The way to disburse public investment capital

The disbursement rate of public investment capital in ten months is still low. Illustration photo: Photo: Thùy Linh

Reaching 46.44% of the plan

According to the latest report of the Ministry of Finance, the estimated payment of public investment capital from the state budget in 2022 by the end of October will reach over VND297,774 billion, equaling 46.44% of the plan and equivalent to 51.34% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister. This rate is low compared to the capital plan assigned in 2022 and slightly decreased compared to the same period in 2021 (it reached over 48% of the plan and reached over 55% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister in the same period in 2021).

One of the reasons is that in October 2022, the total number of public investment capital plans from the state budget of ministries, central agencies and localities was supplemented by capital from the Socio-economic Recovery and Development Program is over VND38,155 billion, equal to about 6.6% of the total plan assigned by the Prime Minister. This capital has just been assigned by the Prime Minister on October 12, 2022, so it has not been disbursed, thus dragging down the disbursement rate compared to the total allocated capital plan.

The Government has established six working groups on promoting disbursement, of which four Deputy Prime Ministers are leaders of four groups. The Minister of Planning and Investment is the leader of the 5th group and the Minister of Finance is the leader of the 6th group. The groups regularly inspect, urge and remove difficulties for ministries, sectors and localities. In addition, on September 15, the Government also issued Resolution 124/NQ-CP to promote the disbursement of public investment capital in the last months of 2022. The resolution sets a target to strive to reach 95 - 100% of the disbursement rate of public investment capital in 2022; disbursing 100% of local budget capital; disbursing at least 50% of the assigned capital of the socio-economic recovery and development program in 2022.

Currently, not only the disbursement of public investment capital is slow, but also the disbursement of three national target programs is also very slow.

Therefore, on October 17, 2022, the Prime Minister continued to issue Directive No. 19/CT-TTg on accelerating the disbursement of public investment capital, implementing three national target programs in the last months of 2022 and improving the quality of public investment planning in 2023.

The directive clearly stated that to continue to promote rapid and sustainable economic growth and recovery in order to successfully fulfill the objectives and tasks of the Socio-economic development plan and public investment in 2022 (disbursement target in 2022 is from 95% - 100%) and the whole of 2021-2025, accelerating disbursement of public investment capital and implementing three national target programs in the last months of 2022 and the following years is one of the very important tasks and solutions that should be prioritized.

In particular, in the two years of 2022 - 2023, we have to disburse a larger amount of capital than in previous years (besides the medium-term public investment capital plan for the period of 2021 - 2025, there is also a part of public investment capital from the Socio-economic Recovery and Development Program).

Strengthening urging investors

According to information from the Ministry of Finance, in addition to the units that have adjusted the capital plan in 2022 following Resolution No. 584/NQ-UBTVQH15 dated August 31, 2022 of the Standing Committee of National Assembly, the Ministry of Finance has received a request document to reduce the capital plan in 2022 from nine ministries and central agencies with an amount of over VND5,352 billion.

Faced with this fact, the Ministry of Finance requested the Ministry of Planning and Investment to summarize the proposals of ministries, central agencies and localities on adjusting the central budget investment plan in 2022, and report to the competent levels as stipulated in Resolution No.124/NQ-CP dated September 15, 2022 of the Government on the main tasks and solutions to promote disbursement of public investment capital in the last months of 2022, Directive No. 19/CT-TTg dated October 10, 2022 of the Prime Minister on accelerating the disbursement of public investment capital, implementing three national target programs in the remaining months of 2022 and improving the development of quality public investment plan in 2023.

For ministries, central and local agencies, the Ministry of Finance suggested implementing solutions to speed up the disbursement of public investment capital under the direction of the Government's resolutions and directives; at the same time, strengthen discipline in the disbursement of public investment capital and adjust the capital plan in line with the implementation progress.

At the regular press conference of the Government Office on October 28, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said that from now until the end of 2022, there were only two months left, so the time to implement the solutions was not much.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment has reported to the Government to propose several groups of solutions to implement more drastically in the last months of the year, hoping to achieve a high disbursement figure by January 31, 2023. Among the solutions that were mentioned, the representative of the Ministry of Planning and Investment emphasized that the most important task was that ministries, sectors and localities must urge investors as well as the project management board and especially the contractors.

In particular, related to procedures, the Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment suggested that ministries, sectors and localities must prepare administrative procedures in advance to disburse public investment capital when there was a large volume, to avoid falling into a situation of accumulation at the end of December or the end of January 2023, disbursed simultaneously in many ministries, sectors, investors, and project management boards. At that time, the service of the Treasury system as well as the administrative system could be overloaded and cause network congestion, greatly affecting the disbursement progress.