 | Public investment disbursement needs to be accelerated to boost growth: insiders |
| Ensure savings and prevent losses in disbursement of public investment |
Obstacles in policy mechanism and implementation
According to the Ministry of Finance’s report, by the end of March 2024, many projects of these six provinces have not been disbursed or have been disbursed with low rate (less than 5% of the plan 2024). Specifically, Binh Thuan province has five projects, Gia Lai province has 17 projects; Dong Nai province has five projects, Binh Phuoc province has four projects and Tay Ninh province has five projects. The report also said that the disbursement rates in the first four months of the provinces did not see breakthroughs. Specifically, the disbursement rate of Binh Thuan province reached 12,88%, Gia Lai reached 11.37%, Dong Nai reached 18.43%, Binh Duong province reached 16.79%, Binh Phuoc province reached 16.36% and Tay Ninh reached 18.18% |
The report said that the reasons for low disbursement of public investment reported by these provinces are obstacles in mechanism as well as the implementation.
For example, Gia Lai province faces problems in determining land price. According to the province, the land price assessment still has shortcomings that have affected the site clearance and the handover of sites to construction units of many projects. Therefore, this locality has proposed the Government to soon issue a Decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 44/2014/ND-CP regulating the method of authorized land price assessment.
In Binh Duong province, the province has executed some inter-regional projects. However, the Law on Public Investment does not regulate procedures and authority for public investment projects in the two or more provinces.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly issued Resolution No. 106/2023/QH15 piloting a number of specific policies on investment in road construction, which allows piloting the policy of a provincial-level People’s Committee as the governing body that uses the local budget to support other localities in implementing public investment of projects specified in this Resolution.
However, projects implemented by Binh Duong province are not included in this regulation. Therefore, the investment in projects in the two provinces from public investment does not have a strict legal framework. Accordingly, Binh Duong province proposed ministries and sectors to instruct the investment in projects in the two provinces in addition to projects specified in Resolution No. 106/2023/QH15 of the National Assembly. …
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| In the photo: My Phuoc – Tan Van – Bau Bang route (Binh Duong) in the form of public investment has been completed and put into operation. Photo: Internet |
The report said that Dong Nai province faces problems in preparing and appraising annual public investment plans under the provisions of Article 56 of the Law on Public Investment, which regulates the deadline for specialized agencies to make and appraise the following year’s public investment plan and send it to the Provincial People’s Committee from June 30 to July 20 every year.
The Provincial People’s Council must hold a meeting from 20 to 25 July every year to approve the following year’s public investment plan as a basis for the Committee to report to the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance. Thus, the deadline for the Provincial People’s Council to report the plan and hold the meeting is five days. It is insufficient time for implementing procedures to prepare for the meeting.
Strictly review and allocate capital
To achieve the target of disbursement of the 2024 public investment plan of over 95% under Official Dispatch No. 24/CD-TTg of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Finance recommends that the leaders of the People’s Committees of the provinces and agencies need to take measures to expedite the disbursement of public investment and allocate capital in accordance with the provisions of the Law on State Budget and the Law on Public Investment.
Carefully review and allocate capital centrally for projects that have completed investment procedures and are capable of disbursement. Focus on allocating sufficient capital plans in 2024 for important national projects, highways, inter-regional roads…
The Ministry of Finance requests localities to mobilize the entire local political system to implement compensation, support and resettlement, and require investors, compensation and site clearance councils to urgently compensate… to speed up site clearance progress. Strengthen dissemination and instruction on regulations on land compensation prices and compensation and support policies for people.
The Ministry of Finance requests investors and project management boards that as soon as they receive the assigned capital plan, they should immediately send it to the State Treasury for a basis for control and payment.
These units need to coordinate closely with contractors and suppliers of supplies and materials to resolve difficulties and problems in supply. In case it is necessary to increase the level of capital advance to meet the demand for supplies and materials, the investors and project management boards should report to the investment decision maker for consideration and decision.