Online public service: Contributing to promoting the disbursement progress of public investment capital

the monthly transactions of state budget expenditure vouchers on the online public service system reached over 99.6%. Photo: Thùy Linh

Only 0.4% of the number of direct transactions

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai has just signed to issue the Resolution No. 124/NQ-CP of the Government about the main missions and solutions to promote public investment capital disbursement in the last months of 2022. The Resolution set striving target of reaching 95%-100% of the plan on public investment capital disbursement assigned by the Prime Minister; 100% of local state budget capital is disbursed; disbursing at least 50% of fund from Soci-economic development and recovery programme which is assigned in 2022.

Many specific tasks have been assigned to each ministry and sector to achieve this goal. In particular, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai requested the Ministry of Finance to direct the State Treasury to promote payment through online public services to save time and travel costs for investors. Also, it aimed to publicize the dossier settlement process at the payment control agency.

From February 1, 2018, the State Treasury officially provided online public services for budget-using units and investors who opened transaction accounts at Treasury units. Up to now, 100% of compulsory entities have participated in online public services of the State Treasury. As a result, the monthly transactions of state budget expenditure vouchers on the online public service system reached over 99.6%. However, according to a report from the State Treasury, currently, there is only 0.4% of the number of direct transactions at the Treasury remains because of the infrastructural conditions and the internet connection from the budget user side, which sometimes does not guarantee the speed to transfer data to Treasury…

Through the implementation, it can be seen that the launch of online public services on a large scale has formed the electronic transaction channel of the State Treasury, creating favourable conditions for customers in transactions with the State Treasury, bringing the State Treasury closer to customers and society through the internet. It is a robust administrative reform step of the State Treasury under the direction of the Government, the Ministry of Finance and the State Treasury development strategy.

The use of online public services with digital signatures has increased security, avoiding forging signatures and seals of the unit, helping customers as well as the State Treasury to monitor the settlement process of dossier and control state budget expenditures, improve accountability and transparency in the control of state budget expenditures in particular and transactions with customers in general. Besides that, the online public service also supports automated data collection on TABMIS which has helped to accurately and quickly compare and confirm the data of transaction units at the State Treasury accurately and quickly, minimizing errors in the transaction process, contributing to ensuring the safety of money and property of the State.

It can be said that the online public service level 4 of the State Treasury has completely changed the traditional way of transactions, brought many practical benefits, and improved the working efficiency of the State Treasury and budget-using units. For example, the State Treasury's tellers do not have to make direct transactions using online public services with customers. Thus labour productivity is improved, limiting many risks in professional operations.

Furthermore, budget-using units have been more proactive in sending capital payment documents to the State Treasury in the online environment at any time and place, thus saving a lot of time and travel costs as well as printing documents. Recording feedback from the budget-using units, the online public service of the State Treasury has many utilities. Customers can supervise the process of receiving and processing documents of the State Treasury tellers, saving a lot of administrative costs. Waiting in line to conduct the transaction at the headquarters of the units of the State Treasury, especially at the end of the quarter and the end of the year is no longer available.

Continue to upgrade online public services

Currently, mechanisms, policies, and professional operations for controlling state budget expenditures are increasingly being supplemented and perfected; a mechanism and policy guide direct and online transactions. In addition, technical solutions for online public services are updated and revised promptly based on receiving user feedback to serve users better and better.

However, to promote all benefits and to be a stepping stone for the entire State Treasury system to move towards a digital treasury, the State Treasury units are proposing the State Treasury complete the interface design based on the needs of users; at the same time, adding notices and actions to be taken for each public service.

It is necessary to upgrade the performance so that the budget-using unit can send a large file attracting with documents on online public service without having to go to the State Treasury to send a paper file directly (in the field of control investment expenditure and asset purchase expenditure); added the feature to choose a time to process dossiers and documents in the field of investment expenditure with a specified time: processing one day (when making payment in advance, checking later), three days (check in advance and pay later); allowing online public service registration for investment projects managed by multiple investors and budget levels.

In addition, online public services need to be more finished, adding functions that allow receipt and approval of documents in chronological order; choose to process simple, short-term documents first. For complicated documents requiring a long processing time, it is necessary to check and control the following records later, allowing to transfer of documents to another module for processing later.

At the same time, the State Treasury units also suggested that online public services should be supplemented with features to look up and check account balances as soon as tellers receive, process documents and control the advance balance of each sub-item. If it is not enough, it will not be transferred to Tabmis, helping reduce manual work for civil servants and work pressure during peak times.