CIRCULAR

PROVIDING FOR CERTAIN CONTENTS OF AND MEASURES FOR ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE RESULT AND DOCUMENT DIGITIZATION AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES BY ELECTRONIC MEANS

Pursuant to Decree No. 79/2022/ND-CP dated October 06, 2022 of the Government on functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Government Office of Vietnam;

Pursuant to Decree No. 63/2010/ND-CP dated June 08, 2010 of the Government on control of administrative procedures; Decree No. 92/2017/ND-CP dated August 07, 2017 of the Government on amendments to certain Articles of Decrees related to control of administrative procedures;

Pursuant to Decree No. 61/2018/ND-CP dated April 23, 2018 of the Government on implementation of single-window system and interlinked single-window system for handling administrative procedures and Decree No. 107/2021/ND-CP dated December 06, 2021 of the Government providing amendments to Decree No. 61/2018/ND-CP;

Pursuant to Decree No. 45/2020/ND-CP dated August 08, 2020 of the Government on administrative procedures by electronic means;

Pursuant to Decree No. 42/2022/ND-CP dated June 24, 2022 of the Government on online information and public service provision by regulatory bodies;

Pursuant to Decision No. 31/2021/QD-TTg dated October 11, 2021 of the Prime Minister promulgating Regulations on management, operation and use of the National Public Service Portal;

At the request of the Director of the Department of Administrative Procedure Control;

The Minister, Head of Government Office of Vietnam promulgates a Circular providing for certain contents of and measures for administrative procedure result and document digitization and administrative procedures by electronic means.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope

This Circular provides for certain contents of and measures for digitizing administrative procedure results and documents; restructuring administrative procedure; reviewing, assessing administrative procedures meeting requirements for operation of online public services at various levels, standardization of online public service lists; managing ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems; data integration, sharing and synchronization in administrative procedures by electronic means.

Article 2. Regulated entities

This Circular applies to agencies, organizations and individuals involving in administrative procedures, public service provision, online payment and administrative procedure result and document digitization.

Article 3. Definitions

For the purposes of this Circular, the terms below shall be construed as follows:

1. “administrative procedure result and document digitization" means the process of converting information presented on physical administrative procedure results and documents into an electronic data.

2. “optical character recognition (OCR)” means a technology that converts an image of text into a machine-readable text format.

3. “administrative procedure restructuring” means the process of reviewing, re-assessing and re-designing administrative procedures from receipt, handling and return of results to organize implementation thereof by electronic means in a manner that the legality, conformability, practicability and efficiency are ensured on the principle that the satisfaction of organization and individuals will be the benchmark for quality of services provided by officials, public employees and competent authorities.

4. “Quick Response Code (QR code) of an administrative procedure dossier” means a 2D bar code that is used to track the status of document processing or online payment on National Public Service Portal or ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems.

5. “banks and payment service providers" are intermediary payment service providers and banks which are licensed by the State Bank of Vietnam and have connected, integrated and provided online payment services via National Public Service Portal.

6. “collecting agency" is the agency that issues a decision on collection of fees, charges and other financial obligations of administrative procedures or other revenues from service provision to organizations and individuals as prescribed by law.

7. “CITAD code” of a unit of Vietnam State Treasury or a bank where the collecting agency opens an account means a bank code which consists of 8 digits (CITAD code) of a unit of Vietnam State Treasury or a bank where the collecting agency opens an account listed in penalty decisions or notification of fee and charge collection.

Chapter II

ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE RESULT AND DOCUMENT DIGITIZATION

Article 4. Documents to be digitized

1. Documents submitted by organizations and individuals submit to complete administrative procedures, including the following types:

a) Documents which are administrative procedure results given previously;

b) Documents to be digitized as prescribed by relevant laws;

c) Documents that need digitization at the request of managers and classified in Decisions of the Minister, Heads of ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies, Presidents of the provincial People’s Committees;

d) Documents other than those prescribed in Points a, b and c of this Clause and are digitized at the request of organizations and individuals during administrative processes.

The above-mentioned documents shall be submitted as originals, certified true electronic copies extracted from the master register, certified true electronic copies of originals; electronic photocopies with originals to be compared during administrative processes.

2. Results of verification and response to agencies and units participating during administrative processes, unless otherwise provided for by specialized laws.

3. Administrative procedure results which are still effective as prescribed in Article 25 of Decree No. 45/2020/ND-CP dated August 08, 2020 on administrative procedures by electronic means.

4. The following documents shall not be digitized:

a) Documents which have been shared in the form of data by national database, specialized database, National Public Service Portal and Ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems and have legal values;

b) Documents which are photocopies and certified true photocopies, except for electronic certified true copies of originals according to the regulations in Clause 1 of this Article;

c) Documents that only need to be presented when submitting administrative procedure dossiers;

d) Other classified documents according to regulations of law.

Article 5. Persons responsible for digitization

Persons responsible for digitization include

1. Officials, public employees who receive, process and return administrative procedure results.

2. Officials and public employees other than those prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article who are assigned to digitize administrative procedure results which are effective as prescribed in Article 25 of Decree No. 45/2020/ND-CP dated August 08, 2020 on administrative procedures by electronic means.

3. Officials and employees of public postal service providers and other cases who are assigned to assume document digitization according to the regulations in Point b Clause 3 Article 1 of Decree No. 107/2021/ND-CP dated December 06, 2021 on amendments to certain Articles of Decree No. 61/2018/ND-CP dated April 23, 2018 of the Government on implementation of single-window system and interlinked single-window system for handling administrative procedures.

Article 6. Requirements for administrative procedure result and document digitization

1. During the digitization process, the sufficiency, accuracy, completeness of data of digitized documents and the adequacy of digitization contents and procedures must be ensured.

2. The digitization must satisfy principles for protection of personnel data, not violate or affect legal rights and interests of organizations and individuals.

3. Electronic data of documents must include metadata fields to be saved to reuse in handling relevant administrative procedures.

Article 7. Digitization procedures

A digitization procedure includes the following steps:

1. Photocopy documents and convert them into electronic forms;

2. Extract data.

3. Issue of digitization result codes.

4. Save digitization result.

Article 8. Photocopying documents to convert them into electronic forms

1. The person who performs digitization shall photocopy each type of documents to convert them into electronic documents and put his/her granted personal digital signature to the electronic documents before moving to data extraction. When adding the digital signature, information including the name of the person who prepared the photocopy, photocopy time and position of the digital signature must be shown on the top left corner of the first page of the photocopy.

2. The following requirements must be satisfied when making photocopies:

a) The number of originals must be determined according to the number of photocopies to ensure that all originals must be digitized;

b) The entire document must be involved, and photocopies must be accurate, complete and sufficient when comparing to originals;

c) The number of pictures in photocopies must be equal to the number of the physical pages and arranged in the correct order;

d) For pages with notes, two photocopies shall be made, including one with a note on the document and another with note removed;

d) The data integrity must be ensured during the process of transfer;

e) Technical parameters of photocopies must satisfy standards for input data of database on archive documents in Circular No. 02/2019/TT-BNV dated January 24, 2019 of the Ministry of Domestic Affairs on standards of input data and requirements of electronic archive document preservation.

3. Documents of which photocopies used to convert into electronic forms are not required:

a) Documents submitted to follow administrative procedures by electronic means;

b) Documents specified in Clause 2 Article 4 of this Circular;

Article 9. Data extraction of a document

1. The data extraction shall be carried out by using the OCR technology; in case OCR technology cannot be used, officials and public employees shall record data by themselves end ensure the accuracy in comparison with the printed documents. Information of documents and administrative procedure results must be preserved as much as possible in order to satisfy the requirements for management, access and use thereof at the maximum when carrying out data extraction.

2. The extracted data must at least include the following metadata fields:

a) Document type code;

b) Identification number of an individual/Electronic identification number of an organization (hereinafter referred to as “identification number of organization or individual).

In case a document does not include an identification number of an individual, it shall be replaced with his/her full name and date of birth; if a document does not include electronic identification number of an organization, it shall be replaced with the organization's name and year of establishment;

c) Document’s name;

d) Document number and symbol;

dd) Date of issuance;

e) Issuing agency;

g) Synopsis of the document;

h) Effective period (if any);

i) Effective scope (if any);

k) Other information and data as prescribed by relevant laws.

3. In case of digitization of one of the documents prescribed in Clauses 1 and 2 of Article 4, if the accuracy, sufficiency and legality of the document are ensured as prescribed, the person responsible for handling administrative procedures shall extract data from the electronic document and be responsible for the accuracy of the data after being extracted.

In case the administrative procedures are handled successfully, administrative procedure results, photocopies of each document and metadata shall be digitally signed according to regulations on true electronic copies of document documents in Decree No. 30/2020/ND-CP dated March 05, 2020 of the Government of Vietnam on records management.

4. In case of digitization of administrative procedure results prescribed in Clause 3 Article 4, the person tasked with digitization shall convert the photocopies of the results into electronic documents for digital signature implementation according to regulations on true electronic copies of document documents in Decree No. 30/2020/ND-CP dated March 05, 2020 of the Government of Vietnam on records management.

In case any incorrect information is detected during the process of digitization, such information shall be adjusted as prescribed by relevant laws.

Article 10. Grant of digitization result code

1. Digitization results of documents shall be saved according to codes using the following structure: ...

2. For documents obtained from administrative procedure results, document type codes mentioned in Clause 1 of this Article shall be administrative procedure result codes on the National Database on administrative procedures; in case there is no identification number of organization or individual, the space for identification shall be empty and metadata prescribed in Point b Clause 2 of Article 9 shall be added.

3. For other documents which are not obtained from administrative procedures, document type codes mentioned in Clause 1 of this Article shall be drawn up according to the following structure: ..

Article 11. Saving digitization results

1. Document digitization results shall be updated and saved on the National Database, specialized database by persons responsible for handling administrative procedures according to regulations of relevant laws. In case relevant laws do not govern this issue, document digitization results shall be saved in data storages of administrative procedure dossiers, which is a department with the fuction of data storage to serve administrative procedures of ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems.

2. Document digitization results consisting of identification numbers of organizations and individuals shall be shown in electronic storages of organizations and individuals on ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems.

3. After document digitization results have been digitally signed by agencies and saved according to the regulations in Clause 1 of this Article and have legal values, the extracted metadata of documents and information in digitized documents shall have the same value.

4. Physical administrative documents after being digitized shall be stored according to regulations of law on archives and relevant laws and have the highest confirmation values in case of complaints and disputes.

5. Electronic storage limitation for electronic administrative procedure documents shall comply with regulations of law on archives and relevant laws.

Article 12. Administrative procedure results in electronic formats

1. Formatting structures of administrative procedure results in electronic formats must comply with relevant laws or be converted from physical documents to electronic documents in accordance with regulations in Articles 25, 26 and 27 of Decree No. 30/2020/ND-CP dated March 05, 2020 of the Government of Vietnam on records management.

2. Administrative procedure results in electronic formats must be handled to satisfy all metadata mentioned in Clause 2 Article 9 of this Circular and regulations on storage of electronic messages according to Law on E-Transactions.

3. Administrative procedure results in electronic formats shall be saved in the National Database or Specialized Database or Centralized Public Service Information Systems of ministries and central authorities according to regulations of relevant laws; and links to results of electronic administrative procedures shall be sent to Electronic storages of organizations and individuals on ministerial or provincial administrative procedure information systems competent to handle administrative procedures.

In case the National Database or Specialized Database or Centralized Public Service Information Systems of ministries and central authorities are not established, administrative procedure results in electronic formats shall be saved in Data Storages of administrative procedure dossiers, and shown in Electronic storages of organizations and individuals on ministerial or provincial administrative procedure information systems competent to handle administrative procedures.

Chapter III

REVIEWING, ASSESSING, RESTRUCTURING ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES FOR ONLINE PUBLIC SERVICE PROVISION

Article 13. Criteria for online public service provision in administrative procedures by electronic means

1. Criteria for wholly online public services in administrative procedures by electronic means.

a) All information about administrative procedures shall be published and provided on the National Database on administrative procedures and Ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems;

b) Organizations and individuals are allowed to download document forms on the National Database on administrative procedures and Ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems;

c) Application forms and declaration forms shall be filled and sent online; and digital signatures shall be applied to them in case the signatures of organizations and individuals are required.

d) All dossiers shall be sent by electronic means;

dd) Online payment shall be made via National Public Service Portal or Ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems for which the payment of fees and charges or other financial obligations are required;

e) During the processing of dossiers and providing services by electronic means, process of following and handling administrative procedures, organizations and individuals are not required to submit or present physical documents to inspect or be present at regulatory agencies or follow procedures directly before officials who receive and process their dossiers; regulatory agencies must conduct on-site verification in accordance with regulations of law;

g) Administrative procedure results in electronic formats shall be shown;

h) Results shall be sent online or via public postal services, and organizations and individuals are not required to be present or directly sign to acknowledge receipt of results.

2. Criteria for partially online public services in administrative procedures by electronic means.

Partially online public service in receiving and handling administrative procedures by electronic means for organizations and individuals are online public services which fail to fully satisfy criteria of wholly online public services but must satisfy the criteria prescribed in points a, b, c, d and g clause 1 of this Article.

3. Public services which only satisfy the criteria prescribed in Points a and b Clause 1 of this Article shall be considered services of online information provision to organizations and individuals and not be considered online public services in following administrative procedures by electronic means.

4. From results of reviewing, agencies and units tasked with administrative procedure control shall consolidate results and submit reports to leaders of ministries, central authorities and local authorities for making decisions on approving lists. A report includes the following contents:

a) Lists of administrative procedures and administrative procedure groups which meet requirements for restructuring procedures for and provision of wholly or partially online public services in receiving and handling administrative procedures by electronic means;

b) Administrative procedure lists and administrative procedure groups which fail to meet requirements for immediately restructuring procedures for and provision of wholly or partially online public services in receiving and handling administrative procedures by electronic means. Proposed amendments to relevant legislative documents before restructuring procedures.

Article 14. Steps in procedure restructuring

Steps in restructuring administrative procedures are specified in Clause 2 Article 26 of Decision No. 31/2021/QD-TTg dated October 11, 2021 of the Prime Minister promulgating Regulations on management, operation and use of the National Public Service Portal;

Article 15. Criteria for selection of administrative procedures to be reviewed and assessed to provide online public services

1. The conformity of regulations on administrative procedures by electronic means.

2. The number of entities and frequency of each administrative procedure.

3. Ability to connect, communicate and share data serving administrative procedures between agencies during administrative processes.

4. The efficiency of the provision of online public services.

Article 16. Reviewing administrative procedures

1. On the basis of approved administrative procedure lists, agencies and units tasked with administrative procedure control shall cooperate with relevant agencies and units in reviewing separated administrative procedures and inter-connected administrative procedures.

2. The review of administrative procedures shall be conducted on the basis of steps in following administrative procedures or inter-connected administrative procedures within responsibilities and specific tasks of each relevant agency or unit participating in such procedures.

3. For separated administrative procedures, reviewing agencies shall follow these steps to draw an overall diagram:

a) Researching regulations on administrative procedures to determine the sequence of steps to be performed of administrative procedures since the day on which dossiers of organizations and individuals following administrative procedures are submitted until the date on which results of processing such dossiers are received;

b) Determining agencies, units and individuals participating in receiving, processing dossiers and returning results and specific responsibilities and tasks to be performed;

c) Drawing and completing the diagram.

4. For inter-connected administrative procedures, reviewing agencies shall follow these steps to draw an overall diagram:

a) Determining the order and relationship between administrative procedures in this group and responsibilities of agencies and units for each administrative procedure;

b) Determining the current order of each separated administrative procedure in this group;

c) Drawing and completing the diagram.

Article 17. Reviewing and restructuring administrative procedures

1. Restructuring of administrative procedures is required in order to achieve one or a number of the following aims:

a) Cut down unnecessary administrative procedures;

b) Reduce travel and direct contact of organizations and individuals following administrative procedures;

c) Reduce dossiers and documents to be provided by organizations and individuals following administrative procedures;

d) Reduce steps to be handled directly or manually by agencies and units during administrative processes.

2. Criteria for restructuring administrative procedures:

a) Ability to connect, share data and digitize dossiers and documents;

b) Ability to electronically communicate between agencies during administrative processes;

c) The efficiency of building an online public service provision system;

d) The adequacy of the online public service delivery system.

3. Methods of restructuring administrative procedures:

a) Identify systems and databases related to the following of administrative procedures and the ability to connect, share and access data;

b) Evaluate the removal and simplification of administrative procedures, documentation requirements, steps of following administrative procedures according to the restructuring criteria;

c) Develop an electronic flowchart.

4. The review and standardization of application and declaration forms for establishing interactive forms shall comply with the regulations of Chapter IV of this Circular.

5. Depending on the requirements, the process restructuring shall be carried out according to each separated administrative procedure or according to the group of inter-connected administrative procedures. On the basis of the restructuring results, the agency in charge of reviewing (hereinafter referred to as “the reviewing agency”) shall evaluate and complete the electronic process after process restructuring to provide online public services. In case of necessity, the reviewing agency shall consolidate, propose or implement according to its competence amendments to regulations in legislative documents in order to complete the legal basis to meet the maximum results specified in Clause 1 of this Article when providing online public services.

Article 18. Calculating cost savings

On the basis of the process restructuring plan, the reviewing agency or unit shall calculate cost reduction on the basis of the contents which have been removed or simplified according to regulations on control of administrative procedures.

Article 19. Building or improving systems, integrating, testing and providing online public services

1. Based on the results of the review and formulation of the restructuring plan, the reviewing agency shall propose to the Minister, Heads of ministerial agencies, Governmental agencies and Presidents of provincial People's Committees approval and announcement of the results to provide or improve online public services.

2. The reviewing agency shall integrate, test and provide them on the National Public Service Portal, ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems. The reviewing agency shall encourage the testing with the participation of subjects following administrative procedures.

Article 20. Testing of integrated online public service on the National Public Service Portal

1. Inspecting and requesting disclosure of online public services declared on the National Public Service Portal.

Officials of agencies and units controlling administrative procedures of ministries, central and local authorities shall use their accounts on the National Public Service Portal to check online public services declared on the National Public Service Portal in the list of public services; verify the information and request disclosure of public services on the National Public Service Portal to perform testing. In case of inaccurate information, it is necessary to request the competent agencies to correct it fully and accurately before requesting disclosure.

The information to be verified includes names of public services, accuracy of administrative procedure codes for the declared public services, levels of implementing agencies; implementing agencies and units, links to public services; degrees of application.

2. The testing of online public services on the National Public Service Portal shall be carried out.

After an online public service is disclosed on the National Public Service Portal, within 05 working days from the date of disclosure, the online public service must be tested by ministries, central and local authorities with the role of service users. The testing results shall be uploaded to quantri.dichvucong.gov.vn (the administration page of the National Public Service Portal).

Contents of the testing include:

a) Test the single sign-on (SSO) function from the National Public Service Portal to the system for public service provision;

b) Submit dossiers online. In case a step cannot be performed or information on the document is incorrect, it must be reported for inspection and adjustment;

c) Check the integration of online payment for public services that allow online payment, including: Technical continuity of the payment process; payment methods for which the Online Payment System of the National Public Service Portal is integrated and used.

For wholly online public services that involve payment but online payment is not available, it is recommended to review and integrate online payment to ensure that the quality requirements of wholly public services are met;

d) Check the processing of online dossiers, the synchronization of administrative procedure result and document statuses in electronic formats. After successfully submitting a dossier, the continuity in transporting and professional operation of dossier processing between agencies, units and divisions and the synchronization of document statuses following each step in internal electronic process of such agencies with the National Public Service Portal must be checked. In case administrative procedure results in electronic formats contain digital signatures, the signing and display of digital signatures shall comply with the regulations of the Law on Electronic Transactions and relevant laws;

dd) Consolidate testing results.

After completing the testing, ministries, central and local authorities shall consolidate the test results and update the tested dossier and public service codes on the administrative system of the National Public Service Portal that will check the results.

3. After 05 working days from the date of disclosure for testing on the National Public Service Portal, but ministries, central authorities and local authorities do not either perform testing and do not send testing results as prescribed, the system will automatically stop disclosure of registered online public services.

Chapter IV

REVIEWING AND STANDARDIZING APPLICATION AND DECLARATION FORMS FOR ESTABLISHING INTERACTIVE ELECTRONIC FORMS

Article 21. Reviewing and standardizing application and declaration forms

1. Ministries, agencies and local authorities shall review application and declaration forms according to the annual key plans for reviewing and evaluating administrative procedures prescribed in Circular No. 02/2017/TT-VPCP dated October 31, 2017 guiding administrative procedure control.

2. Requirements for application and declaration forms.

a) Blank forms must be provided if set forms are used for the administrative procedure;

b) Blank forms must be reasonable; information in the blank forms must be clear, concise and really necessary for completion of the administrative procedure; responsibility of individuals and organizations for the information entered in the forms must be emphasized;

c) In case a form requires certification from a competent agency or person, it shall clearly specify the agency or person competent to certify and the contents of the certification.

3. Review an application or declaration form.

a) Review information in the application and declaration form in accordance with the regulations of administrative procedures;

b) Review and assess the necessity of information, contents and competence to confirm and the ability to share data to support the automatic filling and confirmation on the application and declaration form from national databases and specialized databases, establish a diagram of the relationship of information fields of the application and declaration form;

c) In case of detecting unnecessary information fields and contents of requiring confirmation in the application or declaration form, ministries, central and local authorities shall modify them according to their competence or propose to competent authorities amendments to them according to regulations;

d) Review the relationship between the documents and the information in the application or declaration form.

In case documents of a dossier are previous administrative procedure results and they can be looked up and accessed on national databases, specialized databases or electronic storages of organizations and individuals, ministries, central and local authorities shall amend according to their competence or propose competent authorities amendments to administrative procedures in the direction of reducing a number of documents of the dossier and adding basic information on the documents to application and declaration forms to support search during administrative processes.

Basic information about documents of the dossier includes: names of types of documents; identification number of organization or individual to which documents are granted; symbol numbers of documents; issuing authority and time of issuance. In case the symbol number of a document fully shows information on the issuing agency and the time of issuance, this content shall not be shown in the form.

Article 22. Interactive electronic forms

1. Responsibility for providing interactive electronic forms.

a) Ministries, ministerial agencies and Vietnam Social Security shall elaborate and provide interactive electronic forms for online public services to handle administrative procedures: within the jurisdiction of such ministries and agencies; assigned by competent authorities to develop centralized provision solutions nationwide; or groups of interrelated administrative procedures in state management of many ministries and agencies;

b) The People's Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities shall formulate and implement solutions to provide interactive electronic forms for online public services to handle administrative procedures within the scope of local authorities or groups of interconnected administrative procedures undergoing pilot implementation in their provinces, except for the administrative procedures mentioned at Point a of this Clause.

2. The process for establishing an interactive form.

a) Based on the results of reviewing the application and declaration form, interactive electronic forms meeting requirements for simplifying, facilitating and maximizing data access for automatic filling and confirmation and having data which is able to reuse shall be formulated for each online public service.

The basic information format of an interactive electronic form includes: Code of application or declaration form; identification number of organization or individual; basic information about organization or individual; other information (if any). The formatting of information of the interactive electronic form should meet the requirements for data extraction and digitization at the maximum as prescribed in Article 9 of this Circular;

b) The interactive electronic form includes the following parts: contents of the application or declaration form as prescribed by administrative procedures; additional information used to support in finding, integrating, or updating documents of the dossier.

In case the required documents of an administrative procedure have not been removed or simplified, the People's Committee of the province shall develop interactive electronic forms allowing users to look up specific documents in their electronic storages, or via national databases or specialized databases;

c) The testing and use of interactive electronic forms shall be carried out at the same time with the testing and provision of online public services.

3. Interactive electronic forms must meet the following requirements:

a) Information formats must comply with data regulations of the National Database on population and the National Database on business registration and integration between these databases.

b) Form codes shall be determined according to the structure: ..

Administrative procedure codes shall be applied uniformly according to codes granted on the National Database on administrative procedures.

The application/declaration form symbols shall comply with the regulations of administrative procedures.

c) Automatic filling and confirmation of digitized and shared information and data shall be allowed.

d) Organizations and individuals shall be allowed to digitally sign in case there is a request from online public services.

dd) The formats of published interactive electronic forms must be consistent with those required by the corresponding administrative procedures.

Chapter V

DATA SHARING BETWEEN THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE INFORMATION SYSTEMS OF MINISTERIAL AND PROVINCIAL AGENCIES AND THE NATIONAL PUBLIC SERVICE PORTAL

Article 23. Professional requirements for ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems

The administrative procedure information systems of ministerial and provincial agencies shall be consolidated and upgraded from public service portals and electronic one-stop information system for ministerial and provincial agencies to meet the following professional requirements:

1. Provide information on administrative procedures and online public services.

2. Authenticate users by integrating with the authentication system of the National Public Service Portal.

3. Receive dossiers of wholly or partially online public services made by organizations and individuals on the System or through connection with the National Public Service Portal.

4. Manage the entire process of handling administrative procedures received from the One-Stop Department, the National Public Service Portal, the Administrative procedure information systems of ministerial and provincial agencies; Automatically generate codes of administrative procedure codes, digitized document codes to monitor the processing of the dossier, return results on the basis of recording each step of the process in real time and store historical information of administrative procedure handling.

5. Look up information by authentication levels:

a) Authentication not required: code of administrative procedure dossier and levels of completion of administrative procedures;

b) Authenticated: Provide information on the administrative procedure statuses of users to specialized departments and divisions; situation, results of settling reflections and recommendations of users; information and electronic dossiers of users which have been provided on the National Public Service Portal, ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems.

6. Guide and support the following of administrative procedures.

7. Receive feedback and recommendations of people and enterprises on administrative procedures.

8. Evaluate the handling of administrative procedures, the feedbacks of regulatory agencies according to the results of receiving and settling dossiers recorded by the Administrative procedure information systems of ministerial and provincial agencies.

9. Disclose the administrative procedure status, provide it to the National Public Service Portal for disclosure in accordance with law.

10. Store data on the administrative procedure handling in Data Storages of Administrative procedure dossiers, including data on:

a) Dossiers of receipt and handling of administrative procedures;

b) Historical information on the handling of administrative procedures;

c) Results of administrative procedure document digitization carried out by ministries, agencies and local authorities themselves;

d) Results of handling administrative procedures within the competence of ministries, ministerial agencies and local authorities in charge of the system, in case these results are not stored in national databases or specialized databases;

dd) Results of certification of electronic copies from originals, in case the local authorities do it themselves;

e) Information in the form of links for data related to organizations and individuals having accounts on the system stored in national databases and specialized databases.

11. Provide account-based electronic data management services for organizations and individuals to support organizations and individuals to monitor, manage and store electronic information and data related to administrative transactions of such organizations and individuals.

12. Consolidate the status of provision and handling of administrative procedures.

13. Publish data, convert electronic administrative procedure documents and results into physical electronic administrative procedures document and results to be stored and compared or presented to competent agencies to verify information about such administrative procedure documents and results or provide to organizations and individuals wishing to look up and verify information within the scope prescribed by law.

14. Connect, integrate and share information according to the requirements specified in Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 of this Article with the National Public Service Portal.

15. Connect and share data with the document administration system to support the handling of administrative procedures, extract data on the administrative procedure results which are electronic documents.

16. Connect and integrate with the National Reporting and Information System to provide information on the administrative procedure status and results in the reporting period.

17. Connect and share revenue data with the Information System of the State Treasury and Tax Authorities to make online payment of fees, charges and financial obligations in carrying out administrative procedures and providing public services.

18. Other professional requirements as decided by Ministers, Heads of ministerial agencies, Presidents of provincial People's Committees.

Article 24. Electronic storages of organizations and individuals on the Administrative procedure information systems of ministerial and provincial agencies

1. Electronic storage of an organization or individual is used to organize data, manage and store data of the Administrative procedure information systems of ministerial and provincial agencies, with a display interface supporting management of electronic data of each organization or individual by user account.

2. The data shown in the electronic storage of the organization or individual shall comply with the regulations of Clause 3 Article 16 of Decree No. 45/2020/ND-CP dated April 08, 2020 on administrative procedures by electronic means. To be specific:

a) Data on information of the person who follow procedures and dossier holder, stored in the form of metadata to identify the dossier holder such as: ID card/citizen identity card (for individuals) or passport number (or number of a passport alternative) of foreigners, taxpayer identification number (for enterprises);

b) Data on dossiers of following administrative procedures and public services which have been successfully received and processed;

c) Data on the process, processing history, contents and files during the processing of dossiers;

d) Results or links to results of handling electronic administrative procedures;

dd) Results of certification of electronic copies from the original;

e) Other metadata of digitized administrative procedure documents and results;

g) Files with digital signatures actively updated by organizations and individuals.

3. The authorization of data access of organizations and individuals shall comply with the operation regulations of the Administrative procedure information systems of ministerial and provincial agencies. The displayed data of organizations and individuals must be conformable to data access hierarchy to ensure the principles of protection of privacy and personal data protection and regulations on responsibilities and acts not to be done in receiving and handling administrative procedures by electronic means.

Article 25. Connecting and sharing digital results between the Ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems and the National Public Service Portal

1. The Ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems shall be synchronized with the National Public Service Portal as follows:

a) The synchronized digitization results include: results of handling administrative procedures under the competence of ministries, ministerial agencies and local authorities; results of digitizing administrative procedure documents that have been successfully received and processed by competent agencies; certified true electronic copies extracted from master register or certified true electronic copies of the original made by ministries, agencies or local authorities; other information (if any);

b) The following information and data fields must be ensured when synchronizing: Document code; document’s name; attachments or links to the file; other metadata depending on the level of management, handling of administrative procedures and provision of public services;

c) The synchronization of digitization results shall be carried out in real time.

2. The National Public Service Portal shall share with the Ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems during administrative processes:

a) Synchronize the list of administrative procedure results in the electronic storages of organizations and individuals on the National Public Service Portal with the ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems at the request of ministries, central and local authorities;

b) Share data on documents for the Ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems in case ministries, agencies and local authorities request inspection to handle administrative procedures. Based on the digitized document codes provided by ministries, agencies and local authorities, the National Public Service Portal shall share: Document’s code, document’s name, attachments or links to file;

c) The synchronization shall be carried out automatically with a frequency suitable for the capacity of the National Public Service Portal and requirements at the time of inspection by organizations and individuals in service of receiving and handling administrative procedures and online public services.

3. The reuse of digitized results shall be carried out in order of priority as follows:

a) Exploit from the administrative procedure information systems, information systems and databases under the management of ministries, agencies and local authorities;

b) Exploit from information systems and databases bilaterally connected to the ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems;

c) Exploit from data shared through the National Public Service Portal.

Article 26. Applying QR codes during administrative processes

1. The application of QR codes in receiving administrative procedures must comply with Vietnamese standard TCVN 7322: 2009 (ISO / IEC 18004: 2006) on Information technology - Automatic identification and data capture techniques - QR code 2005 bar code symbology specification.

2. QR codes are printed in the upper left corner of documents published from the data of the Ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems for organizations and individuals providing at least the following data:

a) Code of administrative procedure document;

b) Code of administrative procedure;

c) Identification code of organization or individual following administrative procedure;

d) Name of the published document;

dd) Name of the information system for data provision;

e) Time of publication;

g) In case it is an appointment note, the QR code provides additional data on the date of appointment to return results;

h) In case it is the administrative procedure result, the QR code provides additional data on the time limit and scope of effect (if any).

Article 27. Revenue data

1. Collecting agencies must ensure specific revenue identifier as follows:

a) Revenue identifier shall be determined by code of administrative procedure dossier or decision numbers of other revenues issued by agencies handling administrative procedures and providing public services, ensuring its uniqueness nationwide;

b) Collecting agency code is the electronic identification code of the agency updated by ministries, central and local authorities on the National Database on administrative procedures;

c) Collecting agency’s name;

d) Administrative procedure code on the National Database on administrative procedures;

dd) Codes of fees or charges or fines complying with regulations on the list of fees, charges and fines of the State Treasury.

In case there is no code of fees or charges, it shall be replaced with the code of payment transaction specified in Clause 4 of this Article.

e) Amount receivable;

g) Currency receivable;

h) Name of individual or organization having financial obligations;

i) Time limit for payment (if any);

k) Taxpayer identification number of individual or organization having financial obligations (if any);

l) CITAD code;

m) Account number of the collecting agency at the State Treasury or bank;

n) Account name of the collecting agency;

o) Other information as prescribed by sectors or fields.

2. Payment documents

Payment documents of banks, payment service providers created during administrative processes, public services or other revenues through the National Public Service Portal shall include all information specified in Clause 1 of this Article.

3. When making a payment order to transfer the collected fees, charges or fines to the accounts designated for collecting fees, charges of the collecting organizations opened at credit institutions or the fee collection accounts pending transfer to the state budget of the collecting organizations opened at the State Treasury or to the state budget, banks and payment service providers, the "Content" field of the payment order must be ensured according to the following structure:

++++++<Fee/charge/fine code>

4. The National Public Service Portal shall automatically issue transaction codes in the following format:

G22.99.X-YYMMDDZZZZZZ.

In particular, G22.99.X is the Payment Transaction Code, including: G22.99.1: Collection of penalties; G22.99.2: Collection of fees and charges for administrative procedures; G22.99.3: Collection of taxes; G22.99.4: Collection of premiums of social insurance and health insurance; G22.99.5: Payment of electricity bills; G22.99.6: Payment of hospital fees; G22.99.7: Advance collection of court fees; G22.99.8: Payment of tuition and other types of payment transactions.

YYMMDD is the number that represents the year, month, and date on which the transaction arose.

ZZZZZZ is the ordinal number of the transaction in that day.

The list of codes of payment transactions via online payment system of the National Public Service Portal is uniformly made according to the guidelines of technical standards for connection and integration with the online payment system of the National Public Service Portal when developing new public services.

5. Other forms of collection using uniform transaction codes generated by the Information Systems for administrative procedures and public service provision are encouraged according to the structure . X- YYMMDDZZZZZZ.

6. The electronic payment between commercial banks or intermediary payment service providers to beneficiary accounts of public service providers opened at banks or the State Treasury for fees, charges and other financial obligations in following administrative procedures shall comply with the regulations in Clause 12, Article 1 Decree No. 107/2021/ND-CP or relevant laws.

Article 28. Updating transaction information and documents on the National Public Service Portal, Information Systems for administrative procedures

1. Banks and payment service providers shall fully and promptly update the payment transaction statuses on the National Public Service Portal to serve the administration, review, comparison and support settlement of online payment on the National Public Service Portal.

a) Transaction status includes: initiation, failed initialization, processing, failed payment, successful payment, failed transaction, successful transaction;

b) Settlement status includes: success and failure.

2. Banks and payment service providers shall review payment transactions in "Processing" status until T-1 (the day before the review date); ensure the synchronization and update of transaction completion status (successful or failed) on the National Public Service Portal.

3. Ministries, central and local authorities shall regularly review and compare payment transaction statuses, settlement statuses through authorized accounts to monitor and check payment data on the National Public Service Portal.

In case payment transactions conducted through the Payment System of the National Public Service Portal are recorded as successful payment, but electronic documents have not been synchronized to the Ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems, ministries, central and local authorities shall use administrative accounts to send requests for cooperation in synchronous processing of electrical documents to banks and payment service providers. When the processing is complete, the status "Documents received" shall be updated on the National Public Service Portal.

4. Ministries, central and local authorities shall synchronize the status "Payment received" when amounts paid through the National Public Service Portal have been transferred to the beneficiary accounts of the collecting agencies located at commercial banks.

The State Treasury shall synchronize the status "Payment received by the State Treasury" when amounts paid through the National Public Service Portal have been transferred to accounts at the State Treasury.

Article 29. Reviewing, comparing and supporting settlement of online payment on the National Public Service Portal

1. In case transfer of funds to the accounts of collecting agencies is unsuccessful.

Banks and payment service providers shall not refund to customers in case the transaction is successful and electronic documents have been sent to the National Public Service Portal and the Ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems, unless otherwise agreed by collecting agencies.

On the basis of revenues that have not been transferred to accounts of collecting agencies at the State Treasury or banks, collecting agencies shall review and send requests to banks and payment service providers. Within 01 working day, banks and payment service providers shall receive requests, respond, and transfer these amounts to accounts of collecting agencies..

2. In case the transfer is unsuccessful due to incorrect payment information of collecting agencies, detected and provided by banks or payment service providers, collecting agencies shall have to work with such banks or payment service providers for updating and adjusting information on the National Database on administrative procedures, Ministerial and provincial administrative procedure information systems; and send the requests to the banks or payment service providers in order to transfer these amounts to the collecting agencies’ accounts.

Article 30. Refunding fees, charges and fines

1. When a person claims a refund of a mistaken payment or overpayment, the competent agency shall receive and process claim as prescribed.

2. The refund of fees, charges and fines that have been transferred to the collecting agency’s account at the State Treasury on the National Public Service Portal shall be carried out as follows:

a) Officials authorized to "Prepare documents for refund of state budget revenues" shall prepare documents for payment transaction codes on the National Public Service Portal. In case a competent agency sends refund documents to the State Treasury, the refund document form shall be used according to regulations of the Ministry of Finance;

b) Officials authorized to "Approve refund documents of state budget revenues" shall approve documents at the administrative function;

c) The refund order shall be transferred to the State Treasury. Officials shall be assigned to prepare documents, approve and monitor the situation and processing results of the State Treasury at the administrative function of the National Public Service Portal.

Chapter VI

IMPLEMENTATION CLAUSES

Article 31. Responsibility for implementation

1. Ministers, Heads of ministerial agencies, Heads of Governmental agencies, Presidents of the People's Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities, relevant organizations and individuals are responsible for implementation of this Circular./.

2. The Department of Administrative Procedure Control affiliated to the Government Office of Vietnam is responsible for assisting the Minister-Chief of the Government Office of Vietnam Guide in monitoring, urging and inspecting the implementation of this Circular.

Article 32. Effect

1. This Circular comes into force from May 25, 2023; Point dd Clause 1 Article 27 of this Circular shall be applicable from January 01, 2024.

2. The evaluation of quality of handling administrative procedures shall comply with the regulations in Decision No. 766/QD-TTg dated June 23, 2022 of the Prime Minister on promulgation of real-time performance evaluation indexes in electronic administrative procedures and public services.

The regulations on reviewing and evaluating the conformity of administrative procedures and regulations related to administrative procedures and provision of online public services prescribed in Point I Clause 2 Article 25, Clause 2 Article 28 of Circular No. 02/2017/TT-VPCP dated October 31, 2017 of the Government Office providing professional guidelines on administrative procedure control shall be annulled; Articles 13, 14, 15, 17, 21 Clause 2 Article 16 of Circular No. 01/2018/TT-VPCP dated November 23, 2018 of the Government Office providing instructions for implementation of the Government’s Decree No. 61/2018/ND-CP dated April 23, 2018 on implementation of single-window system and interlinked single-window system for handling administrative procedures shall be annulled.

4. Difficulties that arise during the period of implementation of this Circular should be reported promptly to the Government Office for consideration./.