Resolutely cut capital for projects that are unable to disburse capital

Minister Ho Duc Phoc (second from left) inspects the Coastal Cities Sustainable Environment Project - Nha Trang City Sub-project. Photo: Minh Tuan

In addition to Hung Yen and Thai Binh provinces, which have the highest disbursement rates in the country, reaching 78.9% and over 70% respectively, some ministries and localities are in the top with high disbursement rates: Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (73.17%); Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (51.91%); Tien Giang (67.3%); Tay Ninh (67.1%); Ninh Binh (65.7%); Thai Nguyen (65%)...

At a recent working session of Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc - Head of Working Group No. 6, with some provinces of Khanh Hoa, Nghe An, Phu Yen and Soc Trang, representatives of these localities said: It is estimated that in the first 8 months of this year, the progress of public investment disbursement in Nghe An province reached 50.6%; Khanh Hoa reached 40.1%; Soc Trang is estimated to reach more than 42%; Phu Yen reached 28.6%. In general, the localities have made progress in disbursement work, however, Phu Yen province's public investment disbursement is still lower than the national average (7 months of this year is 29.93%; estimated 8 months of this year is 36.2%), which is not up to standard.

A detailed examination of project disbursement in the first 7 months of this year (as of July 31, 2022) shows that all localities still have projects that have not been disbursed or the disbursement amount is low compared to the assigned capital plan for the whole year (below the national average of 30% of the plan). Specifically, Khanh Hoa province has 18 projects, Phu Yen has 26 projects, Nghe An province has 55 projects, Soc Trang province has 26 projects.

According to reports from 4 localities, the main reasons for slow disbursement are institutional and policy problems, such as: difficulties in land and site clearance; problems with the conversion of rice land use purposes; regulations on investment in the construction of national highways and inter-regional projects...

Regarding project implementation, recently, the prices of construction materials have increased dramatically, especially the prices of gasoline, iron, steel, soil, sand, etc., leading to the estimated budget exceeding the approved total investment. Many projects have had to make adjustments in the direction of increasing the total investment or changing the design solution or reducing the investment scale to ensure resources for implementation. Some bidding packages apply the form of lump-sum contracts, fixed-price contracts, so they cannot be adjusted, contractors will delay the progress or perform construction at a slow pace, affecting the disbursement progress.

Furthermore, 2022 is the year when many new projects will start construction. Investment procedures will be completed in the first months of the year, so the capital disbursement progress of newly started projects will only be accelerated in the last months of the year.

Minister Ho Duc Phoc said: Following the direction of the Prime Minister, the working groups continue to inspect localities with slow disbursement of less than 50%. According to the Minister, the disbursement of public investment capital is of special concern to the Government and the Prime Minister, because if the disbursement of capital is not accelerated, growth will be limited and the role of capital flow leading the economy will not be demonstrated. The Minister noted that localities need to clearly report the disbursement situation, state the difficulties and obstacles in the implementation process and from there propose solutions in the coming time.

Inspecting the situation of projects in the field, Minister Ho Duc Phoc requested contractors to speed up the progress of project implementation, speed up bidding, construction, acceptance of payment volume to immediately disburse for projects; focus on directing the work of compensation and site clearance - removing the "bottleneck" in the current disbursement of public investment capital. The Minister requested that attention should be paid to resettlement arrangements, resettlement work must be one step ahead, stabilizing people's lives, thereby speeding up the progress of site clearance.

Promoting the disbursement of public investment capital will be carried out according to the motto "say and do", therefore, resolutely cutting capital for projects that are unable to disburse capital, especially projects that have been allocated capital in the 2022 plan but have not yet disbursed capital to arrange for projects that have been settled, completed projects that still lack capital, projects with good disbursement progress, in accordance with legal regulations.

According to Tin Tuc Newspaper