The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho delivered the most satisfactory public service in Vietnam in 2016,  the latest Public Administration Performance Index Report shows.

PAPI, or Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index, assesses citizens' experience with national and local administrations governance, public administration and public service delivery.

The findings of the 2016 PAPI Report, which were calculated based on survey responses from over 14,000 randomly selected citizens from all 63 provinces and cities across Vietnam, were announced at a conference in Hanoi on Tuesday.

PAPI measures an administrations’ performance across six criteria: citizens’ participation at local level, openness and transparency, vertical accountability, public sector corruption, public administrative procedure and public service delivery.

A province's performance is rated on a scale from 6 to 60 points.

According to this year’s report, Can Tho topped all other localities with a score of 39.57, closely followed by Ha Tinh (39.32), Da Nang (38.58), Phu Tho (38.53), Quang Binh (38.41), and Ben Tre (38.37).

The northern Quang Ninh Province and three southern provinces Binh Duong, Kien Giang and Bac Lieu were the poorest performers in the report in terms of satisfaction with their local public service.

Hanoi found itself among the lowest scoring administrations, performing most badly on the two criteria of vertical accountability and transparency.

Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh City was among the lower middle group, scoring 34.91 points overall.

Those interviewed found the southern metropolis’ control of corruption and the participation of its local citizens in the most dire need of improvement.

Vietnam’s provincial performance in governance and public administration by quartiles in 2016 (click to enlarge). Photo: PAPI 2016

PAPI reports are a collaboration between the Centre for Community Support and Development Studies (CECODES), the Centre for Research and Training of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF-CRT) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

“On the one hand, there has been steady improvement in the performance of public service delivery over the past six years,” said Kamal Malhotra, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam at Tuesday’s event.

“However, most provinces can do more to improve the competence and attitude of civil servants and public employees and enhance the transparency, responsiveness, and accountability of their institutions.”

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