Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee: Strive to achieve the target of disbursing public investment capital and 3 national target programs set out

On the morning of August 17, the Provincial People's Committee held a provincial-wide conference on the implementation of public investment disbursement, the socio-economic recovery program and 3 National Target Programs in 2023. Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the conference.

Attending the conference were comrades: Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Bui Thanh An - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Bui Dinh Long - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; leaders of departments, branches, sectors and 21 districts, cities, towns, and investors.

DISBURANCE RESULTS ARE NOT HIGH, THERE ARE MANY DIFFICULTIES AND PROBLEMS

Opening the conference, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung emphasized that the time of 2023 has passed nearly 2/3, but the disbursement of public investment capital has only reached nearly 1/3. The promotion of public investment disbursement, the socio-economic recovery program and 3 national target programs have been directed and regularly urged by the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee at many conferences, but the results have not met the requirements.

Today's conference aims to evaluate the implementation results, clarify the problems and difficulties, especially look straight at the truth, where things have been done well, where things have not been done well, and the reasons why. The conference also hopes to listen to the frank opinions of the sectors, localities, and investors about the objective reasons, the responsibilities of the province and localities to create strong changes in the coming time.

Reporting at the conference, Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Pham Hong Quang said that the concentrated public investment plan for 2023 assigned by the Provincial People's Council is 5,583.8 billion VND, including 1,550.828 billion VND of planned capital for 2022 extended to 2023, which is 7,134.628 billion VND.

The Provincial Party Committee and Provincial People's Committee have paid attention and closely directed many drastic solutions to speed up the disbursement progress. As of August 10, the total concentrated public investment capital has disbursed VND 2,438,538 billion, reaching 34.18% of the plan. Of which, the 2023 public investment plan has disbursed more than VND 2,011 billion, reaching 36.02%, higher than the same period in 2022.

Up to now, 24 units have disbursed over 50% of the assigned plan; 35 units have achieved below the average level of the province, of which 13 units have not yet disbursed. Regarding projects, 87/160 projects with capital of over 2,120 billion VND have disbursed below the average level of the whole province, of which 45 projects have not yet disbursed with a planned capital of over 360 billion VND.

Some agencies and units with large remaining undisbursed capital are Tuong Duong, Ky Son, Que Phong, Con Cuong, Quy Chau; Provincial Project Management Board for Investment in Construction of Civil and Industrial Works, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Southeast Economic Zone Management Board, Nghe An Oncology Hospital, Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital, Department of Health.

The 2023 plan for the socio-economic recovery and development program has been allocated 748 billion VND, which has been allocated in detail to 5 projects. As of August 10, only 102,933 billion VND has been disbursed, reaching 13.76%. It is expected that by the end of 2023, only 1 project will commit to disbursing all the allocated capital; the remaining 4 projects are expected to be unable to disburse about 268.2 billion VND.

Regarding the plan for 3 national target programs in the 2021-2025 period, 5,344,388 billion VND was assigned. As of August 10, the total disbursement of 3 national target programs was 546,562 billion VND, reaching 26.14% of the plan.

Of which, the National Target Program on New Rural Construction has disbursed VND 324,555 billion, reaching 61.3%; the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas has disbursed VND 204,772 billion, reaching 19.23%; the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction has disbursed VND 17,234 billion, reaching 3.47%.

Currently, there are 4 units that have not disbursed, 5 units disbursed below the average level of the whole province, including Tuong Duong, Que Phong, Quy Chau, Ky Son and the Provincial Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities. These 5 units have large capital, accounting for more than 58% of the total planned capital assigned in 2022 and 2023, so the slow disbursement greatly affects the overall disbursement rate of the whole province.

Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Pham Hong Quang emphasized that the subjective reasons are due to the limited management capacity of some investors, the direction and management of project management boards are not really drastic and timely; the professional capacity of some project management boards, consulting units... does not meet the requirements; the survey and design work of some projects is not good, not thorough, leading to the need to adjust the documents many times.

Party committees and authorities in some localities have not been resolute in directing the disbursement of public investment capital and in resolving difficulties and obstacles. The attitude and working spirit of some officials working in public investment are not high, there is still a fear of making mistakes and fear of legal responsibilities.

Agencies in charge of advising on the implementation of national target programs, the attention and direction of implementation for each locality is not close; the role of management, organization of implementation and removal of difficulties in the implementation process is not clearly demonstrated. Guidance for localities and investors on implementation of some processes and procedures is not specific and timely.

At the conference, leaders of departments, branches, sectors and localities reported on the disbursement results and pointed out the difficulties and obstacles; and proposed solutions for the coming time. The departments, branches and sectors discussed the difficulties of the localities.

Speaking at the conference, based on a field survey in Con Cuong district, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Bui Dinh Long said that in the process of implementing the 3 national target programs, it is necessary to be more specific, detailed, and closely monitored. At the same time, he requested the provincial working group, departments, and branches to coordinate more with localities, giving priority to localities with large capital sources.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Bui Thanh An requested localities to complete bidding procedures; in parallel with strengthening the project management board, it is necessary to strengthen the compensation and site clearance council; pay attention to speeding up the settlement of investment capital for completed projects; sectors urgently advise the Provincial People's Committee to issue a decision to amend and supplement Decision No. 57 dated October 8, 2015 in accordance with current regulations.

Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Hong Vinh said that investors need to re-establish detailed construction progress, determine progress every 10 days, and arrange adequate machinery and equipment to speed up construction progress. On the other hand, during the construction process, it is necessary to ensure quality, supplies and materials. The Department of Planning and Investment needs to compile a list of contractors behind schedule, from which to evaluate construction capacity to take measures to handle them.

DETERMINING THIS AS A TOP, REGULAR POLITICAL TASK

Concluding the conference, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung acknowledged and highly appreciated the efforts and determination of the heads of sectors, localities, and investors in disbursing public investment capital and implementing 3 national target programs, the program of economic and social recovery and development; at the same time, commended a number of sectors and localities that have had good disbursement results up to this point, such as: Provincial Police, Department of Transport and 4 localities: Nam Dan, Tan Ky, Do Luong, Thanh Chuong.

Since the beginning of the year, the leadership and direction from the province to the grassroots have been focused with a system of complete and clear directives and instructions, demonstrating high determination, basically meeting the requirements. The implementation stage has been focused, the province has established working groups, regularly inspecting, urging, and removing obstacles for localities; every 10 days, the Department of Planning and Investment sends reports to investors, Party committees, and authorities to urge progress. The province has resolutely handled projects with slow disbursement results, and has adjusted capital for 12 projects over 239 billion VND.

However, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that up to now, the disbursement of public investment capital has not met the requirements, only reaching more than 34%. 35/70 investors disbursed lower than the average of the province, 13 investors have not disbursed, 87/160 projects disbursed below the average of the province, 45 projects have not disbursed. Particularly, 3 national target programs still have 166 projects that have not been bid.

The head of the Provincial People's Committee said that the objective reasons were the long time it took to complete the paperwork, the sometimes untimely guidance from the Central and the province, and issues related to site clearance and raw material prices.

However, subjective causes are a big problem. The attention and direction of some localities is not appropriate. Some localities consider this to be the responsibility of the government, leaving it entirely to the project management board, consultants and contractors. The capacity of investors, project management boards and contractors is still limited. The investment preparation work for the project is not thorough, causing difficulties in implementation. In terms of site clearance, coordination between units is still limited.

Emphasizing the tasks and solutions in the coming time, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung affirmed that public investment capital plays an important role, is a source of seed capital, and has a leading role to help the province attract other capital sources.

When this capital source is effectively implemented, it will help the province promote growth, attract investment, improve the results of socio-economic development tasks, and meet the needs of serving the people.

Therefore, all levels, sectors and localities must consider the disbursement of public investment capital and the implementation of the three national target programs as the most important and regular political tasks and must set a clear target of disbursing 95% of public investment capital and 100% of the capital of the three national target programs. From that perspective, we must carry out this target with the highest determination, the greatest effort, the highest spirit and responsibility.

In the coming time, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested that there must be coordination in implementing the task of disbursing public investment capital between the Party Committee and the government, in which the responsibility for implementation belongs to the government but must have the leadership role of the Party Committee. Focus on thoroughly resolving the problems and difficulties that have been pointed out; enhance the responsibility for implementing the contents in the existing problems and limitations. The most important thing for investment projects is to ensure progress and quality.

Sectors, localities, and investors must have specific and detailed plans for implementation to direct project management boards and contractors. Every 10 days, sectors, localities, and investors with disbursement rates lower than the province's average must send progress reports to the Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Planning and Investment.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung also requested sectors, localities, and investors to rectify the organization and capacity of the project management board; try to find competent staff to perform the tasks, and promptly replace weak staff.

The Department of Planning and Investment continues to proactively review and urge sectors, localities, and investors to implement signed commitments, summarize problems and difficulties to report and handle according to authority. The results of public investment capital disbursement are one of the criteria for year-end competition; There are solutions to encourage investors to disburse well, as well as sanctions for investors with poor disbursement. In addition, a list of contractors with limited capacity and slow progress is compiled with the view of handling openly and transparently.

Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung requested departments and branches to pay attention to guiding and prioritizing shortening the time for appraisal procedures, land conversion, forest conversion, land mines, fire prevention and fighting... with the view of doing things quickly but not doing things wrong.

For the three national target programs, it is necessary to complete capital allocation for the additional capital of the National Target Program on New Rural Construction and the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority Mountainous Areas.

For slow disbursement units, focus on resolving and completing procedures for disbursement. For the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program, investors review and evaluate the actual disbursement capacity and discuss with the Department of Planning and Investment to determine the capital amount for capital adjustment.

Based on the results of public investment disbursement in 2023, sectors and localities register public investment plans for 2024 close to the actual situation.

At the conference, based on the actual situation, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee decided to transfer the investor of the traffic road project to the center of Nhon Mai and Mai Son communes, Tuong Duong district from the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district to the Department of Transport to promptly deploy and ensure the completion of the 2023 plan because this is a complex project, technically difficult, and quite large in scale.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Planning and Investment to preside over and establish two working groups consisting of relevant departments and branches to guide localities, especially the four districts: Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Que Phong, and Quy Chau, to resolve procedural problems in a hands-on manner; promptly advise the Provincial People's Committee to issue a Decision amending and supplementing Decision No. 57. Localities complete procedures to propose transferring resources to report to the Provincial People's Committee and submit to the Provincial People's Council for consideration and decision.