The HCM City Social Insurance Agency has allowed staff like The My and half of its employees to work from home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Photo: sggp.org.vn) Themunicipal People's Committee on June 3 issued a directive allowinghalf of officials of State agencies to work from home during the peakperiod of the fight against COVID-19. The city’s departments,branches, and districts used information technology effectively to servethe public in the first week, according to evaluations.
Thecity said this was a great opportunity to enhance online public services, aswell as promote digital transformation.
TranHuynh The My, an expert from the city’s Social Insurance Agency, now workstwo days at home and three days at the office. For work at home,she logs into an online working system at 7:30am. She then joins a groupto check attendance and receive new instructions from the manager or director.At 4pm, all officers send their reports to the agency for evaluation.
‘‘Remotework gives me a new working style, modern and open butself-disciplined,’’ My said.
PhanVan Men, Director of the city’s Social Insurance Agency, said the agencyeach day receives and processes around 25,000 documents, so civil servantswork at an intense level.
Thanksto the use of information technology in the sector, however, theyhave worked effectively at home.
Nevertheless,civil servants who work in specific units such as drugaddiction treatment centers and social protection facilities must beat their workplace, Le Minh Tan, Director of the municipal Departmentof Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, has said.
NguyenTri Dung, Chairman of the Go Vap District People’s Committee, said thatwhen the district complied with the Government’s Directive 16 on strict socialdistancing for 15 days, officials and civil servants were told to work fromhome. However, all of them were assigned duties during social distancingto make sure that their work was completed.
Digital transformation
DoanTran Hai Au, Chief of the Office of the People’s Counciland People’s Committee in district 6, said the city had set a goalto have over 70 percent and 40 percent of submitted files completedonline in district and ward administrative offices, respectively.
‘‘The pandemichas affected all sectors in general, but this is also an opportunity for us topromote the use of information technology and find solutions to increase therate of electronic submissions. In the current situation, handling andsubmitting electronic records are almost a must-do, because electronicdocuments are very convenient, and we save a lot of money,’’ he said.
Meanwhile,the city’s Department of Information and Communications has issued guidance onthe application of information technology during this period. Most Stateagencies have implemented duties well. If something goes wrong, thedepartment sends staff to directly support the units.
LamDinh Thang, Director of the city’s Department of Information andCommunications, said that its employees had been working fromhome since last year so they were familiar with thetechnology. Most of them use digital signatures to submit documentsthrough document management software.
NguyenDang Phuong Truyen, a lecturer at the National Academy of PublicAdministration, said that remote work saves travel time, andreduces traffic congestion and transportation costs. Headded that some government officials should be allowed to continueworking from home after the pandemic ends.
VuAnh Khoa, Chairman of the People’s Committee of district 10, however, saidthat working from home should only be done during this "unnervingtime". In the long term, civil servants should work directly attheir agencies so they can handle administrative procedures and takefact-finding trips./.
VNA
