Assessment of the Current Status of IT Application Investment Project Management at the Department of Information Technology and Customs Statistics

+ The Customs Law No. 12/L-CTN passed by the National Assembly on June 30, 2014 is a new step forward in terms of legal basis with a fundamental change in the method of performing customs procedures from the traditional, semi-electronic method to the electronic method. The Law is the basis for the Customs sector to perform its tasks well in the context of increasingly deep international integration, contributing to protecting national sovereignty and security interests, facilitating trade activities; laying the foundation for the widespread application of electronic customs, promoting the application of information technology towards public, transparent and effective customs activities. The provisions of the Customs Law are consistent with international standards, meeting the requirements of modern and advanced customs management. Since 2015, customs declarations have been carried out electronically, declarations on paper forms are only applicable to a number of specific cases as prescribed by the Government. Customs dossier examination is carried out through the electronic customs data processing system.

+ To implement the Law, Decree, and Decision of the Prime Minister, the General Department of Customs has promptly developed and submitted to the Ministry of Finance for promulgation of circulars or coordinated with ministries and branches to promulgate joint circulars such as: Joint Circular No. 84/2013/TTLT-BTC-BCT-BGTVT dated June 25, 2013 on guiding the implementation of Decision No. 48/2011/QD-TTg dated August 31, 2011 of the Prime Minister on the pilot implementation of the National Single Window Customs Mechanism; Circular No. 22/2014/TT-BTC dated February 14, 2014 of the Ministry of Finance regulating electronic customs procedures for commercial import and export goods; Circular No. 128/2013/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance regulating customs procedures; customs inspection and supervision; export tax, import tax and tax management for exported and imported goods;

+ The decisions of the General Department of Customs serve as the legal basis for implementing electronic customs procedures and promoting the application of information technology.

issued: Decision 988/QD-TCHQ dated March 28, 2014 on electronic customs procedures for commercial import and export goods; Decision 2926/QD-TCHQ dated October 6, 2014 on Regulations on ensuring security and safety of the Customs Information Technology System;... Standardizing criteria and standards for electronic data exchange with relevant parties on the basis of compliance with international standards (WCO data set...)

3.2. Assessment of the current status of IT application investment project management at the Department of Information Technology and Customs Statistics

3.2.1. Results achieved

a. Quality management

* About the capacity of staff

According to the provisions of Decree 102, the selection and assignment of staff to do project management work of the unit has met the general requirements.

The Project Management Department has 3 department heads, of which the Head has a master's degree in economics, and also has an engineering degree, with many years of experience participating in major projects in the industry such as the E-Customs project, the VNACCS/VCIS project, which is a foreign-invested project... The two Deputy Heads of the Project Management Department both graduated in accounting, and have many years of experience in managing IT application projects of the unit.

100% of the project management team have university degrees, including 2 specialists with engineering degrees in IT, 8 specialists with university degrees in economics, and 1 specialist with a master's degree in English. All project management specialists have participated in large projects or have experience working in foreign-invested companies.

100% of the staff working in IT have university degrees. One of them has a master's degree in IT, awarded by the University of Technology.

It can be seen that the human resources for quality management of IT application projects at the Department have met the requirements of the job very well. With dynamism, enthusiasm, and a high sense of responsibility in the work, the team of staff working in project management has always strived to promote their full capacity and enthusiasm to bring the projects to success, meeting the requirements of the Customs sector and contributing greatly to the administrative reform of the sector in recent years.

* Measures to ensure project quality

The sequence and procedures for project quality management are as follows:

- Conduct inspections of completed and ongoing work packages to ensure compliance with the project quality plan.

- Conduct quality control of work packages that are dependent points on the boundary line.

- Conduct audits of version control and configuration management processes to ensure that all members are using the same version of the IT system. Ensure that the initial configuration is documented and that configuration changes are approved and documented. Always perform configuration audits to ensure compliance with customer requirements.

- Perform quality variation analysis to determine the root cause of the problem. This cause must be determined before making corrections.

- Analyze the importance of any variation. The level of acceptance of risks has been determined during the planning process, and the Project Manager or Investor will rely on this to manage the project. Focusing too much

reacting to an unimportant change will cause a waste of common resources. On the contrary, important changes, if not reacted to quickly, can bring very bad results for the project and the project implementing unit.

* Tools used for project quality control:

- Histograms are a quality management tool that allows you to organize individual measured values into a data set according to their statistical frequency (number or percentage) of occurrence. They are used to monitor a variety of factors such as:

+ Describe the data distribution

+ Evaluate both attribute data and variable data (measurement)

+ Determine the level of variation of the process

+ Analyze the randomness of the variation.

- Configuration management: is a control technique used to formally review and approve configuration changes based on the characteristics of the deliverables, as well as the hardware and software devices that create the product and version. Configuration and version changes occur frequently in the IT environment, so they need to be continuously reviewed. The main purpose of configuration management is to track and maintain the integrity of the evolution of project assets. During the project development cycle, many valuable products are created.

b. Volume management

* Achievements in IT application:

The Department of Information Technology and Customs Statistics has also advised, developed, proposed and effectively implemented customs modernization processes such as electronic customs procedures (e-customs procedures), electronic payment gateways, risk management, one-stop customs mechanism... Currently, the electronic customs clearance system (e-Customs) has been deployed in all 34/34 Customs Departments with 148/170 Sub-Departments, of which 23

The Customs Department has deployed at 100% of its affiliated branches. In 2013, the whole country had 50.1 thousand enterprises implementing e-customs procedures, an increase of 16.8% compared to the previous year and accounting for 96% of the total number of enterprises implementing customs procedures; the number of declarations implementing e-customs procedures was 5.5 million, an increase of 26.3% compared to 2012 and accounting for 93.4% of the total number of import and export declarations nationwide. The total import and export turnover by e-customs procedures was more than 252 billion USD, an increase of 25.4% compared to the whole previous year and accounting for 95% of the total import and export value of the whole country. The e-Manifest system has only been deployed since August 1, 2013 but has also achieved positive results, by the end of 2013, it had received 7,155 electronic records; deployed for 43 shipping lines, 348 shipping agents and more than 1,283 freight forwarding companies nationwide. The electronic payment gateway has also been deployed for 34/34 provincial and municipal Customs Departments. As of December 31, 2013, the budget revenue through commercial banks reached 117.2 trillion VND out of a total of 649.2 thousand declarations. In particular, it is impossible not to mention the VNACCS/VCIS cargo clearance system, officially sponsored by the Japanese Government, which has been applied nationwide since April 2014. The deployment of this system is of great significance, helping the entire industry innovate management methods, carry out simple and harmonious customs procedures according to international standards, and provide maximum support to people and businesses, in line with the development strategy of Vietnam Customs. Playing a core role, the Department of Information Technology and Customs Statistics has devoted all its efforts, working day and night, coordinating with Japanese experts and relevant parties to make the System ready to operate according to the set plan. The Department has made efforts to prepare and complete the conditions of infrastructure and resources to officially deploy the VNACCS/VCIS System nationwide; deploy satellite systems including the e-Cutoms System, the Tax Price Information System, the Import-Export Tax Accounting System and the Risk Management Information System according to the centralized processing model at the General Department level to connect and exchange information with the VNACCS/VCIS System. ( Source:

General Department of Customs, Department of Information Technology and Customs Statistics - 27 years of tradition, 13 years of establishment, March 2014 )

* Project volume management activities at the unit:

To achieve the above achievements, the implementation of project management of IT application investment volume is also of special interest and focus of the unit. In the period from 2011 to 2015, the unit implemented 17 projects on IT application investment to implement the approved planning objectives of the unit as well as the objectives and plans for IT application of the whole industry in Decision No. 1766/QD-BTC. Project volume management is based on the purpose that the project aims for. Below is a summary table of projects being implemented in this period:

Project name, task

Approval decision

Target

Implementation progress

Presently

End of year

2015

Building a subsystem to receive cargo declarations, other related documents and electronic customs clearance for incoming and outgoing ships to serve electronic customs procedures

(eManifest).

1636/QD

-IT

July 23, 201

2 on approval of construction design and total estimate

1. Implement electronic customs clearance for exported ships

Immigration includes receiving and processing cargo manifests and other