Inadequacies in using irrigation fee compensation sources

(Baonghean) - Exemption from irrigation fees according to Decree 115/2008/ND-CP is a policy with many advantages, meeting the policy of reducing part of the cost for farmers in production. This policy also creates conditions for localities to focus more on managing and exploiting irrigation works, canals, and improving management capacity. However, there are still shortcomings in the implementation of this policy.

According to the assessment, this source of funding is being used effectively at enterprises such as Bac Irrigation Company Limited - One Member Limited Liability, Nam Irrigation Company Limited, Thanh Chuong Irrigation Company Limited, Quy Hop Irrigation Company Limited... From this source, enterprises can ensure salary regime for irrigation officers and workers in water management, timely maintenance and repair of irrigation works serving production.

Canals in Chau Hong commune (Quy Chau) have received little attention and have not been effective.

Meanwhile, the irrigation compensation fund allocated to some districts is not used in accordance with regulations, leading to inefficiency. According to government regulations, 80% of the money allocated to localities is used for maintenance and repair of irrigation works, the remaining 20% ​​is used for management, protection of works and water management. However, in many communes, there are no irrigation service cooperatives established in accordance with regulations, leading to improper use. In Chau Quang - Quy Hop commune, the irrigation compensation fund in 2014 was 240 million VND, according to regulations, 20% of the above amount is for irrigation works management, but because there is no irrigation service cooperative, 100% of the above amount is focused on maintenance and repair of works.

Observing the fields in Chau Quang, we saw that some fields had solidified canals, but because there was no one to manage them, the irrigation canals were silted up and grass grew thickly on the canal beds. According to Mr. Quan Vi Hai - Head of Phay village, the village has over 25 hectares of rice, assigned to Mr. Hun Vi Hoai and Mr. Hun Vi Ly to both protect the rice fields and do irrigation. The annual budget of 1.8 million VND/2 people was contributed by the villagers themselves. Due to the limited budget and many concurrent jobs, the management of water to the fields for the people has many limitations. Currently in Chau Quang, the source of irrigation fee compensation is only for construction work, so the commune has to mobilize people to contribute "salaries" to "feed" the irrigation team of the hamlets.

Quy Hop district has 21/21 communes and towns but does not have an irrigation service cooperative. Mr. Nguyen Van Tho - Head of the Finance Department of Quy Hop district explained: "The annual source of irrigation fee compensation for Quy Hop is 4.1 billion VND, but because the communes do not have an irrigation service cooperative, we use 100% of the money allocated for construction. We know that the amount of money used for basic construction is against the regulations, but we still have to do it...".

Similarly, in Yen Thanh district, many communes have to mobilize people to pay for irrigation management. Every year, Yen Thanh receives over 11.2 billion VND in irrigation fee compensation to irrigate an area of ​​11,470 hectares, but up to now, 8/30 communes do not have an irrigation service cooperative and most of these communes do not use the funds in accordance with regulations. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tu - Head of Quynh Khoi hamlet, Khanh Thanh commune said: "At this time, Quynh Khoi hamlet has solidified over 1 km of canals with irrigation fee compensation, people are very excited, however, for each sao of rice, people contribute 3 - 4 kg of rice/crop to pay for water management for 2 people to do irrigation work with the amount of 1 ton of rice/person/year".

Discussing the issue of why the irrigation service cooperative was not established to properly use the irrigation fee compensation fund, Mr. Phan Dinh Hai - Chairman of Khanh Thanh Commune People's Committee explained: "To establish a cooperative, it is necessary to combine business with many other services such as fertilizer materials, plant protection drugs... and irrigation services. However, in 2000, the cooperative in the area was dissolved due to ineffective operations. Therefore, the irrigation management fund from the irrigation fee compensation fund of 20%, the commune only provided a small amount to support the hamlets doing irrigation work to manage water".

According to the statistics, the total budget allocated to implement irrigation fee compensation in the province up to this point is over 352 billion VND, including 26 beneficiary units. In 2014, through inspection at 7 units, violations were discovered and recommendations were made to handle the amount of 1.2 billion VND, of which over 900 million VND was recovered and reduced. Thereby, it was discovered that some units used the irrigation fee compensation source for the wrong purpose, against the regime, some districts also took advantage of settling the supported budget not in accordance with the actual irrigated area, wrongly settling the cost of construction and repair of irrigation works. Some districts used irrigation fee compensation source for maintenance, repair and upgrading of irrigation works but did not have invoices for goods and services as prescribed. In addition, the estimated expenditure for irrigation fee compensation at most district-level units does not have a detailed explanatory table accompanying the summary of the estimated expenditure according to the approved financial plan.

The reason for the violations is that many districts and communes do not have enterprises, cooperatives or cooperative groups providing irrigation services, so they are confused in assigning and distributing to the subjects of management and use. In addition, the state management work in using the source of irrigation fee compensation is still limited. For example, not promptly detecting and advising the Provincial People's Committee on measures to manage the source of irrigation fee compensation in areas without enterprises, cooperatives, irrigation service complexes... which leads to the situation that some irrigation systems do not have appropriate management and exploitation organizations, many works are rapidly degraded due to lack of timely maintenance, while the role of beneficiaries is not promoted. Many localities have not paid attention, or lack human resources to guide and consolidate grassroots irrigation organizations.

The current issue is that localities need to strengthen the state management organization system; at the district and commune levels, it is necessary to complete the exploitation management organization system, ensuring closed management of irrigation systems. Strengthen, improve, and establish new cooperative organizations to improve the efficiency of irrigation work serving production.

Van Truong