Strengthening the mechanism of assigning and ordering tasks with public non-business units

The revenue of non-productive units and 10% of saving budget from regular expenditures allocated by the state budget . Picture Thuy Linh.

90% of public service delivery units have been given autonomy

According to the statistics of the Department of Public Finance and Administration, Ministry of Finance, the number of public non-business units granted with financial autonomy accounts for high rate, about 90% of public non-business units is operating with more than 50 thousand units. The revenues of public non-business units are increasing, higher than the previous year, mainly due to the increase in scale, the expansion of non-productive activities and the diversification of service delivery to the society. This attracted more people receiving public service.

According to incomplete reports of ministries, branches and localities, by the end of 2016, the total non-productive revenue of public non-business units (including retained premiums) reached over VND 70 trillion. The revenue of non-productive units and 10% of budget saving from regular activities allocated by the state budget contributed to offset part of the demand for salary as stipulated by the Government.

According to Mr Pham Van Truong, Director of the Department of Finance and Public Administration, besides the collection of revenues, public service delivery units have developed internal management solutions to save money. According to reports from ministries, central and local agencies, many non-productive units save on recurrent expenditures, contributing to improving the efficiency of their non-productive activities (143 units belong to ministries and central agencies has saved regular expenditures about VND1,020 billion, while 1,486 units in the localities have saved regular expenditures of VND650 billion.

Thanks to the increase in the exploitation of revenues, the saving of expenditures and the realization of the autonomy regime, the income and living conditions of employees in public service delivery units have been raised step by step, the extra income of officials and civil servants shall be on average between 0.5 and 1.5 times the unit's grade-based wages.

Some public service delivery agencies in the tertiary education sector are self-reliant to cover all operating expenses that have been paid by the public more than 2-3 times, such as the International University - Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City ...

In addition, the mechanism of autonomy has helped public non-business units to mobilize capital to develop non-business activities. As a result, the material facilities of the public service delivery agencies have been improved, creating conditions for broadening and diversifying professional activities that are suitable with the assigned functions and tasks.

Overcoming the disadvantage of the autonomy mechanism

In order to improve the quality and efficiency of public service delivery agencies, the Ministry of Finance is urgently completing the draft Decree on assigning tasks, placing orders or bidding for the supply of public products and services that are funded from regular expenditures.

Representatives of the Department of Finance and Public Administration said: "The Decree will specify the mode of public service delivery agencies such as assigning tasks, placing orders or bidding to facilitate implementation; regulations on state budget management in assigning tasks, placing orders or bidding; Responsibilities of management agencies at all levels, public non-business units, product suppliers, public non-business units and monitoring and supervision agencies in the implementation, ensuring public, transparent, effective".

At the same time, in 2018, after the Government issued Decrees regulating the autonomy mechanism of public service delivery units in the remaining sectors (education and training, vocational education, culture, sports and tourism, information, media and press, and health), the Ministry of Finance will be the chair coordinator with other ministries and sectors to develop and issue circulars guiding the implementation of financial autonomy mechanism of public service delivery agencies in each area that is a basis for granting autonomy to public service delivery units.

In 2018, the Ministry of Finance and other ministries, branches and localities will continue to focus on overcoming the disadvantages and efforts to achieve the objectives and tasks set out in the renovation of operating of public services and public service delivery agencies, contributing to speeding up the restructuring process, streamlining, reforming the state budget and promoting economic - society development in the future.