National Assembly Chairman: Don't blame the Public Investment Law for all problems

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan emphasized this when discussing controversial issues of the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Investment, at the 31st session of the National Assembly Standing Committee on the morning of February 21.

Is the problem really due to the law?

Raising the question of whether amending this law can resolve difficulties and bottlenecks, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan cited reality showing that most bottlenecks are due to implementation, not entirely due to the law.

“My point of view is that many opinions keep blaming the Law on Public Investment. So now, if there are unreasonable points, we should fix them, but don’t continue to fix them unreasonably. The scope and name are not important, as long as we fix each point, so that we can no longer say that the law is the cause of the congestion,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan emphasized.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (Photo: Quochoi.vn)

Chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee Le Thi Nga also emphasized that the current Law on Public Investment, when enacted, met the reality. Through monitoring, it can be seen that the majority of public investment projects ensure quality, but some projects have rapidly deteriorated in quality, are behind schedule, and through some cases, it has been proven that there are large losses, waste, and the risk of corruption in the public investment sector is quite high.

Meanwhile, private projects often ensure quality and progress. Therefore, the amendment of this law needs attention because the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption also emphasizes focusing on the public investment sector.

From another perspective, Ms. Le Thi Nga is concerned that the current Law has a very short lifespan (about 3 years) and is being revised, so the scope needs to be considered.

“If there are errors that are not caused by the law, do not take this opportunity to correct them. If there are problems in practice, correct them. If the correction is major, the scope is the amended law. If it is not major, then it is called the law amending some articles and this is not important.”

Compensation and site clearance are not separate projects.

Reporting on the plan to explain, accept and adjust a number of major issues and contents with different opinions on the Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Investment, Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee Nguyen Duc Hai said that many opinions suggested removing the regulation in Clause 6, Article 5 of the Draft Law because compensation and site clearance should not be separated as an independent project.

Accordingly, if this work is separated to allocate public investment capital, it may lead to compensation, support, resettlement, and site clearance.However, there are not enough resources to implement the project because the overall resource needs are not seen, or the project is not approved, leading to a situation of "suspended projects", wasting resources and easily causing resentment among the people.

For special cases, in the process of organizing and implementing a project, where it is necessary to separate the compensation and site clearance stages to be implemented first, based on the specific situation, the competent authority will consider and decide based on the provisions on conditions and specific characteristics of the project in this law.

In general, opinions in the Standing Committee agreed with the viewpoint of the Finance and Budget Committee. “My viewpoint is that it cannot be separated and independent. Recently, only the Long Thanh airport project was separated in terms of site clearance because the project is very large and unique, with up to VND 23,000 billion allocated for this work,” emphasized National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

Which facility increased the criteria from 10,000 billion to 35,000 billion?

Regarding the criteria for classifying important national projects, group A, B, C projects, according to Mr. Nguyen Duc Hai, some National Assembly deputies said that adjusting the criteria for classifying important national projects from the capital level of 10,000 billion VND to 35,000 billion VND and adjusting the corresponding ratio for group A, B, C projects is too high an adjustment level, leading to difficulty in control, and it is recommended to keep the current regulations.

Some opinions say that it is possible to adjust the total investment in project classification, but it must be based on actual assessment.

Chairman of the National Assembly Committee Nguyen Duc Hai

Many opinions in the Finance and Budget Committee said that, in fact, over the past time, the price index has not fluctuated much and the decentralization of public investment is basically stable.

With the current Law, there have only been two important national projects submitted to the National Assembly (Long Thanh airport project and North-South high-speed railway) and there have been no problems.

“However, in order for this amended Law to be consistent with the reality of price fluctuations and to classify projects in accordance with the budget scale, it is proposed that the investment capital of important national projects be increased by 50% compared to current regulations, up to 15,000 billion VND. Similarly, for projects in groups A, B, C, it is proposed to increase by 50% compared to current regulations,” said Mr. Nguyen Duc Hai, adding that the drafting agency proposed to adjust the criteria for classifying important national projects to a capital level of 20,000 billion VND.

The National Assembly Standing Committee is concerned about the basis for adjusting the criteria compared to the current law. “VND35,000 billion is too large, so what is the basis for adjustment? In reality, only 2 projects have passed the National Assembly, so this regulation needs to be considered.”

Emphasizing that this is an issue that needs to be reviewed, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Phung Quoc Hien noted that not only capital criteria but also environmental factors (such as regulations on forest area) should be considered. "It is necessary to clearly explain the basis for adjustment to report to the National Assembly. The sudden "jump" to 35,000 billion VND is without any basis."

Related totRegarding the authority to decide on investment policies, many opinions agree with the view of the Finance and Budget Committee that it is necessary to decentralize more strongly and create initiative for local budget management levels, avoiding the superiors "holding" too much./.