2 'super ministries' of Industry and Trade and Finance held accountable after EVN inspection

The Government Inspectorate has just sent a report to the Prime Minister on handling the inspection conclusion at Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN). Although it acknowledged that EVN has overcome the shortcomings according to the conclusion, this agency believes that the two Ministries of Industry and Trade and Finance have not yet organized a review and drawn lessons on the responsibilities of these ministries for some of the shortcomings and shortcomings mentioned.

Ministries are slow to issue policies to promote and restructure the electricity industry. (Illustration photo)

2 Companions: No review, no lessons learned

This report aims to clarify the implementation of the 2013 post-inspection conclusions at EVN. At that time, the Government Inspectorate concluded a number of violations by EVN regarding investment outside the industry, purchasing public vehicles exceeding standards and norms... with an amount of hundreds of billions of VND.

Regarding the 7,000 billion VND debt to the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN), as of December 2015, EVN has also paid all of its debt to this Group.

According to the Government Inspectorate, up to now, regarding the illegal expenditures of EVN, this Group has basically corrected and complied with the requirements of the inspection team. However, both the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance have not yet implemented the requirements of the inspection agency.

"The Ministry of Industry and Trade has not yet organized a review to draw lessons on the Ministry's responsibility for a number of shortcomings and shortcomings mentioned in the inspection conclusion," stated the report sent to the Prime Minister by Deputy Inspector General Ngo Van Khanh.

TTCP also said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade has not yet reviewed the functions and tasks of this Ministry with regard to the organization and operation of EVN to remove difficulties, promote good performance of production, business and restructuring tasks with this group.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade was also reminded by the Government Inspectorate that it has not fulfilled its responsibilities when it has not carried out many other tasks mentioned in the inspection conclusion, such as not directing EVN to propose debt settlement measures when handing over the Power Transmission Corporation and 5 Power Corporations to banking partners and EVN; not issuing a power generation price framework suitable for the roadmap of the development levels of the electricity market, and not issuing a wholesale electricity price framework according to the roadmap.

"The Ministry of Industry and Trade has not yet directed the Departments of Industry and Trade of the provinces to inspect and review business conditions, grid safety and electricity prices for local people sold by electricity retail service organizations other than EVN and propose handling measures," the document sent to the Prime Minister by the Government Inspectorate stated.

In addition, the Government Inspectorate also reminded that since the issuance of the inspection conclusion, nearly 2 years have passed but the Ministry of Industry and Trade has not yet directed the Electricity Regulatory Authority and relevant individuals to review and handle according to their authority the failure to respond to EVN's explanation report on the average wholesale electricity price and previous electricity transmission price.

Ministry of Finance: No proposal to handle salary issue

Regarding the Ministry of Finance, the Government Inspectorate also said that the Ministry has not yet organized a review and drawn lessons on its responsibility for a number of shortcomings and shortcomings mentioned in the previous inspection conclusion; and has not yet reviewed the functions and tasks of the Ministry regarding the organization and operation of EVN.

However, the Government Inspectorate also acknowledged that the Ministry of Finance has implemented some conclusions of the inspection team, such as proposing to handle the amount of money spent on car purchases exceeding regulations with a value of over VND 5.22 billion (of which EVN is VND 3 billion and a affiliated corporation is VND 2.2 billion). However, the Ministry of Finance is said to have not yet proposed to handle the amount of over VND 3.1 billion because the salary appraisal of the Board of Members and General Director of EVN in 2010 did not match the Prime Minister's opinion.

The Ministry of Finance has asked EVN to handle some construction items using the Welfare Fund.

The Ministry of Finance is recognized for reviewing and handling the costs of building houses and operating management houses for 6 EVN power source projects. Accordingly, the investment costs for welfare facilities such as kindergartens, swimming pools, tennis courts, etc. are not included in production and business costs by the Ministry of Finance, but must use the Welfare Fund or legal funding sources from organizations and individuals for investment.

Therefore, the Government Inspectorate has recommended that the Prime Minister direct the above two Ministries to thoroughly implement the unimplemented contents, report to the Prime Minister, especially on the review of responsibilities for some of the existing problems and shortcomings mentioned so that the Government Inspectorate can continue to monitor and handle them in the third quarter of 2016.

According to an official of the Government Inspectorate, the situation of ministries lacking responsibility in promulgating policies, regulations, instructions, and supervising businesses in implementing the law is said to be quite common.

"However, when inspection teams discover errors and shortcomings in management, many ministries are slow to fix them, such as the situation of being too slow in implementing inspection conclusions like at EVN," he said.

According to Dan Tri