13 Ministers and Provincial Chairmen were criticized by the Prime Minister

The disbursement rate of public investment capital in 2017 was slow, reaching only over 20% of the plan so far. 13 ministries, branches and localities were named for being too slow. Inquiring into the cause, the Minister - Head of the Government Office was frustrated because there was a project of this ministry that just had to wait for another ministry to review and appraise it for... 9 months.

On the morning of July 25, the Prime Minister's Working Group inspected ministries, agencies and localities in implementing solutions to accelerate the disbursement of the 2017 public investment plan. The meeting was chaired by Head of the Working Group Mai Tien Dung - Minister, Head of the Government Office.

120,000 billion is always available in the treasury but cannot be spent

Minister Mai Tien Dung criticized leaders of many ministries and branches for being absent from meetings.

According to the report of the Prime Minister's Working Group on the results of public investment disbursement in 2017 of ministries, agencies and localities, the total planned expenditure for development investment from the State budget this year is over 357,000 billion VND (including 307 billion VND of budget capital and 50,000 billion VND of government bond capital).

The unallocated 2016 bond capital was allowed by the National Assembly to be transferred to 2017 with an additional 16,500 billion VND.

As of June 15, the total paid capital was VND85,000 billion, reaching 23.9% of the total plan for 2017 and 27.6% of the capital plan allocated by the National Assembly and assigned by the Prime Minister.

Of which, bond capital is 323 billion VND, reaching 0.6% of the total capital plan. State budget capital is nearly 85,000 billion VND, reaching 27.6% of the total capital plan. The bond capital transferred from 2016 has only disbursed 217 billion VND out of the total 16,500 billion VND, reaching 1.3%.

The slow disbursement of public investment capital is considered a bottleneck for economic growth. According to the Working Group, if there is no urgent solution to promote disbursement progress, it will negatively affect economic growth, while the rate and obligation to repay public debt are increasingly at risk.

In addition, slow disbursement causes the Government to bear the interest of the people's loans. By the end of 2017, public debt will increase to 65% - reaching the debt ceiling set by the National Assembly. When public debt reaches the ceiling, the Government will have to consider domestic borrowing. To borrow money and cover the deficit, macro-management tools such as interest rates, exchange rates, etc. will be used. This will put pressure on inflation and the entire economy. The mobilization of government bonds after issuance and then not being able to spend them, being slow to spend them and then lying around in the bank is "circling" money.

“The surplus of deposits at the treasury is always more than 120,000 billion VND, while this year we have allocated capital very early” – Head of the Prime Minister’s Working Group, Minister, Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung pointed out the paradox.

The Working Group's report also pointed out that 13 ministries, branches and localities have low disbursement rates: Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health, State Bank, Ethnic Minorities Committee, Vietnam News Agency, Veterans Association, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh (rates from only 4% - approximately 20%).

Minister Dung emphasized that the Prime Minister criticized the named Ministers and Chairmen of Provincial People's Committees for their slow disbursement of capital. The reason, according to Mr. Dung, is primarily due to the leaders of ministries, branches and localities, including procedural issues, lack of decisive direction, and the capacity of construction units.

According to the Head of the Working Group, there is even a phenomenon where units increase capital but do not invest in development but deposit it in the bank.

Officials sitting in air-conditioned rooms "drawing" procedures

Going into specific issues of ministries and branches, the representative of the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that the total disbursed capital by the end of June was 54 billion VND, reaching 13.3% of the plan assigned at the beginning of the year (406 billion VND). The reason for the slow disbursement was due to the two projects "investment in the construction of the Academy of Policy and Development" (allocated 202 billion VND, accounting for 50% of the Ministry's allocated capital but only disbursed 1.3 billion) and the PPP project "Application of e-commerce in Government procurement under the form of public-private partnership" (allocated capital of 26 billion VND but only disbursed the cost of the Project Management Board, the remaining state capital has not been disbursed).

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dao Quang Thu explained that the project of the Academy of Policy and Development headquarters was sent to the Ministry of Construction for review of the project design and construction plan at the end of 2016. After the review process, there will be an appraisal procedure, but due to changes in legal policies, this project is under the responsibility of the Hanoi Department of Construction for appraisal. However, according to regulations, the appraisal agency is also the agency that will conduct the appraisal, but the Ministry of Construction "accidentally" did the appraisal, so the Department of Construction cannot appraise it either.

"So from October last year to July this year, it took 9 months just to complete the project implementation procedures" - the representative of the Ministry of Planning and Investment presented.

Head of the Working Group - Minister Mai Tien Dung shook his head in disappointment: "This is just a procedure between the Ministry and the Ministry, if it is like this, then if it is a relationship between the locality and the Ministry, it will take a long time."

Regarding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' report complaining about difficulties, also about the stagnant capital for the construction of the ministry's headquarters (the capital already existed but the project was transferred from 2016, taking half a year to complete the procedures), the Head of the Government Office flatly denied it, saying that it was a procedure "drawn up" by the Ministry itself and there was no such "twisted" regulation.

The head of the Government Office humorously summarized: “The situation is very situational/The situation is caused by us. As for the officials who cause problems, only when they are sent to the localities will they understand what suffering is. If they just sit in an air-conditioned room and draw up procedures, it will only slow down the overall progress.”

Minister Mai Tien Dung also criticized frankly when asking many ministries to explain the issues but no representative attended the meeting.

“All the Ministries are hiding, not a single one, only a few experts who do not understand this problem. The Ministry of Planning and Investment is lucky to have Deputy Minister Dao Quang Thu attending here, but as a member of the Working Group, not as a leader of the Ministry.”

According to Dan Tri