Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai urges 8 ministries and agencies to disburse public investment capital

Disbursement public investment capital much lower than the national average

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai, Head of the Prime Minister’s Working Group No. 2, met with 8 ministries, branches and central agencies to inspect and urge disbursement of public investment capital in 2022. (Photo VGP/Quang Thuong)

According to the report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the total investment plan of state budget capital in 2022 assigned by the Prime Minister to 8 ministries, branches and central agencies under Working Group 2 is VND 3477 billion (including: Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Government Inspectorate, Office of the Party Central Committee, Supreme People’s Procuracy, Vietnam News Agency, Voice of Vietnam Radio, Vietnam Television).

Up to now, ministries, branches and central agencies have allocated and assigned details for each task and project of nearly 3218 billion VND, reaching 92.54%, the remaining unallocated amount is 259, 279 billion VND.

The reason why the public investment plan has not been allocated or assigned is that this capital is expected to be for new projects and tasks, but because there is no investment decision or decision on approval of the investment preparation task estimate. , planning tasks should not be eligible to assign the central budget investment plan in 2022 according to the provisions of the Law on Public Investment.

Regarding the disbursement situation, the total state budget capital of 8 ministries, branches and central agencies under Working Group 2 has been disbursed as of April 30, 2022 is VND 119.539 billion, reaching 3.44% of the plan. plan in 2022, lower than the national average (16.35%).

Estimated disbursement in 5 months of 8 ministries, branches and central agencies as of May 31, 2022 is about VND 337,329 billion, reaching 9.70% of the 2022 plan assigned by the Prime Minister, still much lower than the general average level. of the whole country (20.27%).

According to the report, the difficulties in disbursement of public investment capital are mainly due to the high price of raw materials; problems in compensation, site clearance…

For new construction projects, most of the works are in the bidding and contract negotiation stage.

Some projects have been allocated a lot of capital for compensation and site clearance, but so far the implementation progress is very slow (mainly just carrying out procedures for distraint, inventory and making compensation plans, appraisal of prices). slow) so disbursement is very low. At the same time, the process of implementing projects also takes a lot of time for the implementation of procedures for making, appraising and approving the design of the project estimate, then it is enough to organize the construction bidding. Therefore, the progress of capital disbursement of newly started projects is only accelerated in the last months of the year…

Regarding the causes, besides the objective reasons due to the specificity of the central ministries; implementing public investment in accordance with the law should take time; … the subjective reason is that the organization and implementation of projects are still limited.

Besides, the quality of the preparation of some projects is still low, so there are problems when implementing; the consulting appraisal is still slow; Units under Working Group No. 2 still face difficulties due to the lack of professional construction staff.

On the other hand, the tasks of construction investment and the annual investment plan of the units are not large, the assisting apparatus for the Head of the unit having the investment project is part-time; Some project management boards, investors, contractors are weak in capacity, etc. are also causes affecting the disbursement progress of public investment capital.

Proposing localities to create conditions for clean land allocation, speeding up site clearance

Ministries and branches propose competent authorities to soon provide guidance on the application of the provisions of Decree No. 15/2022/ND-CP to calculate value-added tax in determining and managing construction investment costs. build.

Promote decentralization for local specialized construction agencies in the field of appraisal of construction drawing designs – cost estimates and inspection of pre-acceptance work during the construction process; amending regulations on competence of inspection and acceptance for projects which are decided by central agencies to decide on investment or decentralized, and authorize investment decisions in the direction of decentralization to local Departments of Construction for implementation.

Ministries and sectors also proposed the Prime Minister to direct the People’s Committees of the provinces to facilitate the handover of clean land, and to step up measures related to compensation for site clearance for the implementation of projects under their jurisdiction. and soon report to the Ministry of Finance for agreement to officially allocate land for investment projects.

It is proposed that the Government take measures to remove difficulties from the sudden increase in the price of construction materials to assist in solving difficulties for investors and construction contractors to speed up the construction progress.

Promoting the role of the leader in leading and directing public investment

The report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment emphasized that each central and local government agency’s slow disbursement of projects affects the overall disbursement rate of the whole country.

The requirement is that all levels and branches have to be responsible for the effective management and use of public investment capital, the allocation, assignment of plans and disbursement of public investment capital greatly affect the actual results. To realize socio-economic development goals and tasks, it must be fast, efficient and must comply with the law.

Therefore, the ministries, branches and central agencies should focus on directing the organization to seriously, drastically and effectively implement the Government’s resolutions and the Prime Minister’s direction; promote the role of the leader in leading and directing public investment.

At the consultation meeting of the ministries, central agencies, they all expressed their high agreement with the content of the general report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and at the same time clarified more about the causes, difficulties and obstacles brought about by the Ministry of Planning and Investment. specificity, thereby offering solutions, as well as a commitment to drastically accelerate the disbursement of public investment capital in the near future in accordance with the set goals, otherwise, it will proactively propose to the competent authority. right to transfer capital.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai: The disbursement of public investment capital requires flexibility and initiative. (Photo VGP/ Quang Thuong)

Disbursement of public investment capital requires flexibility and initiative

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai highly appreciated the sense of responsibility and efforts of ministries and sectors in disbursing public investment capital in recent years.

The Deputy Prime Minister stated that, through the general report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, as well as the comments, it was found that, in terms of capital allocation, most ministries and branches had already allocated it by April 30. The remaining 3 agencies have not yet allocated all public investment capital.

Regarding the disbursement of public investment capital, the Deputy Prime Minister said that as of April 30, 2022, there was still 1 unit that could not be disbursed, but by May 15, all units had disbursed. However, the agencies with the highest disbursement results, the Supreme People’s Procuracy and the Ministry of Finance, have only disbursed over 10% of the allocated capital.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, this is the general situation in recent years, the disbursement is usually not high at the beginning of the year. Up to now, the disbursement rate of public investment in the whole country is approximately the same period in 2021.

In disbursement, although ministries and sectors have made great efforts, due to the complexity of the disbursement process and the specificity of some ministries, branches and central agencies, the results of public investment disbursement in the first quarter and the beginning of the second quarter of 2022 are lower than the national average.

Regarding the causes and problems, the Deputy Prime Minister basically agreed with the objective reasons affecting the disbursement progress of public investment capital mentioned in the report and opinions of the ministries, and at the same time discussed and clarified. more about a number of reasons such as: Regulations of the law on public investment; changes in mechanisms and policies, especially changes in contract capital advance; fluctuations in prices of building materials and raw materials, fuels, transportation service prices; characteristics of the organizational system of a number of vertical organizations; problems in land clearance work…

Regarding mechanisms and policies, the Deputy Prime Minister said that the biggest obstacle in public investment today is because the regulations are too tight. We want to plan the capital to use it effectively, ensuring there is no outstanding debt. However, in the process of organizing and implementing, it is not possible to be as strict as the plan, because the reality is very vivid. The disbursement of public investment capital involves many agencies, the process and procedures are very tight, so it takes a lot of time. Besides, factors such as market volatility or site clearance work… also have an impact. Therefore, the process of disbursing public investment capital needs to be flexible and proactive.

Regarding subjective reasons, the Deputy Prime Minister said that the investment preparation work; contractor selection; organize the acceptance test; capacity of contractor, capacity of project management board; forecasts, predictions are not close to actual developments, etc., which has slowed down disbursement.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai suggested that ministries, branches and central agencies have very specific plans and arrange human resources to closely and effectively manage each project. (Photo by VGP/Quang Thuong)

There must be a very specific plan for each project

To overcome the above reasons, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized: The total public investment capital of 8 ministries is not much, just over 3400 billion VND. Therefore, each ministry, branch and central agency must have a specific disbursement plan for each project.

At the same time, it is necessary to establish working groups, working groups or arrange people to directly inspect, urge, remind, regularly grasp the situation, actively remove difficulties for each investment project. public private. If after a period of time there is no change, there must be a definitive solution to avoid being passive, which is difficult to handle later.

On the basis of reviewing projects, if ministries and branches commit to disbursing 100%, they will continue to make efforts to comply with the set targets. If it is not possible, then it is necessary to propose a suitable transfer as soon as possible.

The Deputy Prime Minister also suggested that the ministries and branches must pay attention to the implementation of payment procedures for the completed and volumetric items to ensure the disbursement progress.

As for problems with investment procedures, the Deputy Prime Minister suggested that ministries and branches must focus on speeding up the progress. Any issues under the responsibility of ministries, branches or investment-deciding agencies must be proactive in implementation. If the problem is related to other ministries, branches or localities such as appraisal, site clearance, etc., it is necessary to actively and proactively coordinate to solve it.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Planning and Investment (the advisory body of the working group) to absorb the opinions of the ministries and branches, synthesize and complete the draft report of the Working Group, clearly stating the situation. allocation and disbursement of public investment capital, problems, existence, causes and responsibilities of individuals, proposed solutions; summarize with the contents of other working groups and report to the Prime Minister according to regulations.

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