Nghe An: Spending on purchasing public assets in 2016 accounted for 1.36% of regular expenditure.

(Baonghean.vn) - Nghe An province's expenditure on state asset procurement in 2016 was 357.3 billion VND, accounting for about 1.36% of regular state budget expenditure.

That is information from the meeting on the morning of November 20 of the Provincial People's Committee.to listen and give opinions on the implementation of Decision No. 3164/QD-UBND dated June 30, 2016 on the announcement of the list of centralized procurement in the province.

Comrade Le Xuan Dai - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the meeting. Attending the meeting were relevant departments: Finance, Planning - Investment, Justice, Agriculture and Rural Development, Industry and Trade, State Treasury; representatives of some districts, cities, towns and some hospitals in the province. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Pursuant to Decision No. 58/2015 of the Prime Minister, Nghe An Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 3164/QD-UBND of the Provincial People's Committee, dated June 30, 2016 on the list of centrally purchased assets in the province. Accordingly, centrally purchased assets include 16 items: specialized vehicles, laptops, desktops, printers, poto copy machines, air conditioners, projectors, fax machines, scanners, document shredders, office desks and chairs, conference tables and chairs, teachers' and students' desks and chairs, document cabinets, medical equipment.

According to the Department of Finance's calculations, if the centralized purchasing method is well implemented, the amount of money saved can account for about 15% of the total purchase value.

Specifically, the province's expenditure on state asset procurement in 2016 was 357.3 billion VND, accounting for about 1.36% of regular state budget expenditure.

If all goods and services are purchased, it is expected to save the budget 53.5 billion VND/year, because purchasing in large quantities will reduce the purchase price. Moreover, centralized purchasing also significantly reduces the cost of organizing bidding and reduces the number of implementation points.

Currently, there are hundreds of focal units conducting bidding procedures for purchasing the same types of assets, but when implementing centralized procurement, only one or a few bids are conducted per year.

Comrade Le Xuan Dai - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee delivered a concluding speech at the meeting. Photo: Xuan Hoang

However, during the implementation process, the leaders of the Department of Finance said that there were some difficulties and problems that needed to be resolved. These were some assets with small value and small purchase volume but still had to be centrally purchased such as fax machines, scanners, and document shredders, which affected the initiative and timeliness of the unit.

Leaders of departments, branches and units requested the Provincial People's Committee to adjust the purchase value from 50 million VND as stipulated in Decision 3164 accordingly, because medical equipment often costs much more than other common goods.

For medical equipment that is suddenly damaged and needs to be replaced immediately for timely examination and treatment using the unit's emergency budget, career development fund or other legal funding sources, it is requested that the Provincial People's Committee allow direct purchase, not centralized purchase.

In hospitals, it is necessary to increase the value of centralized equipment procurement. Photo: Document

Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Xuan Dai affirmed that implementing centralized procurement is a new, suitable and cost-saving method; however, the implementation process is also facing difficulties and obstacles, and some regulations are no longer suitable to reality.

Therefore, it is recommended that in the following years, the centralized purchase of assets must comply with regulations and be timely to ensure operations for units.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Xuan Dai requested the Department of Finance to absorb opinions, adjust, supplement and amend a number of regulations to replace Decision 3164.

Xuan Hoang