Combat stagnation and negativity in disbursement of public investment capital

Officials of Binh Duong State Treasury work in shift to ensure budget revenue and expenditure activities during social distancing under Directive 16.

Disbursement progress is still slow

According to a report from the Ministry of Finance, the disbursement rate of public investment capital planned for 2021 in the first seven months of 2021 reached 36.71% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister. The rate is 40.67% lower than the same period in 2020. Of which, domestic capital reached 40.38% (the same period in 2020 was 44.05%), while foreign capital reached 7.52% (the same period in 2020 reached 17.15%).

The Ministry of Finance also pointed out by the end of July, only 11 ministries and 20 provinces had disbursement rates topping 35% of the plan. In which, some ministries and provinces had high disbursement rates such as Thai Binh (71.04%), Bank for Social Policies (67.27%), Hung Yen (65.64%), Ha Nam (64.36%), Thanh Hoa (61.59%), the National Assembly Office (52.96%) and State Audit (49.79%). The rest have low disbursement rates in which 34 of 50 ministries and 15 of 63 provinces have disbursement rates below 25%.

For some key projects, disbursement progress is still slow. For instance, the project of land acquisition, compensation, support and resettlement of Long Thanh International Airport. According to the State Treasury, from 2018 to now, the project has disbursed VND 10,690 billion, hitting 46.77% of the assigned plan. In which, compared to the plan for 2021, it has disbursed VND 835.6 billion, reaching 17.93%.

In addition, the project for building some expressways on the North-South East route in 2017-2020 has disbursed capital more than 14,937.8 billion VND by the end of July 22, reaching 46.4 % of assigned plan in 2021. This project has been handed over the ground with a length of 638.8km of 652.86km (reaching 97.8%); completed 73 of 83 zones (reaching 87.9%). Besides that, for three public investment projects under Resolution No. 52/2017/QH14 that are Cao Bo - Mai Son section and the My Thuan 2 bridge project and the two-way passage of the bridge have basically ensured the required progress, particularly the Cam Lo - La Son section may not be completed on schedule in 2021 for a number of reasons such as storms and floods in the central region in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic, and difficulties in the source of materials and delays in the site clearance work. As for the three converted projects under Resolution No. 117/2020/QH14 (Mai Son section - National Highway 45; Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet section; Phan Thiet - Dau Giay section), the Ministry of Finance said the implementation progress of the projects was behind schedule, mainly due to the difficulty supplying materials.

Promote the responsibility of the people involved

Some main reasons lead to delaying the disbursement of public investment capital. First of all, the strong outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in most localities has seriously affected the implementation and disbursement processes, including projects using public investment capital.

In addition, the disbursement progress in Vietnam is always quite low for objective reasons such as slow site clearance, resettlement; problems with land use plans and inadequacies in the bidding process. Particularly for projects using foreign capital, the delay in disbursement is due to a number of other reasons such as problems in the delivery of plans and detailed allocation; problems with procedures for adjustment of investment policies, investment decisions, loan agreements; delays in project implementation, confirmation of completed volume, and completion of payment procedures.

To speed up the disbursement of public investment capital in the remaining months of 2021, the State Treasury asked the State Treasury of provinces and cities to implement solutions of the investor to continue to urge, remove and overcome difficulties, speed up project schedules and disburse the capital plan. For projects completed before December 31, 2020 that still have outstanding balances and not disbursed capital plans yet, the investor needs to contact the contractor to pay debts following the regulation; complete and submit to get approval on the finalisation of completed projects for the projects which are done before December 31, 2020 to get approval before September 30, 2021.

The State Treasury also asked to promote online bidding, ensuring publicity, transparency and selecting qualified contractors in accordance with the law on bidding and Decision No. 706/QD- The BTC of the Minister of Finance stipulating criteria for determining bidding packages within the finance sector for online contractor selection and implementation roadmap to 2025. Proposing to competent authorities for making decisions on the adjustment of the plan, an estimate of the investment, and procurement of items that are behind schedule to those that have good disbursement progress and in need of additional capital.

In particular, to ensure the disbursement progress of investment capital in 2021, the State Treasury requires reviewing the responsibilities of the concerned collectives, heads and individuals in case the disbursement plan is not completed on schedule. At the same time, prevent stagnation and strictly handle cases of violation of contractors relating to contract progress.