VietNamNet Bridge - The HCM City Department of Interior has asked the government to reconsider a decision asking administrative offices to work on Saturdays saying the move has not proven efficient or cost effective.

Officers receive documents at HCM City Police’s Admininistration-Social Order Management Department.

Working on Saturdays has not helped administrative offices speed up processing of documents because the number of people coming to the office on the weekend is much less than expected, according to a report prepared by the department.

The City People’s Committee had asked administrative agencies to work on Saturdays since August 2007 following a directive from the Prime Minister to speed up processing of documents and make it more convenient for people to get resolve administrative problems.

Working on Saturdays, which costs the city a considerable amount of money, has not produced expected results, the report says.

At the city’s busiest office, the Department of Planning and Investment, only five to seven business registration certificates are granted each Saturday on average.

The Department of Construction, meanwhile, usually gets just two to three requests on a Saturday, while the Justice Department receives one-fourth of the number of documents it gets on a weekday.

Low volume

The number of people going to Tan Binh District offices is less than 20, or one-tenth of a normal day while the average number of documents received in District 12 on a Saturday is 1.69.

All the offices that remain open on Saturdays have many employees working for extra payment while the workload is relatively low. The construction department has 25 employees who work on Saturdays, while the justice department employs one to three people for every notary office and two to three administrative officials and half of its staff in the accounting and document processing divisions.

The report notes that working on Saturdays has not lent more efficiency to the processing of documents.

At the same time, more money is being spent on electricity, water, air-conditioning, computers, overtime salaries and other expenses.

The justice department had to spend VND400 million ($22,900) last year for working on Saturdays.

In asking the government to reconsider the decision to work on Saturdays, the report says that the initiative needs to be assessed by different departments in localities so that decisions could be made to adjust, rearrange or cancel the Saturday schedule.

(Source: VNS)