedure files from people and businesses. The workload is large, but the staff of the Public Administration Service Center (PVHCC) always work with the highest responsibility, ensuring timely and complete receipt of all files from people and businesses. Files under the ward's jurisdiction are all resolved ahead of schedule."

Ms. Nguyen Thi Toan in Dang Con village came to the Au Lau Ward Public Administration Service Center to certify some documents and shared: “It only took about 30 minutes from the time I sent the request for my administrative procedures to be processed even though there were a lot of people coming to the center to conduct transactions. This helps me save time to handle other tasks. The staff at the center guided me carefully and explained enthusiastically, so I am very satisfied.”

The above remarkable results were achieved from the careful preparation of Au Lau ward before operating under the two-tier local government model. From the arrangement of facilities to the arrangement of civil servants to ensure competent and professional staff, especially the staff directly receiving and handling administrative procedures at the Public Administration Service Center.

In Hop Thanh, to facilitate people when doing administrative procedures, the new commune Public Administration Service Center is located in Coc 2 village, Hop Thanh commune (old). Now, people in villages far from the commune center, such as: Lang Moi, Tuong 3... when doing administrative procedures at the new commune Public Administration Service Center, only have to travel about 5 km, instead of traveling 15 km to the Reception and Results Department of Lao Cai city before.

Ms. Ly Lo May, Lang Moi village, Hop Thanh commune happily shared: Before, to do paperwork related to real estate, I had to travel 15 km to the Land Registration Office at Lao Cai City People's Committee. Now, I can carry out administrative procedures right at the commune and receive instructions to resolve them quickly and accurately according to regulations. I find the current administrative arrangement very reasonable, not making people have to travel to many places.

Comrade Doan Ngoc Tuyen - Secretary of the Party Committee of Hop Thanh commune said: Determining that the new apparatus must be effective immediately when put into operation, without interruption of work, in accordance with the criteria of being truly close to the people, serving the people and businesses, the locality has arranged cadres and civil servants to work at the center to receive and handle administrative procedures for the people...

The vivid reality after the administrative unit arrangement process has shown a breakthrough change in the commune-level government. No longer a workplace following the old way with rigid procedures and passive thinking, the grassroots government is now transforming strongly, adapting to the new context.

The area is larger, the population is larger, the people's demands are higher, therefore, requiring commune officials to improve themselves both in terms of professional capacity and service attitude. One of the key factors creating remarkable results of the two-level local government in the province is the organization of the apparatus, staffing, and arrangement of cadres, civil servants, and public employees at the commune level.

To ensure the number of staff for agencies and units to maintain operations without interruption when operating two-level local government, the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Committee, agencies and units have proactively adjusted the authority and procedures for implementing administrative procedures according to legal documents on decentralization and delegation of power after being issued by competent authorities; associated with the termination of operations of district-level local government and the organization of implementation of two-level local government to ensure the goal of 100% of administrative procedures being performed regardless of administrative boundaries.

Comrade Tran Huy Tuan - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Lao Cai province affirmed: In recent times, Lao Cai province has promoted the reuse of information and data that have been digitized and stored in national databases, specialized databases, and electronic connections to reduce and simplify administrative procedures, improve the quality of online public services; review and re-evaluate the online public services being provided, especially online public services with few records to upgrade and improve to ensure convenience, practicality and integration into the National Public Service Portal.

As of August 20, 2025, Lao Cai province has promptly issued 28 decisions announcing the list of administrative procedures; decisions regulating the order and procedures for handling administrative procedures. The whole province currently has 2,189 administrative procedures, of which 1,868 are at the provincial level, 321 are at the commune level; 609 are internal administrative procedures; the number of administrative procedures providing online public services is 419.

The number of administrative procedures with assigned authority for settlement is 346, of which 18 administrative procedures were transferred from the district level to the provincial level, 278 administrative procedures were transferred from the district level to the commune level for settlement, and 50 administrative procedures were abolished.

The total number of central administrative procedures decentralized to localities is 556, including 163 procedures in the fields of agriculture and environment; 119 procedures in the fields of industry and trade...

After more than 2 months of implementing the two-level local government model, the whole province has received 122,913 records into the system; resolved 95,182 records, of which 93,165 records were resolved on time and before the deadline, reaching 97.89%; 1,967 records were overdue, accounting for 2.1%...

From the results of the efforts achieved and the advantages in the process of implementing decentralization, delegation of power, and determination of authority of Lao Cai province, there are still some difficulties, such as: The qualifications of cadres and civil servants are not uniform, many communes have assigned new cadres who have never worked at the "one-stop" department at the commune level before the merger, so understanding the steps and processes of handling administrative procedures on the administrative procedure handling information system of the province is still limited; the connection and synchronization of records between the provincial administrative procedure handling information system and the National Public Service Portal is only carried out in one direction, therefore, when there are changes arising on the provincial system (cancellation, deletion of records...), updating on the National Public Service Portal must be done manually, causing inconvenience and potential errors...

Mr. Pham Van Dung - Deputy Director of the Lao Cai Provincial Public Service Center shared: To implement more effectively, in the coming time, we hope that ministries and branches will continue to publish the list of remaining administrative procedures, and make them public on the national database; recommend the Government Cipher Committee to speed up the process of handling new applications for digital signature certificates for public service for localities to ensure digital signatures and electronic stamps according to regulations. Recommend the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to direct and guide the Department of Agriculture and Environment to connect and share data from the VBDLIS Land Database with the provincial administrative procedure information system to receive applications on the system and exploit land data, serving the work of handling administrative procedures in the land sector for citizens with the best efficiency...

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/phan-cap-van-de-then-chot-trong-van-hanh-mo-hinh-chinh-quyen-dia-phuong-hai-cap-post882708.html