Many difficulties in disbursing public investment for national target programs

Project "waiting" for text

In Ky Son district, implementing national target programs (NTPs) according to the tasks assigned in Resolution No. 88/NQ-CP dated June 8, 2023 of the Government, disbursing public investment projects to serve the socio-economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the period of 2021 - 2030, Mr. Pham Van Hoa - Deputy Head of the Ethnic Affairs Department of the District People's Committee said that Ky Son was allocated a budget of more than 300 billion VND for 2022 and 2023. However, by June 2023, the capital for both years had only been disbursed 25.75%. Of which, the capital extended from 2022 to 2023 was more than 30 billion VND.

The main reason is that many projects are still waiting for guidance documents and specific regulations to complete their documents and submit them to the relevant authorities for approval before disbursing. For example, Project 1 to address the shortage of residential land, housing, production land, and domestic water for ethnic minorities, as of June 30, 2023, Ky Son district has only disbursed 3.66%.

Specifically, according to regulations, each household with housing difficulties is supported with 40 million VND to build a house, the application procedures are implemented in the form of investment projects. However, the application documents of these projects are currently awaiting guidance from the Provincial People's Committee to implement Circular No. 01/2022/TT-BXD dated June 30, 2022 of the Ministry of Construction on housing support for poor and near-poor households in poor districts under the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the period 2021-2025..

“Circular 01/2022/TT-BXD stipulates that the Provincial People's Committee directs specialized departments and branches to advise the Provincial People's Committee to issue 3 house models suitable for the customs and practices of ethnic minorities to apply to the construction investment dossier. However, as of June 30, 2023, there has not been a document announcing the house models allowed to be applied to the project, so the district is still waiting for this document to complete the appraisal and bidding steps,” said Mr. Hoa.

Also related to Project 1, the content of Decree 38 amending and supplementing a number of contents of Decree 07/2022 of the Government on how to handle development investment capital for ethnic minorities to build houses currently does not have specific regulations, and there are no norms for capital to support housing and land for people.

“Since there is no standard for preparing documents, it is not possible to implement the contents of supporting people to change their jobs. Because only households lacking production land will be supported to change their jobs. Therefore, in Ky Son district, the implementation of housing support policies, production land support or job change under the projects of the National Target Program is still “waiting” for specific instructions. The district has also sent documents explaining and requesting the Provincial People's Committee to support the grassroots to resolve the problem,” Mr. Hoa added.

Many projects have to adjust investment levels.

At the regular meeting of the Provincial People's Committee in June 2023, Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Pham Hong Quang said that the total public investment plan for 2023 assigned by the Prime Minister to Nghe An is 9,033.5 billion VND. As of June 20, Nghe An's National Target Program plan for 2023 was over 155 billion VND, and in 2022, over 53 billion VND had not been allocated capital. Of which, there were 9 projects that had not completed the documents and procedures of 4 investors: Ky Son (4 projects); Tuong Duong (2 projects); Nghia Dan (1 project) and the Department of Culture and Sports (2 projects).

The reason for the delay in completing documents and procedures is that some projects are large-scale, the process of surveying terrain and geology is complicated, going through many steps, so it takes a lot of time; some projects must submit to central ministries and branches for appraisal of project documents before approval; some projects are stuck in planning and must be adjusted...

In Ky Son district, by May 2023, the disbursement rate of public investment capital had only reached over 7.61%. According to the staff of the Ky Son District Project Management Board, in 2023, the district had 27 public investment projects, with a capital of 117 billion VND, the District People's Committee as the investor, had arranged 26 billion VND of capital for the period 2021 - 2025; 6 projects under Program 30a, with a capital of 215 billion VND, had arranged 75 billion VND of capital in 2023. However, up to now, many infrastructure and road construction projects have had to adjust the total investment, mainly due to changes in scale, prices of raw materials and redesign after the impact of natural disasters, waiting for approval of investment estimates by superiors after adjustment.

In Tuong Duong district, Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee Lo Thanh Nhat said that only counting the projects under the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority Areas, 37/40 projects had to adjust their budgets. For example, the Nga My Commune Centralized Water Supply Project, invested by the Tuong Duong District People's Committee, has a total capital of 3 billion VND. Of which, the capital plan for 2022 has been allocated 2 billion VND, the capital plan for 2023 is 950 million VND, but has not yet been disbursed due to waiting for budget adjustment.

The public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period for the National Target Programs of Tuong Duong district is allocated a total investment capital of VND 818,278 billion, with 128 projects for the 2021-2025 period. In 2023, the total approved capital of the National Target Programs of Tuong Duong district is VND 154,411 billion, of which VND 109,47032 billion has been allocated. However, by May 15, 2023, the disbursement rate reached 0%, by June 20, 2023, the disbursement rate was 0.9%. The reason, according to the leader of the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district, is mainly due to the projects having to adjust their estimates, and because there are too many projects that need to complete their documents, while the District Project Management Board lacks human resources.

In terms of the provincially managed public investment plan in 2023 alone, as of June 20, 28 units had disbursement rates above the provincial average (24.22%). 13 districts, cities and towns and 29 investor units disbursed below the provincial average. 13 districts, cities and towns include: Tuong Duong (0.09%), Que Phong (2.12%), Thai Hoa Town (4.96%), Vinh City (6.96%), Ky Son (7.56%), Hoang Mai Town (13.74%), Con Cuong (16.12%), Quynh Luu (16.57%), Quy Chau (18.92%), Quy Hop (20.85%), Yen Thanh (22.04%), Hung Nguyen (22.83%), Nam Dan (23.32%).

Faced with the pressure on the progress of public investment disbursement set by the Provincial People's Committee, the leader of the Tuong Duong District People's Committee said that, in addition to the proposal to add more human resources, the district is striving to complete the goal of completing the investment preparation step in the second quarter of 2023, striving to start 100% of projects with 2-step designs under the province's approval authority in the third quarter of 2023. For example, the projects: Traffic road from Huoi To 1 village to Pieng Coc village, Mai Son commune; Construction of the DH11 Xieng My - Yen Thang road is expected to start on June 30, 2022; Khe Hoc resettlement area project, Huoi Pung village, Huu Khuong commune starts before July 15, 2023; Construction of traffic roads to the center of Nhon Mai and Mai Son communes is expected to start before August 30, 2023.

To overcome the slow disbursement of public investment capital, especially projects under the National Target Program, determined to achieve the disbursement rate target of over 95% in 2023, the People's Committee of Nghe An province as well as the Provincial People's Council have held many meetings to clearly identify the causes and direct departments, branches and localities to remove obstacles.

The Provincial People's Committee requests Directors of departments, Heads of provincial-level departments and branches; Chairmen of People's Committees of districts, cities and towns; leaders of investment units to strictly and resolutely implement solutions to promote disbursement of public investment capital as set out in the Government's Resolutions and directives of the Provincial People's Committee on promoting disbursement of public investment capital.

In particular, focusing on improving the quality of project investment preparation to limit project adjustments; selecting consulting and construction contractors with sufficient capacity, conditions and responsibilities; closely coordinating with relevant departments, branches and agencies to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles in the process of project implementation and disbursement of public investment capital in order to strive to have no undisbursed projects by the end of May 2023.

In case any sector or locality causes difficulties in the process of appraising project-related documents and procedures, promptly report to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee for handling. In the coming time, the province will also tighten discipline and order in disbursing public investment capital, proactively review and evaluate the disbursement capacity of each project; in case it is expected that the entire assigned plan will not be disbursed, a written proposal for reduction will be made to report to the competent authority for consideration and decision on transfer; investment agencies and units must thoroughly understand this requirement, absolutely not allowing the situation of having capital but not being able to disburse.

In addition, there are strict sanctions within the authority for contractors, organizations and individuals who deliberately cause difficulties, hinder and delay the progress of implementation and disbursement of public investment capital. Timely replace cadres, civil servants and public employees who are weak in capacity, slow, cause harassment and negativity, and resolutely handle negative behaviors in public investment management.