Truly reducing the burden on "fingertips" (Jintai Vision · Focusing on Formalism ②) Work | Data | Formalism
In recent years, the widespread application of e-government platforms has greatly improved the efficiency of administrative work and serving the people. However, in some places, there have also been "fingertip formalism" problems such as excessive and excessive development of work application software, duplicate data declaration, and excessive "leaving traces" in the process of e-government, which has increased the burden on grassroots.
Recently, reporters went to multiple places for interviews to understand the specific manifestations of "formalism at the fingertips". Together with readers, netizens, experts, and others, they discussed how to relax and reduce the burden on grassroots cadres, and stimulate their enthusiasm and vitality for work and entrepreneurship.
Clean up and integrate groups
Breaking down data barriers
"From morning till night, mobile messages keep ringing", "I stare at the 'group' every moment, afraid of missing notifications", "I have installed more than 20 work apps on my phone, various check-in and reporting materials"... When it comes to "formalism at my fingertips", some grassroots cadres feel it deeply.
The reporter found in the interview that the most intuitive manifestation of grassroots cadres' reflection of the "burden on their fingertips" is "two many": first, there are many online work groups, and second, there are many work application software.
"I have dozens of WeChat groups on my phone, some from various departments, some from project teams, and some for specialized work. Not only do I need to reply in a timely manner, but I also need to clock in at designated times and locations. I spend a lot of time staring at my phone every day," said a community official.
"Grass roots cadres are required to pay attention to various WeChat official account, download and install various mobile phone applications, sign in, like, forward, etc., which takes up the working hours of grass roots cadres and increases the additional burden." Hu Hai, director of the Party Style and Political Style Supervision Office of the Commission for Discipline Inspection of Zhangye City, Gansu Province, said that in response to formalistic issues such as excessive network work groups and work application software, Zhangye City carried out cleaning and integration through special rectification, and the number of WeChat work groups in the city decreased by 45%, and the number of QQ work groups decreased by 47%, achieving good results.
"A thousand lines above, a needle below." During the interview, the reporter found that the reason why grassroots cadres can't "hold" their phones is because they have to deal with a large amount of data submission requirements from higher-level departments. When some departments issue submission tasks, they often do not consider the pressure of grassroots work. Although the data requirements of a single department may not seem to be many, the requirements of multiple departments are transmitted to the grassroots at the same time, becoming a burden.
"A lot of data is submitted repeatedly," said a community cadre in a provincial capital city in the west. "Some departments can actually obtain corresponding data from other departments, but in order to save communication and coordination trouble, it is required to fill in at the grassroots level. Moreover, these data need to be filled in repeatedly at regular intervals, claiming to be for updating purposes, but some data changes are small and do not need to be updated at all times."
Some departments have overlapping management functions, but there are serious data barriers, forming a "data chimney". A township cadre in a coastal county reported that when a cultural activity is to be held in the township, it needs to be simultaneously recorded in the two systems of the county party committee's propaganda department and the county cultural, broadcasting, tourism and sports bureau when applying for approval. "Why can't the systems be connected and used? While improving work efficiency, it can also reduce the burden on grassroots workers."
Zhang Peisheng, a reader from Yunfu City, Guangdong Province, said in a letter that he visited a unit and found that the document circulation program of the unit was unbelievable: "When circulating documents, leaders need to sign and approve them online, then print out the documents and submit them to the leaders. After copying the leaders' instructions and opinions, they are officially issued. At the same time, they also need to scan the leaders' instructions and opinions into the computer for archiving. The process is repeated online and offline, which increases the workload of digital reform."
Professor He Zhe from the Public Management Teaching and Research Department of the Central Party School believes that "currently, the segmentation of information systems is quite obvious, and each department has established its own information system. However, the task of information collection is all at the grassroots level." He suggests further building a comprehensive and universal grassroots information system to solve the problem of multiple applications in one filling, and reducing the burden of repeated filling at the grassroots level through automation methods such as big data comprehensive analysis and intelligent filling.
Some places have proposed targeted measures. Gansu Sunan Yugur Autonomous County clearly requires that those who do not cooperate, do not communicate, and frequently require grassroots units to submit the same or similar basic data and materials, resulting in repeated labor at the grassroots level, should be held accountable. Huli District, Xiamen City, Fujian Province, relies on the "Digital Huli Public Management Platform" to integrate multiple ports and achieve information sharing among various departments.
Revise assessment standards
Pay attention to work performance
Unreasonable assessment is often one of the important reasons for the emergence of formalism at the fingertips. Some assessments only focus on clocking in and leaving marks, resulting in grassroots work running at the fingertips. For example, taking photos, checking in, posting on social media, and taking screenshots to report can prove that you are on duty and working. Some cadres, as a result, place more emphasis on their achievements than on their achievements, and go through the motions and show off to complete tasks.
There are also assessments on the download volume and activity level of work software, which creates additional burden on grassroots. In January of this year, the Discipline Inspection Commission of Chun'an County, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province conducted a special survey using Dashu Town as a sample. The results showed that there are currently over 100 computer software, mobile applications, WeChat mini programs, etc. in use in Dashu Town, of which about 70% have clear usage requirements.
"In the context of digital reform, some functional departments have followed the trend and developed various application software, and included the use of software in the assessment scope. Although some are not assessed, they will rank according to indicators, putting a lot of pressure on the grassroots." Yu Zebao, director of the Party Conduct and Political Conduct Supervision Office of the Chun'an County Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, said that the county commission for discipline inspection and supervision led a special cleaning of application programs developed and constructed at the county level and connected to townships and villages. Currently, 16 of them have been rectified and taken down.
Setting tasks, scoring, and ranking were originally intended to better motivate grassroots cadres to carry out their work, but due to unscientific and unreasonable assessment standards, they deviated from the original intention. A certain province in the east has launched an application for daily office work, which requires a 90% daily activity assessment requirement. As a result, some township cadres have to log in every day when they have no work to complete their tasks. There is also an application platform that supervises townships and villages to promptly identify and eliminate safety hazards. In order to achieve the required frequency of use for assessment, some townships have to find some problems to input when there are no hidden dangers.
In some places, unrealistic task indicators are set regardless of the grassroots situation. A certain province once launched a work application software called "Cadre Home", which has an appointment function to facilitate staff to meet with higher-level leaders. However, this software is severely unsuitable in rural areas. "Township officials look up but don't look down every day, so there's no need to make appointments online. But in order to complete tasks, sometimes everyone sits in the same office and uses their phones to make appointments," said one township official.
Some functional departments blindly issue download quotas to promote related application software. Not long ago, Xiao Han, a village cadre in a northern province, braved the scorching sun and went door-to-door to help villagers download a mobile application. "The department requires this software to activate half of the registered residence population, and if the number of activated people is insufficient, they will be held accountable. Many elderly people in the village can't download the software on their 'old phones', so they have to put their mobile phone cards into their own mobile phones first, and then return the mobile phone cards to the villagers after activation." Xiaohan said.
Many grassroots cadres have expressed that promoting the use of application software should be done in a more flexible manner, rather than imposing unnecessary burdens through rigid assessments. Shenyang Hong, Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission and Director of the Supervision Commission of Fuyang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, believes that the governance of "finger tip formalism" should start from the assessment baton: "It is recommended to remove unreasonable requirements such as installing government applications, paying attention to WeChat official account, and online voting from the assessment rules, establish a more scientific assessment and incentive mechanism, and truly take work performance as the measurement standard."
He Zhe suggested that the inspection and assessment system for grassroots work should be improved, combining multiple inspections into one inspection and various special inspections into comprehensive inspections, minimizing layer by layer assessments, and developing scientific and reasonable assessment standards based on the actual situation at the grassroots level.
Make good use of digital convenience
Returning to the Essence of Government Affairs
In the view of Zhu Chungen, Deputy Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission and Deputy Director of the Supervision Commission in Hangzhou, digital reform is the future trend, and the governance of "formalism at the fingertips" should focus on highlighting the effectiveness of digital reform. It is necessary to urge the competent departments to reduce unnecessary applications, focus on correcting unnecessary assessments and notifications arising from them, and also to break down data barriers between departments, making digital applications effective and effective.
"Proper digital application can alleviate a considerable burden on grassroots work. For a long time, various reports have been a pain point in grassroots work. Hangzhou has strengthened data collection and information sharing through the 'One Table Communication' system. Currently, seven high-frequency lines, including elderly care, human resources and social security, and judiciary, have achieved zero report clearance, accounting for 70% of the total annual reports of social workers." Zhu Chungen said.
In fact, if the application software is practical and effective in serving the grassroots, it can receive the support of cadres and the masses. Sunan Yugu Autonomous County in Gansu Province has a wide area and a narrow shape, with the farthest rural area being over 300 kilometers away from the county government. "Before, it used to take two days to hold a meeting in the county, which was tiring and delayed work." A township cadre said, "Now, the county advocates for video conferences and online work. If there are any instructions to be conveyed, open the video and it will take a while to finish, saving a lot of time and energy on work."
Whether digital applications are good or not, grassroots cadres are the clearest. To rectify formalism at the fingertips, we need to listen more to the voices of the grassroots.
"Is this follow-up record necessary?" "These data can be directly imported from the hospital, there is no need to collect them through the town." "The service functions of the two systems overlap and cannot be integrated due to different developers."... On July 4th, Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou held a roadshow review meeting to rectify the "formalism at the fingertips" application. Experts and representatives of grassroots cadres repeatedly asked and scored the evaluated application units on site. ".
This is one of the special actions to rectify formalism at the fingertips in Xiaoshan District. Zhou Pingying, Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission and Director of the Supervision Commission of Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, said, "After multidimensional evaluation by the Discipline Inspection Commission and the Supervision Commission in conjunction with the District Data Bureau, 47 applications have been selected as the first batch of evaluation objects. Currently, out of the 37 applications reviewed, 17 have been cancelled and 6 have been rectified and merged."
Another important reason for the formalism at the fingertips is the style of leading cadres. "Governments at all levels should start from themselves, work down-to-earth and solidly." Wang Qiang, Deputy Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission and Deputy Director of the Supervision Commission of Zhangye City, said, "The tasks that can be completed at this level will never be transferred or added to the grassroots level. As long as every unit and level does so, the effectiveness of rectifying 'formalism at the fingertips' will become increasingly apparent."
To rectify formalism at the fingertips, we must ultimately return digitalization to the essence of government affairs - serving the people. In interviews, many officials expressed that while empowering with "key to key" numbers, they should not forget to "face to face" with the masses. The relationship between cadres and the masses is deep and inseparable, and digitalization must not be allowed to become a barrier between cadres and the masses.
"If you focus on this' group ', you won't be able to enter that' group '," said Zhang Yongsheng, Secretary of the Party Committee of Dongle Town, Shandan County, Gansu. "We demand that village cadres send fewer people to the group and enter households more. They should walk more to the homes of the people, explain policies to the villagers, and understand difficulties." Such demands are also welcomed by grassroots cadres: "Understanding the people's situation is of course the best way to have face-to-face conversations with fellow villagers, which is much better than filling out forms in the office to grasp the situation."
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