Ways to improve the provincial governance and public administration performance index (PAPI) for southern central and Central Highlands provinces were discussed at a seminar in Buon Ma Thuot city, Dak Lak province on April 21.

Accordingly, it was agreed that these provinces must continue improving the efficiency of public administration at grassroots levels and ensuring the publicity of fees and charges.

They should be more transparent in budget collection and spending and land use planning while respecting people’s assessments to promote the engagement of all members of society in supervising the implementation of policies, said participants.

A recent survey showed that despite positive changes in improving PAPI over the years, the southern central and Central Highlands provinces are still named among the group of localities with poor and average public administration performance.

People have usually complained about the shortage of hospital beds, the poor attitude of health workers and the lack of transparency surrounding fees, budget collection and land use planning.

Commenced in 2010, PAPI is a policy tool that aims to measure the administration and governance efficiency of the State administration system in all 63 provinces and cities nationwide.

The index is based on a philosophy considering citizens as the customers of public administration agencies. As such, they are capable of overseeing and assessing the effectiveness of governance and public administration of local authorities.-VNA