Removing shortcomings in disbursement of capital construction investment

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As of 31st July 2018, the accumulated investment capital disbursed under the plan for 2018 through the State Treasury was estimated at 35.7% of the plan.

Late disbursement due to shortcomings

According to the State Treasury, over the past time, under the strict direction of the Government and Ministry of Finance, the State Treasury has focused on directing and drastically implementing solutions to accelerate the disbursement of capital construction investment in 2018. However, capital construction investment that is controlled and paid through the State Treasury is lower than the same period in 2017.

According to statistics from localities, as of 31st July 2018, the accumulated investment capital disbursed under the plan for 2018 through the State Treasury was estimated at VND 135,110 billion (reaching 35.75 of the plan). Of which, the capital allocated by the Government for disbursement was VND 133,820 billion, reaching 35.6% of the plan. Specifically, capital construction investment was VND 110,455 billion (reaching 37.2% of the plan), the Government bonds capital was VND 7,020 billion (reaching 17.6% of the plan), the target program and national target program was VND 16,344.6 billion (reaching 41.3% of the plan).

Explaining the reasons, the State Treasury said that the low disbursement rate is caused by the Public Investment Law that stipulates that the project must go through some strict steps (from planning, appraisal, approval of the plan, detailed assignment of investment plans to ministries, sectors and localities), and it takes a long time. Moreover, although the law stipulates that by December 31st of the year preceding the plan year, ministries, sectors and localities must complete the plan assignment but in fact there are still some units failing to implement the plan assignment in accordance with the prescribed time limit.

In addition, government bond funds in 2018 allocated to ministries are mainly new projects, so after the capital plan has been assigned, investors start to carry out procedures for site clearance and organize bidding. Thereby, the investors have not had the volume of payment acceptance to send to the State Treasury.

In addition, the mechanisms and policies on compensation for site clearance and resettlement are not consistent with the market rules, so the site clearance has faced many difficulties and prolonged implementation time leading to the slow progress of construction. For example, Hanoi is one of the localities having the late disbursement rate of capital construction investment, Director of Hanoi State Treasury Dao Thai Phuc said that the late disbursement of capital construction investment is due to the late site clearance. At the same time, some project management boards in Hanoi are in the process of merger and consolidation so they also affect the disbursement.

However, according to evaluation by the State Treasury, although the disbursement rate of public investment capital until the end of July only reached about 37.5% of the plan, this is a great effort of the ministries, branches and localities in drastically focusing on completing the task of budget allocation in the beginning of the year from public investment capital in 2018, especially government bonds. Investors urgently speed up the progress of construction works, transition projects and major projects.

Modernization of expenditure control to accelerate disbursement

In the coming time, with the goal of accelerating the disbursement of public investment capital in 2018, the State Treasury will closely follow the direction of the Government and the Ministry of Finance to direct the provincial and municipal State Treasury to disburse State budget in accordance with the Government's guidelines and measures to manage socio-economic development and budget estimates in 2018.

State Treasury is continuing to study administrative reform in the field of expenditure control in the direction of simplifying and creating favorable conditions for the units using the budget. At the same time, implementing information technology application in the State budget expenditure control, accelerating the propagation and implementation of online public services of the State Treasury and improve the public service system to ensure smooth operation, and meeting the maximum requirements of the budget using unit.

In particular, in order to further strengthen financial discipline and rules and enhance the responsibility of heads of State Treasury units at all levels in performing their tasks and accelerating the disbursement of public investment capital in the last months of 2018, the State Treasury requires State Treasury at all levels to closely follow the Government's and Ministry of Finance’s directives and closely coordinate with investors in implementing the Government’s Resolution No.70/NQ-CP dated August 3, 2017 on major tasks and solutions to accelerate the implementation and disbursement of the public investment plans and Resolutions of the Government’s monthly meeting and strive to disburse 100% of the plan for development investment capital assigned by the National Assembly and the Prime Minister.

In addition, based on the actual disbursement in each locality, to direct the State Treasury at all levels shall take the initiative in coordinating with finance agencies at all levels in holding dialogue conferences with investors, thereby, understanding and removing inadequacies arising in the implementation and the disbursement of each project under their competencies. At the same time, summing up inadequacies beyond their competences and propose solutions and then report to competent agencies for consideration and settlement.

The State Treasury refuses to pay over VND 60 billion for recurrent expenditure VCN- According to the report from State Treasury, as of 31st January 2018, through the State expenditure control, ...

Particularly, the State Treasury has requested the State Treasury at all levels to promote the task of administrative reform and implemented mode of expenditure control under the rule of "pre-payment and post-control" for multi-payment contracts as per regulations of Ministry of Finance and guidance of the State Treasury. At the same time, notifying investors and the project management boards on the mode of expenditure control of the State Treasury. By implementing this mode, the time of control and payment will be shortened to 1 working day since the date of receiving legible dossiers of the units.

At the same time, based on the decisions of competent authorities, the State Treasury at all levels shall urge investors to recover capital in advance and report in writing to the People's Committees at all levels in order to direct the investors to strictly implement, contributing to accelerating the disbursement of capital construction investment in 2018.