Assessing one-year implementation of "Strengthening Public Financial Management in Viet Nam” project

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The conference

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Tran Van Son, Director of the ODA Project Management Board, thanked the European Union (EU) and the German Government for supporting the Ministry of Finance in building and implementing the "Strengthening public financial management with a medium-term vision project, subprogram 1" under the Strengthening Public Financial Management in Viet Nam program. This is an important large-scale project, funded by the European Union and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany through the management and implementation by GIZ.

At the meeting, Mr. Tran Van Son informed about the results of the project's implementation. Accordingly, 2023 is the first year of the implementation with many difficulties and challenges. The project has completed many work items such as preparation, launching, plan making and implementation; direction, administration, and coordination between the parties. The achieved results have contributed to realizing the project's goals, especially supporting the reform of public financial management of the Finance sector.

The reports of GIZ and the ODA Project Management Board shows that in 2023, the approved project implementation plan has 61 technical support activities. Of these, 6 activities have been completed, accounting for 9.8%; the number of ongoing activities is 17 activities, accounting for 27.9%; 38 activities have not been implemented, accounting for 62.3%. The results show that the implementation progress of the project is still slow and has not met the set plan.

The reasons for the failure to meet the set plan are: 2023 is the first year of project implementation, the amount of preparation work is high; the implementation faces some problems, leading to the need to adjust the implementation time, which also affected the overall progress.

Along with that, the construction work and plan approval process are slow. Until August 2023, the revised master plan and the 2023 implementation plan are approved, which greatly affects the implementation progress and time; some beneficiary units are not really drastic in implementing activities in their charge, leading to the progress of some activities failing to meet the plan.

Mr. Tran Van Son speaks at the working session.

Mr. Tran Van Son said that to speed up the project progress, the ODA Project Management Board will coordinate with beneficiary units, GIZ and stakeholders to urgently complete procedures for approving the project implementation plan in 2024, so that activities can begin from January 2024 to ensure progress and results. In case there are difficulties beyond the authority, they should be reported to the Steering Committee for solutions or proposed to the competent authority for resolution.

Along with that, the ODA Project Management Board and GIZ periodically report the progress and results of disbursement of ODA capital of the subprojects to relevant agencies as a basis for monitoring the project; the ODA Project Management Board coordinates with the Department of Personnel and Organization to report to the Ministry of Finance on strengthening the capacity of the ODA Project Management Board through consolidating and perfecting the human resources apparatus to ensure successful implementation of the project.

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Speaking at the meeting, GIZ representative emphasized that this is an important project, of great interest to the German Government. GIZ representative expressed confidence that the project will help Vietnam achieve its policy and development goals, contributing to better efficiency in providing public services in Vietnam.