Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee: Strive to complete the disbursement of public investment capital according to signed commitments

Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the provincial conference on public investment disbursement in 2022. Photo: Pham Bang

CORRECTLY ASSESS THE CAUSE, PROPOSE THE RIGHT SOLUTION

Opening the conference, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung said that although the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee have paid attention to directing, inspecting and promoting, up to this point, the progress of disbursement of public investment capital in the province has been very slow, the rate is low compared to the national average.

In the spirit of frankness, responsibility, and looking straight at the problem, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested the conference to analyze and correctly assess the causes, propose the right solutions, and promote the disbursement of public investment capital in 2022, at least achieving the target according to Resolution No. 124 of the Government: Disbursement of central budget capital reaches 95-100%; local budget capital reaches 100%; capital for the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program reaches at least 50%. Each individual and unit must identify common responsibilities and shoulder the burden to promote and achieve the set goals, because there are only 4 months left from now until the end of the year.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung delivered the opening speech at the conference on public investment disbursement. Photo: Pham Bang

In 2022, Nghe An was assigned a concentrated public investment capital plan of VND 7,124.7 billion, of which the central budget capital is more than VND 5,566 billion and the local budget is more than VND 1,557 billion. The province has allocated details for 201 projects with a capital of more than VND 5,801 billion, while more than VND 1,322 billion has not been assigned in detail to investors.

As of September 10, the province's total concentrated public investment capital had disbursed more than VND 2,119 billion, reaching 29.74%; if not counting the unallocated amounts (including national target program sources and investment preparation capital from local budget sources), the disbursement result reached 36.52%; the extended capital plan had disbursed more than VND 360 billion, reaching 13.3%.

Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Nguyen Xuan Duc reported on the results of disbursement of public investment capital in the whole province. Photo: Pham Bang

By the end of 2022, it is expected that there will be 27 projects that have not been fully disbursed, with a capital of more than 560 billion VND. Some units have large capital and many projects have disbursed less than 50%, including District, City and Town Blocks: Hoang Mai, Quynh Luu, Hung Nguyen, Nghia Dan, Quy Chau, Con Cuong, Anh Son, Thanh Chuong and Dien Chau; Sector Blocks: Southeast Economic Zone Management Board, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

In addition, there are 4 key projects with slow disbursement progress: Nghe An Oncology Hospital Project (phase 2); N5 cross-road project in the Southeast Economic Zone; N2 cross-road project in the Southeast Economic Zone; Traffic road project connecting National Highway 7C (Do Luong) to Ho Chi Minh Road (Tan Ky).

Deputy Director of the Department of Information and Communications Phan Nguyen Hao reported the reason why the project invested by the Department has not yet been disbursed. Photo: Pham Bang

Head of the Southeast Economic Zone Management Board Le Tien Tri reports on the reasons for the Board's low investment capital disbursement rate. Photo: Pham Bang

Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Nguyen Xuan Duc said that the slow disbursement of public investment capital in the province and the low achievement rate were due to the sudden increase in prices of construction materials; the process of carrying out procedures for newly started projects and transitional projects with new bidding packages took a long time; capital sources were delayed from previous years to 2022 and disbursed slowly; ODA projects still had many problems...

In particular, some investors, sectors and districts have not been resolute in leading, directing and implementing the disbursement of public investment capital. The capacity of some investors, project management boards, consulting contractors, construction and installation contractors, supervisors... has not met the requirements.

Chairman of Hoang Mai Town People's Committee Nguyen Huu An reports on the results of public investment disbursement. Photo: Pham Bang

At the conference, leaders of departments, branches, districts, and investors reported specifically on the causes of slow and low disbursement results; pointed out difficulties and obstacles; and proposed solutions for the coming time. Some investors with high disbursement rates shared their experiences and good practices. In particular, most districts, branches, and investors committed to strive to disburse 100% of the assigned public investment capital.

Speaking at the conference, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Hong Vinh said that in order to accelerate the rate of public investment disbursement, it is necessary to develop a detailed schedule for each project according to specific timelines; review and re-evaluate the capacity of contractors and consulting units; conduct weekly and monthly acceptance for better disbursement and regularly report on investment supervision to adjust prices, avoid loss and waste, and better manage projects; proactively speed up site clearance.

Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Hong Vinh spoke at the conference. Photo: Pham Bang

In particular, it is necessary to boldly adjust investors who lack capacity and experience; not assign these units to be investors of projects in the following years. At the same time, he suggested that we should not do things carelessly and not ensure the quality of the project just because of the disbursement progress.

FULFILL SIGNED COMMITMENTS, STRIVE TO COMPLETE GOALS

Concluding the conference, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung highly appreciated a number of sectors and localities with good attention and disbursement rates: Department of Transport, Provincial Police, Department of Culture and Sports, Nghi Loc, Que Phong, Ky Son districts...

In-depth analysis of the subjective reasons for the low disbursement rate of public investment capital in the province, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that some investors of the industry and district were not really determined in directing work, leadership and direction capacity did not meet requirements; many projects had been prepared in advance but were not proactive; the selection of consulting units and contractors was not correct.

Investment preparation work is still limited, not thorough, not close, leading to slow procedures. In site clearance work, in addition to objective reasons, many localities are not proactive, not following the spirit of "site clearance is one step ahead".

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung concluded the conference. Photo: Pham Bang

Regarding the 3 National Target Programs, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee assessed that Nghe An was allocated a large amount of capital and had the task of speeding up the disbursement progress. But in reality, the implementation of the sectors and localities was very slow.

Reiterating the objectives in Resolution No. 124 of the Government on key tasks and solutions to promote disbursement of public investment capital, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee stated that the disbursement time is only about 4 months while the workload and number of undisbursed projects are still very large.

Based on a clear understanding of the causes and difficulties, in the coming time, the head of the Provincial People's Committee requests departments, branches, localities, and investors to base on the targets in Resolution No. 124 of the Government, based on the capital and number of projects assigned in 2022 to implement in accordance with the signed commitments. Any branches, localities, or leaders who fail to fulfill their commitments to disburse public investment capital will not be assessed as having completed their tasks excellently at the end of the year.

Leaders of departments, branches, sectors and localities attended the conference. Photo: Pham Bang

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung requested the Department of Planning and Investment to be more proactive, continue to review and urge sectors, localities, and investors to implement signed commitments; promptly report problems and shortcomings; frankly point out which sectors, localities, and investors have limited capacity, and have immediate alternative plans.

For the 3 National Target Programs, the Department of Planning and Investment coordinates with sectors and localities to urgently review and complete the detailed capital allocation work, no later than September 30, to submit to the Provincial People's Council for consideration and approval; strive to achieve a capital disbursement rate of at least 50% by the end of 2022.

On the other hand, sectors, localities and investors focus on handling identified problems and difficulties; in which relevant sectors must participate in advising on solutions.

Leaders of departments, branches, sectors and localities attended the conference. Photo: Pham Bang

Assessing that the site clearance work still faces many difficulties, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to guide and help localities resolve difficulties, especially localities such as Vinh City, Nghi Loc, Dien Chau, Quynh Luu, Hoang Mai Town... On the other hand, specialized departments and branches focus on supporting sectors and localities to shorten the time for appraising investment procedures for projects.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment assists and guides surrounding districts in land mining, land pricing, and land use planning and completion. The Department of Construction regularly updates, calculates reasonable prices, and publishes monthly material prices to assist investors and contractors in project implementation.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee also requested investors to select qualified contractors from the beginning of the project's first procedures to ensure the best quality of project documents. For contractors with weak capacity, investors will decide to replace them. In addition, in the coming time, it is necessary to strongly direct contractors to speed up construction progress, trying to review the implementation volume weekly and monthly.

Leaders of People's Committees of districts, cities and towns attended the conference. Photo: Pham Bang

Investors must also carefully review, specifically projects that are unable to disburse, focus on measures to increase disbursement rates, strive to disburse all assigned capital, limit capital transfers, especially capital repayment.

At the same time, sectors and localities proactively review and assess the ability to implement the 2023 Public Investment Plan in line with reality to register capital needs. Sectors, localities and investors that do not disburse public investment capital in 2022 as required will be considered for reducing or stopping capital allocation in 2023.