National Assembly Chairman: ‘It is difficult to understand when the budget has money but cannot spend it’

On the morning of May 25, the National Assembly discussed the results of the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and the state budget in 2021; implementation of the plan in 2022.

Giving opinions, delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Be (Kien Giang delegation) mentioned the slow disbursement of public investment capital. According to her, this is an issue that “has been discussed a lot at meetings, so a radical solution is needed to create positive changes”. She also expressed concern that the economic recovery and support package “implements slowly, the locality is very worried”, while this package is only implemented until 2023.

“The disbursement procedure from the top down is now very difficult, the locality is quite thoughtful,” Mrs. Be said.

Participating in the discussion, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said that it is extremely difficult to spend the budget; capital absorption capacity of the economy is very low. While the support package to stimulate the economy has “not been disbursed yet” because on May 24, the Government just sent the project list.

“Especially 14,000 billion VND for the medical field, there is no list. Program Waves and computers for memoney is available but cannot be spent”, the National Assembly Chairman said and wondered, “I don’t know what the reason is, because the institution is not entangled”.

The President of the National Assembly cited the 2020 budget settlement report to see that the source of funds will be transferred to next year more than VND 600,000 billion because the budget cannot be spent, not money. This is also a problem “both the Government and the National Assembly are very concerned”.

“Some people say, I also often say, that there should be new solutions to old problems. But what is the new solution? If we don’t discuss it, the National Assembly will finish meeting, the Government meeting will still be stuck,” said the National President. Association emphasized.

Mr. Hue also said that the most worrying is the economic stimulus package of VND 347,000 billion for the fields of transportation, irrigation, health…. has not yet allocated any dong.

“We have to discuss why this is. Is it the investment preparation stage? There are provinces that invite internal government agencies, inspectors, and police to join the Council but still can’t buy it, how strange?”, Chairman The National Assembly raised the issue and said that in procurement, the institution is not hindered, even for specific and special mechanisms, appointing contractors.

“Once it’s fully opened, I don’t understand if it doesn’t change. I hope the National Assembly deputies give suggestions and plans,” said the National Assembly Chairman.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Huan, Chairman of Halcom (Binh Duong Union), raised the issue that if all money is not spent in the economic recovery package, for example, the amount of 113,500 billion VND for infrastructure development alone, in the next two years, will not be achieved in the next two years. The goal of Resolution 43 of the National Assembly is to increase economic growth by 2%. He asked the Government to report more clearly what projects the recovery program money will be spent on, which can be fully disbursed in 2022 – 2023?

Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Phan Van Mai, more specifically, recently, medical facilities are afraid to buy, leading to a shortage of drugs and equipment. “This is a very urgent matter, we need to discuss to have an immediate solution,” he suggested.

According to Mr. Mai, on May 24, leaders of Ho Chi Minh City asked the Department of Health to calculate and propose to buy drugs and chemicals to serve the daily medical examination and treatment needs of the people. “We suggest that the National Assembly and the Government in the coming time focus on further accelerating the implementation of economic recovery packages, putting them into practice and bringing them into play,” said Mr. Phan Van Mai.

Regarding the shortage of drugs, Mr. Hue said that not only drugs to prevent Covid-19 but also other common medicines were also lacking “because they did not dare to buy even though the budget had”.

“Even on procurement related to epidemic prevention and control, the National Assembly and the Government have issued a resolution to allow purchasing according to specific, special and special mechanisms, but there are two states, some places do not dare to buy, If you have a place to buy it, it’s wrong, don’t understand the reason”, Mr. Hue said and said that this issue must be clarified.

According to the Government’s report, in the first four months of the year, public investment disbursement reached 16.36%, this level is lower than the same period in 2021. Foreign investment disbursement is 4.4% and there are 17 ministries, branches, The central authority has not disbursed. The Economic Committee, upon verification, requests the Government to clearly report on the ability to absorb capital sources and complete the plan; as well as the completion of core construction standards and regulations, the system of norms and construction unit prices, slows disbursement of public investment and affects public investment costs.

Also according to the Economic Committee, the national target programs, the tasks of implementing fiscal and monetary policies to support socio-economic recovery and development under Resolution 43 of the National Assembly have been implemented slowly. Important policies are still in the process of developing guidelines and have not been put into practice.

Up to now, the Government has just submitted an additional estimate of VND 18,349 billion in 2022 for projects already included in the medium-term public investment plan, equivalent to 16% of the total capital for development investment of the program that needs to be funded. The allocation and addition of estimates, leading to pressure to disburse disbursements, and a huge increase in overspending in 2023. The list of projects using capital from the economic recovery program has not been completed by the Government, according to the Committee. Economy, being too slow, reduces efficiency…

Hoai Thu – Write Tuan