National Assembly delegates from Nghe An discuss amendments to the Law on Public Investment
On the morning of November 6, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai, the National Assembly discussed in the Hall the draft Law on Public Investment (amended).
Speaking at the discussion, Mr. Tran Nhat Minh - full-time National Assembly member of Nghe An delegation agreed with the proposal to decentralize the decision on investment policies for group B and group C projects from People's Councils at all levels to People's Committees at all levels and said that this regulation is very necessary, especially when we are transforming our thinking and management methods from "pre-control" to "post-control", from "management" to "development management".
Because these are projects that are already on the list of medium-term or annual public investment projects approved by the People's Council, the People's Council's continued approval of investment policies for each project by delegates is just a procedural matter.
Therefore, this decentralization will remove the order and procedures to speed up the investment policy approval process, reduce administrative procedures, shorten time, and soon put the project into implementation.
In particular, according to the delegate, when decentralizing the decision on project policies from the People's Council to the People's Committee, it has created conditions for the People's Committee to be proactive in the process of organization and implementation, for example, in adjusting investment policies, in accordance with actual conditions and the viewpoint of "promoting decentralization and delegation of power" with the motto "locality decides, locality does, locality is responsible".
"In my opinion, in this case, it is appropriate for the People's Council to strengthen supervision work according to the law for these projects," said delegate Tran Nhat Minh.
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On the other hand, the 2019 Law on Public Investment stipulates that the transition limit for projects implemented in the next phase is 20%, which is the legal basis for deciding on investment policies for projects transferred through the two medium-term plans, creating conditions for early capital allocation for projects in this phase.
However, the actual implementation in some localities over the past time also shows that the 20% limit is not enough to decide on investment policies for large-scale projects, which are partly transitional to the next large phase but need to arrange capital immediately during this phase.
Some opinions also suggested that the 20% limit should be removed, which would open up the possibility for localities to approve projects according to demand. However, delegate Tran Nhat Minh said that legal regulations must both create development but also ensure management requirements, avoiding excessive relaxation leading to arbitrariness, widespread, and failure to ensure resources.
Therefore, he expressed support for the Government's proposal in this amendment of the Law on Public Investment to increase the transition limit for projects implemented in two consecutive medium-term public investment plans from 20% to 50% of the medium-term public investment plan.
“Thus, on the one hand, the 20% limit is still maintained to ensure balance and not use up all the capital of the next phase, but on the other hand, flexibility is also allowed up to 50% in cases of real necessity, with permission from competent authorities, creating a basis for approval and ensuring the readiness of projects,” said delegate Tran Nhat Minh.
In addition, the delegate of Nghe An delegation requested the Drafting Committee to study and unify regulations on outstanding debts in basic construction and debt repayment arrangements in the draft Law to avoid inadequacies and conflicts.