Promote disbursement of investment through the State Treasury

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The State Treasury has perfected the professional processes in controlling state budget spending towards reforming administrative procedures.

Slow disbursement for many reasons

According to the latest data of the State Treasury, as of May 31, 2019, investment capital disbursement was estimated at 96,899 billion VND, reaching 23.25% of the plan assigned by the National Assembly and reaching 26.39% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister. Compared to the investment plan assigned in 2019 (416,800 billion VND), the disbursement rate of investment capital in the first 5 months of 2019 was very low.

According to local reports, in fact, the slow disbursement of public investment is mainly due to problems of land clearance and slow capital allocation. For example, in Dien Bien province, the results of disbursement of public investment capital by the end of May 15, 2019 only reached 18.63% of the assigned capital plan. Ofwhich, the central budget projects only reached 12.1% and local budget projects reached 19.05%.

Regardingthe disbursement of investment capital in the province, Pham Thi Minh Hue, Director of Dien Bien State Treasury, said the disbursement rate of capital construction investment was still low. This is due to some projects experiencingproblems in site clearance, or some new start-ups in the contractor selection stage.

According to Mai Thi Thuy Duong, Deputy Director of the Investment Department under the Ministry of Finance, site clearance is not subject to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance. Moreover, the disbursement rate is slow because the deadlineis December 31 of the next year.

The State Treasury has also completed professional processes in controlling state budget spending towards reforming administrative procedures, simplifying procedures and reducing steps and time of expenditure control through the State Treasury; creating favorable conditions for investors in the process of dealing with the State Treasury.

According to Le DucTrung, Director of Dien Bien Management Board of Civil and Industrial projects, in recent years, the expenditure control of the State Treasury is towards administrative procedure reform, simplifying procedure documents, reducing steps and time for expenditure control at the State Treasury.

Dien Bien State Treasury always creates favorable conditions for investors in the process of dealing with the State Treasury. As the volume is available, the disbursement can be made immediately in the day or no later than the next day. This helps its projectsmeet their schedule without any significant problems related to the State Treasury.

Recover all capital if slow

Speeding up the progress and striving to disburse public investment capital is one of the solutions to motivate growth in 2019 as directed by the Government in Resolution No. 23/NQ-CP dated April 10, 2019 on the regular Government meeting in March 2019; Resolution No. 30/NQ-CP dated May 11, 2019 on the regular Government meeting in April 2019; Directive No. 09/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister and Notice No. 179/ TB-VPCP dated May 8, 2019 of the Government Office.

According to the representative of the Investment Department,in order to accelerate the disbursement of investment capital, regardingthe policy mechanism, the Ministry of Finance proposed the Ministry of Planning and Investment to amend and supplementthe Investment Law and the Enterprise Law, submitting to the Government for promulgating a decree on the implementation of a number of articles of the Planning Law and related documents, as well as completing the decree on the implementation of a number of articles of the Bidding Law on selection of investors.

The Ministry of Construction will study to amend and supplement a number of articles of the Law on Construction, creating a clear legal framework and simplifying the process, ensuring the uniformity and synchronization of the legalsystem on investment management to promptly remove difficulties and create favorable conditions for projects to be implemented under the schedule and plan. In particular, at present, the draft Law on Public Investment (amended), which has beensubmitted to the National Assembly, is expected to last to 31 January of the following year of the plan and in special cases that would like to extend the disbursement, it must be allowed by the Prime Minister.

Regardingslow capital allocation, the National Assembly has recently allocated all the capital to ministries, branches and localities in 2019, the Prime Minister has based on eligible projects to allocate for ministries, branches, localities. However, in the current capital, there are still some ineligible projects that the Ministry of Planning and Investment submitted to the Prime Minister for the allocation in May 2019. Regarding these projects, Mai Thi Thuy Duong affirmed that by the end of May 2019, if the ministries and agencies fail to complete the assigned procedures, the Ministry of Finance will propose to withdraw all of that capital.

Currently, for the remaining investment capital from the state budget in 2019, which has not yet been allocated to ministries, branches and localities due to insufficient conditions, the Ministry of Finance requests the Ministry of Planning and Investment to submit its plan to Prime Minister for dealing with the remaining 2019 state budget investment plan.

The Ministry of Finance also suggested localities to promptly complete the allocation of capital plans in 2019 approved by the competent authorities, so that the investors and the Project Management Board can implement public investment projects, contributing to speeding up the disbursement of capital construction investment in 2019.

The Ministry of Finance requires investors totimely and fully implementregulations on management of public investment capital assigned by the National Assembly in 2019. Besides, the investors coordinate with organizations of site clearance compensation or land fund development to focus on solving difficulties; proactively coordinate with all levels and sectors to handle arising problems (such as adjustments of estimates or contracts) in order to fulfill the plan on capital construction investment as the State assigned in 2019.

At the same time, investors must urge and supervise contractors to speed up construction progress; take over the completed project and coordinate with the contractor, the consulting unit to complete the dossier to send the State Treasury as a basis for control and payment, avoiding accumulating on the last days of the year, causing pressure on the State Treasury.