Nghe An strives to remove disbursement obstacles and speed up progress of public investment projects

IMPROVING PROGRESS OF PUBLIC INVESTMENT PROJECTS

Nghe An's 2023 public investment plan was assigned by the Prime Minister at VND 9,033.5 billion. Up to now, the detailed assignment of the annual plan to projects has been basically completed in accordance with regulations, of which 100% of the capital under the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program (VND 748 billion for 5 projects) has been assigned.

If by March 30, 2023, the disbursement result of concentrated public investment capital in 2023 of Nghe An only reached 7.01%, then by April 30, 2023, it had disbursed 2,105,348 billion VND, reaching 23.31%. Regarding the disbursement of sources under the National Target Program, 103 billion VND has been disbursed/plan of 1,180 billion VND, reaching 8.73%. Some sources of disbursed capital have achieved quite well, such as the source of the National Target Program on new rural construction (40.99%).

Construction of Dien Van and Dien Chau bridges on the coastal route. Photo: Tran Chau

In Con Cuong district, if at the end of February 2023, it was still one of the localities with slow disbursement progress with 10/16 projects not yet disbursed, the disbursement rate only reached more than 3%, then by May 15, 2023, Con Cuong, with the support and removal of all levels and sectors, made efforts to bring the public investment disbursement rate to 9.9%.

Mr. Truong Anh Tuan - Head of the Economic - Infrastructure Department of Con Cuong District People's Committee said that the reason why the disbursement speed of public investment projects in the district was slow in early 2023 was because this was the time to prepare procedures and documents. By April 6, the district had just completed issuing 16 sets of bidding documents; completed the documents sent to the Department of Planning and Investment, such as the Khe Ran Community Tourism Village Development Project, with a total investment of 1.5 billion VND funded in 2023; the project to upgrade and repair the Mon Son - Co Phat road with a total capital of more than 62 billion VND...

The remaining projects have started and are under construction, such as the road from Thi Tran to Khe Kem with a total length of 18.6km, total investment of 120 billion VND (central capital of 105 billion VND, disbursed 80 billion VND); the road connecting the three communes of Don Phuc - Cam Lam - Lang Khe with capital from the district budget and the National Target Program source of 63 billion VND, currently under construction of bridge and culvert items and leveling of points through high mountainous terrain such as the section through Puc village, Don Phuc commune.

Construction of a drainage culvert through Don Phuc - Cam Lam - Mau Duc road, section through Puc village, Don Phuc commune. Photo: HT

According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Thinh - Director of the Project Management Board of Con Cuong District People's Committee, the district has made efforts to complete the documents as quickly as possible to send to departments, branches for approval and the Department of Planning and Investment, Construction as well as speed up the progress of guidance and settlement so that localities can disburse as soon as possible. Therefore, up to now, Con Cuong's disbursement rate is ranked among the "top" districts of the province.

In the province, as of May 11, 2023, the progress of some key projects has improved in terms of disbursement speed and accelerated construction speed, such as: The coastal road project from Nghi Son (Thanh Hoa) - Cua Lo (Nghe An) section from Km7 - Km76 has handed over 52 km/59.91 km of land, reaching 87%. The total investment of the project is 4,651 billion VND, to date 2,763.141 billion VND has been allocated, 2,079.008 billion VND has been disbursed, reaching 75.24%. Of which, the public investment plan for 2023 has disbursed 215.867 billion VND, reaching 28.78%.

Many key projects have also basically completed disbursement, construction and put into use such as projects in the Southeast Economic Zone (Road D4, 7.066 km long), N5 Crossroad, Section 2, 6.5 km long; Vinh - Cua Lo connecting road (10.8 km); Nghi Son - Cua Lo coastal road, section Km76+00, Km83+500 (7.5 km)... contributing to completing infrastructure, promoting socio-economic development of the province.

Infrastructure of the Southeast Economic Zone is gradually being completed to welcome investors. Photo: Thanh Cuong

SEE THE CAUSE CLEARLY TO REMOVE THE "OBSTACLES"

According to the assessment of the Provincial People's Committee, the current disbursement speed of public investment in Nghe An is still slow, and it is necessary to clearly see the shortcomings and obstacles to further speed up the disbursement progress.

In Report No. 316/UBND-BC dated May 11, 2023 of the People's Committee of Nghe An province on the situation of public investment and some other contents, it was determined that the slow disbursement has many causes, of which subjective causes are still the main ones. For example: The organization and implementation work still has many limitations, in some places, the Party committees, authorities and leaders still lack determination, have not closely monitored the implementation; the quality of investment preparation work is not good, the site clearance work is still delayed; some project management boards, investors and contractors are still weak in capacity,...

For example, in Tuong Duong district, the total approved capital for public investment programs in 2023 is 198,279 billion VND; the allocated capital is 154 billion VND. However, as of April 3, 2023, it has not been disbursed, reaching 0%. According to the leader of Tuong Duong district People's Committee, the reason is not only due to waiting for new regulations from higher levels, but also mainly due to the slow appraisal and approval of budget estimates. In addition, the staff of the Project Management Board has not met the requirements of the job...

In many localities, the work of site clearance, compensation, and resettlement support for many projects still faces many obstacles, such as in cases where the state acquires land, the construction of resettlement infrastructure, and the relocation of technical infrastructure must be carried out in accordance with the regulations of basic construction works, and must be carried out through many steps, through many levels, and sectors, which takes a lot of time. While the number of resettled households is large, it is necessary to complete the handover of land in the resettlement area for new households to be handed over the land of their old residence, leading to the untimely handover of the land.

The disbursement rate of projects under the National Target Program on New Rural Development in Nghe An as of May 11, 2023 reached 40%. In the photo: Construction of new rural roads in Nam Dan. Photo courtesy of Mai Hoa

The coordination to support investors, especially key projects of the province, in terms of compensation, site clearance, and conversion of land use purposes encountered many difficulties and was prolonged because many households whose land was recovered did not agree with the State's land price policy and therefore refused to hand over the land. There were cases where coercion was required, such as households involved in site clearance for the coastal road project through Quynh Luu district.

In cases where investors negotiate and receive land use rights transfers, the verification and issuance of land use right certificates to households before negotiating and receiving transfers is difficult and lengthy due to lost or incomplete records. In addition, there is no mechanism to handle cases where agreements cannot be reached with land users.

Along with clearly recognizing the causes affecting the progress of disbursement and implementation of public investment projects, the Provincial People's Committee has issued many documents urging all levels and sectors to accelerate the progress to achieve the target of disbursing 95% - 100% of the assigned plan. The Provincial People's Committee has also established a Working Group in charge of public investment disbursement headed by Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Bui Thanh An to strengthen on-site inspections and promptly correct shortcomings and inadequacies in the disbursement of public investment capital.

On the other hand, clearly assign responsibilities to each leader of the Provincial People's Committee to directly take charge of and direct the disbursement of projects; require investors to register monthly disbursement plans for each project and regularly report to levels, sectors and localities for timely direction and supervision.