Many key projects are behind schedule, causing waste.

The Ho Chi Minh City Metro Line 2 project was approved in 2010. By October 2021, the cumulative disbursement of ODA capital had only reached 2.5%, and counterpart capital had only reached 2.09%. The Hanoi Urban Railway section, Nam Thang Long - Tran Hung Dao, is still undergoing procedures to approve the adjustment of the total investment...

Saving state budget and capital of more than 72,000 billion VND

Authorized by the Prime Minister to present the Report, Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc emphasized that the practice of thrift and anti-waste has been promoted and developed in many fields, contributing to improving the efficiency of management, exploitation and use of resources for investment and development.

Despite many difficulties and challenges, our country's economy still grew positively by 2.58%; the macro economy was stable, 7/12 main socio-economic targets were achieved and exceeded the plan; major balances of the economy, especially the balance of revenue and expenditure of the State budget (NSNN) were ensured, the State budget revenue reached over 1,568 trillion VND, exceeding the estimate by 16.8%.

Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc.

Thanks to proactive management, the 2021 State budget expenditure tasks have basically completed the set targets, the total State budget expenditure in 2021 is estimated at more than 1.8 million billion VND, equal to 110% of the estimate, promptly meeting the expenditure tasks.

The total savings in state budget and capital in 2021 according to reports from ministries, branches and localities is more than 72,000 billion VND, some localities have high results in saving budget funds.

The management and procurement of public assets in ministries, branches and localities in 2021 continued to change, ensuring strictness and savings.

The disbursement of capital has been strongly directed by the Government and the Prime Minister and coordinated by ministries and central branches to promote the implementation of public investment projects from the State budget. Many ministries, agencies, localities and a number of large, important national projects have disbursement results reaching over 95% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister.

“The situation of land waste has been directed, reviewed and handled; investment policies have been revoked, land with an area of ​​16,000 hectares has been recovered, nearly 53,000 hectares have been put into use, and investment policies of 7,700 hectares have been terminated. Land revenue in 2021 reached 172.25 trillion VND, accounting for 15.2% of the total domestic budget revenue, 3.5 times higher than in 2015,” said Mr. Ho Duc Phoc.

The Government's report also frankly pointed out many shortcomings and limitations, including violations in bidding, purchasing, management and use of public assets in a number of agencies and units; in some localities there are still "suspended" projects and social housing projects with plans that have not been implemented.

“Land complaints still account for a large proportion. Violations in land management and use still occur in many places. Through inspection and examination work, many violations have been discovered and handled, causing land waste,” the Government emphasized, along with the slow progress of equitization and divestment, failing to meet the required plan.

Waste is still great

Presenting the audit report, Deputy Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee Pham Thuy Chinh highly appreciated the results achieved as reported by the Government. However, this agency also pointed out a series of limitations and shortcomings that need to be corrected.

Specifically, the work of preparing and implementing the budget estimates is still limited. According to the Government's report to the National Assembly at the Second Session, the estimated shortfall in the 2021 central budget revenue is about 28-29 trillion VND. However, up to now, the Government has reported that the central budget revenue has increased by nearly 48.9 trillion VND. Thus, the construction of the 2022 State budget estimate based on the 2021 revenue estimate is low, showing that the forecast and assessment of the situation are not close to reality.

Regarding procurement bidding and centralized procurement, the appraisal agency assessed that there are still many shortcomings, such as: Complicated bidding processes and procedures, causing waste of time, slowing down the progress of investment and procurement projects.

The bottleneck in purchasing medical equipment has not been resolved in a timely manner, affecting the work of epidemic prevention and control. There have been violations of the law in the management, research, application of science; bidding, purchasing, management, and use of public assets such as the case at Viet A Technology Joint Stock Company and a number of agencies and localities in the recent past, causing loss and waste of public funds and assets, causing public outrage.

Regarding the establishment and implementation of public investment plans, the Finance and Budget Committee said that the progress and completion of a number of key projects and important national works are still slow, causing waste of resources and affecting socio-economic development.

Typically, the Ho Chi Minh City Metro Line 2 construction project, Ben Thanh - Tham Luong route, was approved in 2010. By October 2021, the cumulative disbursement of ODA capital only reached 2.5%, and counterpart capital only reached 2.09%. The Hanoi Urban Railway Line 2 construction investment project, Nam Thang Long - Tran Hung Dao section, was approved in 2008. Currently, the approval procedure for adjusting the total investment from VND 19,555 billion to VND 35,679 billion is still in progress. The cumulative disbursement by August 2021 only reached VND 974 billion.

The land acquisition, compensation, support and resettlement project of Long Thanh International Airport does not ensure the progress stipulated in Resolution No. 53/2017/QH14 of the National Assembly.

The progress of equitization and divestment of State capital in enterprises of many ministries, branches and localities is very slow, revenue from equitization and divestment reaches approximately 3.7/40 trillion VND.

According to Ms. Pham Thuy Chinh, the situation of "suspended" planning, "suspended" projects and limitations in land and resource management and use greatly affects people's lives, causing waste of resources.

“Strictly handle acts that cause loss and waste in the management and use of land and resources. Resolutely reclaim land from projects that are slow to be put into use, land left fallow, land used for the wrong purpose, and annually report to the National Assembly on the implementation results” – the inspection agency recommended.

More importantly, it is necessary to review and propose amendments and supplements to regulations on THTK and CLP in the direction of clearly defining violations and having strict sanctions with sufficient deterrence./.