It is impossible to procure and sell public assets due to slow issuance of norms by many ministries

	Allowing procurement for public cars completed procedures before 1st January 2018
	Centralized purchasing: Saving 30,000 billion VND per year for State Budget
	Identify and resolutely eliminate waste and loss of public assets

The number of diverse machines is one of the reasons that the Ministry of Health is slow to issue procurement standards and norms. Photo: Internet.

Standardize data

The Law on Management and Use of Public Assets took effect from January 1, 2018.According to the review bythe Ministry of Finance, many agencies and units have been very active in developing and submitting to the Government and the Prime Minister for promulgation according to the authority of detailed documents, guidance on the implementation of the Law in order to concretize the contents assigned by the Law, creating a relatively complete legal basis in the management and use of public assets in the direction of strict management, efficient use and exploitation of financial resources from the public assets.Among them, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Public Securityare highlighted.

The agencies assigned the task of managing public assets including the Ministry of Finance; Department of Finance - Ministry of Defense; Department of Finance - Ministry of Public Security; District-level Departments of Finance, Finance-Planning Committee Divisions have opened a temporary account at the State Treasury to manage the proceeds from the handling of public assets according to the regulations.Besides, most ministries, branches and localities have completed issuing regulations on decentralization in management of public assets according to the provisions of Decree No. 151/2017/ND-CP.

The ministries, branches and localities have also updated and standardized data in the national database on public properties according to the regulations.At the same time, to support the management of fixed assets, many agencies, organizations and units have actively used other software (in addition to state asset management software) to manage the fixed assets at their units, including assets with original cost of less than 500 million VND/unit.

For example, in Hanoi, the City People's Committee directed Hanoi Department of Finance to preside and coordinate with relevant agencies to organize 33 conferences to train and disseminate the Law and documents guiding the implementation of the Law for 7,700 practitioners, helping agencies and units to update new policies, to solve problems in procurement, management and use of public assets.

As of October 31, 2018, statistics in HauGiang province showed that there were 2,488 properties with the original price of over 5,653 billion VND; the remaining value of more than 4,460 billion VND was registered in the state asset registration management software.In addition, there were 239 properties with the original costs of more than 109 billion VND, the remaining value of more than 10 billion VND was declared in the asset management software as the concentrated rural water supply projects and 30 assets with the original costsof more than 8,577 billion VND, the remaining value of over 7,433 billion VND was in software for synthesizing road infrastructure assets inventory data.

The formulation of standards and norms

In addition to these positive aspects, the existence in the process of promulgating standards and norms for the use of specialized office area, non-business facilities, specialized machinery and equipment is undeniable.

Summary of reports of ministries, branches and localities sent to the Ministry of Finance showed thatuntil now, only about 50% of units have issued these standards and norms, typically the Ministry of Finance, State Bank of Vietnam, and 5 localities including HauGiang, Lao Cai, Quang Ngai, Ca Mau and Ha Giang.Most ministries, branches and localities have not yet issued standards and norms for specialized areas and areas of non-business works in non-business establishments.

The main reason was that some ministries such as the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs had not issued detailed regulations on standards and norms for the use of specialized assets in the fields of health, education and training. Therefore,the ministries, branches and localities had no basis to formulate and promulgate standards and norms for agencies, organizations and units under their management.In addition, due to the large and diversenumber of specialized machines, equipment, specialized office area, area of professional works with different needs, the synthesis, setting standards and norms had not been completed promptly.

Speaking onthe impact of the above delay, Mr. Nguyen Tan Thinh - Director General of the Public Property ManagementDepartment, Ministry of Finance stated:The slow promulgation of standards and norms for use of specialized offices, non-business facilities, specialized machinery and equipment affected construction investment, procurement, repair, upgrade, renovation and disposal of assets.According to the regulations, ministries, branches and localities must issue the regulation on these standards and norms before July 31, 2018.The slow promulgation of norms for the use of specialized public assets would strongly impact on asset management in units due to the failure to implement investment, procurement, lease, delivery, transfer and sale for public assets.

Leaders must be responsible for violations of public assets VCN- On the afternoon of September 27, 2016, the Ministry of Finance held a press conference on ...

In the report to the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Finance had proposed the Prime Minister to assign the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to urgently issue detailed guidelines on standards and norms for the use of specialized public assets to the localities as a basis for implementation.In some cases that the regulations on the decentralization of public property management or regulations on assets of great value to determine the authority to approve the Scheme on the use of public assets in public non-business units under its management for business and leasing purposes have not been issued yet, the Minister, the Head of the Central Agency and the provincial People's Committee will be responsible for approval.These solutions will ensure the effective management, use and exploitation of public assets in the future, and better implement the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets approved by the National Assembly.