Officials from the contributors’ desk (the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs) look up original dossiers at the archive store.

Document digitalisation

Deputy Director of the Department of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs Nguyen The Dung said Bac Giang province has 160,000 dossiers relating to martyrs, holders of the Vietnamese Heroic Mother title, war invalids, former war prisoners, chemical toxin victims, and holders of the Hero of the People’s Armed Forces title. 

To express gratitude to those who devoted their youth and effort to the Fatherland, the department has done a good job of administrative reforms and information technology application so as to give preferential policies to the targeted groups in a sufficient, thorough and timely manner.

As dossiers of national contributors are important records with permanent value which are the basis for benefit provision, they must be kept and preserved carefully. In the past, those documents were preserved in traditional methods, making search and reference time-consuming. 

To associate administrative reforms with gratitude activities, the department began developing software for managing data of national contributors in 2015 and put it into use in August 2016. Information about 160,000 contributors has been fully updated on the system, which is also connected with the archives and put under the management of communal, ward and town authorities. Bac Giang is known as the first province in Vietnam to apply this kind of software.

At the one - stop shop of Bich Dong town (Viet Yen district) on May 15, a number of citizens came here to have their administrative procedures processed. Vu Thi Hien, an employee of the town’s division of labour, invalids and social affairs, was handling four dossiers seeking cash benefits to cover burial expenses and death gratuity. With some simple acts on the computer, Hien came to know basic information about the beneficiaries and then instructed citizens to complete necessary procedures. 

This method reduced the needed time and ensured that the dossiers were correct and sufficient according to regulations, avoiding the shortage of required papers that could cost benefit seekers more time and efforts. Once completed, the dossiers were transferred to the district’s one-door division to verify and cross-check with the data stored in the system. Then, authorised agencies would make decisions about benefit provision.

Among thousands of dossiers shelved neatly in archive room No.2 of the division for national contributors (the Department of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs), Nguyen Thi Cam Hang, a staffer, quickly found out the dossier of the person whose administrative procedures need to be handled. “In the past, it took me a lot of time to look for original documents for cross-check. At present, all I need to do is searching on the software, so I can easily locate the needed documents,” Hang said.

Increasing the number of dossiers settled for contributors before appointment

Currently, all of the 52 administrative formalities for the contributors have been conducted at the one - stop shop of the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (located at the provincial Administrative Centre). The application of information technology and the development of the management software have helped address the work more quickly, accurately, and conveniently. From the beginning of 2017, the proportion of resolved dossiers before appointment has reached 94 percent, up 48 percent against the same period last year.

Seriously wounded soldier Vu Tien Van from Trung hamlet, Bich Dong town (Viet Yen) passed away in March. 

Family members of contributors process administrative procedures at the one - stop shop in Bich Dong town (Viet Yen).

In early April 2017, Vu Thi Huyen, daughter of Van, arrived at the one-door department in the town to ask for funeral expenses and death gratuity. According to regulations, the administrative procedures in this case will be addressed within 25 days since the dossier was received. However, since the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs digitalized documents of contributors, the examination of provided information has been conducted quite quickly. After only 13 days, Huyen received a decision on profit provision, 12 days earlier than the appointment.

Meanwhile, Vu Thi Nha, spouse of martyr Luong Van Sy, in Song Mai commune (Bac Giang city) told that “I have recently completed procedures to move my husband’s dossier to Duong Duc commune (Lang Giang) at the one-door division of the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. The officials are hospitable, enthusiastically guiding me to process needed paperwork. I received a notice of procedure completion though the appointment day was yet to come so I felt very happy”.

Nguyen Thi Quyen, deputy head of the one-door division, said the officials are aware of their responsibility for addressing procedures promptly and accurately for contributors and family members, so they always try their best to make it easier for contributors to enjoy the State’s preferential policies.