Urgent issues, "cold" questioning

(Baonghean.vn) - The two issues raised for questioning at the 10th session of the Vinh City People's Council are pressing issues, repeatedly raised by voters at voter meetings. However, the question and answer session of the session could not "heat up" when only one delegate raised a question.

Scene of the 10th session - Vinh City People's Council term 2011 - 2016

Only 45.6% of WB project volume has been implemented.

Opening the question and answer session at the meeting, Mr. Ha Thanh Tinh - Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee directly explained the progress of the Vinh urban development project using capital from the World Bank (WB) in the city. According to Mr. Ha Thanh Tinh's explanation, according to the signed Agreement, the project took effect from April 12, 2012 and ended on December 31, 2017 with an investment scale of 83.2 million USD, including many important items such as the North Canal project; resettlement area of ​​Quan Bau ward; upgrading and renovating Cua Nam lake; 72 m road, 35 m road.... .

After 3 years of implementing the project, Vinh city has signed construction contracts and executed 8/16 construction packages and will award 1 more package in July 2015. Thus, up to this point, the project implementation volume has reached a value of 38 million USD/83.2 million USD, equivalent to 45.6% of the total project capital. Of which, the disbursed capital is 16.67 million USD/33 million USD of the awarded packages, equivalent to 51%, however, compared to the total approved project capital, it has only reached 20%. Mr. Tinh said that this is a sad result. Currently, the remaining workload is very large, including 7 packages of 4 large items such as the Reservoir, Vinh Ancient Citadel Moat, 72m road, 35m road.

Mr. Ha Thanh Tinh - Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee explained the construction progress of the Vinh urban development project.

Explaining the reason, Mr. Ha Thanh Tinh said that it was mainly due to the counterpart fund for land acquisition and clearance not being available in a timely manner. For example, the Quan Bau resettlement area and Kenh Bac section 3 packages were supposed to be bid and contracts signed in the first quarter of 2013, but it was not until the fourth quarter of 2014 that the capital was available to complete the land acquisition and clearance, 12-15 months behind schedule.

Another reason is that the selection of bidding packages and items are all pressing issues that have not been resolved for a long time, difficult in both construction solutions and site clearance, such as ditch No. 3, Vinh Citadel, Bac Vach canal, 72m road. On the other hand, due to the decrease in exchange rate between the loan under the Financing Agreement and the USD, the funding source has decreased to 83.2 million USD instead of 95 million USD as initially, leading to 2 times of mandatory review and adjustment of the design scale of phase 2 bidding packages such as 72m road, 35m road...

There is also a reason that the World Bank's support capital is very strict in terms of procedures, so at first there were some confusions in the appraisal of documents and it took a lot of time. The capacity of the project management board did not meet the requirements, within 3 or 4 years, 3 heads of board were changed, so the unity and determination were delayed, affecting the project's progress.

Clearly recognize the responsibilities of many levels and sectors, emphasizing the responsibility of the city as the investor and the responsibility of the Vinh Urban Development Sub-project Management Board in managing and implementing the project, the specialized departments of the City People's Committee such as the Urban Management Department, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the appraisal process is still confusing, the site clearance work is not thorough. The People's Committees of wards and communes where the project has passed are not resolute in the site clearance work, the determination of land origin for site clearance compensation is still slow, the propaganda and mobilization work for the people also needs to learn from experience.

Mr. Ha Thanh Tinh also said that with the remaining large amount of work, including the construction volume and the area that needs to be cleared, the implementation time is only 30 months. This is a task that requires higher determination, mobilizing the entire political system to implement the project, it cannot be said that this is the responsibility of any individual. Therefore, it is recommended that the Provincial People's Committee strengthen its direction to promptly handle problems; continue to rely on the Central Government to support counterpart funds of 147 billion VND to implement the site clearance for the remaining projects.

The City continues to maintain the operation of the Steering Committee for Land Acquisition and Clearance; has a feasible plan for land acquisition and clearance and land fund exploitation, and collects land use fees to create timely counterpart funds for the project according to the mechanism. Clearly assigns and divides the responsibilities of each agency, unit, ward, commune, and each individual involved; organizes the selection of quality contractors, and at the same time improves the capacity of the Project Sub-area Management Board, and is ready to remove from the apparatus incompetent and irresponsible officials, because the Project Management Board plays a very important role in resolving existing problems and difficulties that affect the project's progress.

Only 2.12% of meritorious people's records are resolved

Explaining the low rate of handling dossiers for meritorious people in the city in the past time, Mr. Nguyen Trung Chau - Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee, said that in the past time, the City Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs received 989 dossiers from wards and communes, of which 629 were qualified. Through the City Council for the Implementation of the Ordinance on Incentives for People with Merit, 605 dossiers were reviewed and appraised; as a result, 605 dossiers were submitted to the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, while 24 cases did not have enough basis for approval because the documents proving the time and area of ​​operation were questionable.

Of the 605 files submitted to the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, 106 cases were issued a referral letter by the Department for assessment to determine the level of reduced working capacity due to exposure to toxic chemicals; of which 21 cases have received benefits, the remaining 85 cases are being verified and assessed by the Nghe An Provincial Medical Examination Council. The remaining 196 files are being assessed by the Department; 360 files were returned because the medical records did not clearly show the disease, disability, deformity, or disability related to exposure to toxic chemicals as prescribed in Circular 41 or did not have original documents proving the time and region of participation in the resistance war where the US sprayed toxic chemicals as prescribed.

Mr. Nguyen Trung Chau - Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee explained the low rate of processing records for meritorious people.

Explaining the reason why the rate of files resolved to enjoy the regime only reached 21/989 files, accounting for 2.12%, Mr. Nguyen Trung Chau said that it was because there was no inter-departmental document between the Department of Health and the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs providing specific guidance on criteria for determining diseases, disabilities and deformities related to exposure. On the one hand, in the process of reviewing and evaluating files, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs is applying regulations under Decision No. 1488/QD-BYT, dated May 4, 2012, providing detailed guidance on the diagnosis of 15 types of diseases, disabilities, deformities and deformities related to exposure to dioxin, while Circular 41, effective from 2014, only stipulates a list of names of diseases, disabilities, deformities and deformities related to exposure to toxic chemicals. On the side of the People's Committee of wards and communes, propaganda work has not been done well, allowing the situation of massive filing of records, many cases of unqualified people still deliberately filing records.

Delegates follow the explanation

Regarding the solution, according to Mr. Nguyen Trung Chau, the Provincial People's Committee needs to direct the Department of Health and the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to promptly issue specific guidelines on criteria for determining diseases, disabilities, deformities, and disabilities related to exposure to toxic chemicals to unify the review process, avoiding multiple returns. At the same time, direct the Department of Labor to focus on resolving the backlog of meritorious people's records. On the part of the City People's Committee, it will direct and guide wards and communes to appraise records in accordance with regulations immediately after receiving guidance documents from the inter-department. On the part of wards and communes, it is necessary to do a good job of propagating to people about the State's preferential policies for meritorious people, and at the same time, enhance the responsibility of the Council for implementing the Ordinance on Meritorious People at the ward and commune levels, both ensuring strict implementation and ensuring the rights of meritorious people.

Delegate Do Dinh Quang raised questions about how to handle unresolved cases.

It can be said that the two contents chosen by the Standing Committee of the City People's Council for questioning are two urgent contents, which have been repeated many times by voters at recent meetings with City People's Council delegates. However, after the explanations of Mr. Ha Thanh Tinh and Mr. Nguyen Trung Chau, only delegate Do Dinh Quang raised questions about the solution to the 360 ​​files of meritorious people that were returned, and no other People's Council delegate questioned further. Is it possible that the explanations of Mr. Ha Thanh Tinh and Mr. Nguyen Trung Chau were so clear that there was no information that needed to be further investigated; there was nothing to worry about?! Or in the explanation, Mr. Ha Thanh Tinh also clarified the responsibilities of each sector and each level, and the delegates saw their responsibilities in it?! Or because of respect, fear of conflict, or the delegates themselves lack information and lack the courage to question?! Whatever the problem is, one thing is certain: the question and answer session at the 10th session of the City People's Council lacked the "hotness" of the issue that many people are interested in, reducing the quality of the question and answer session at the session.

Mr. Nguyen Hong Minh - Chairman of the City People's Council spoke at the question and answer session.

Mr. Nguyen Hong Minh - Chairman of the City People's Council also stated that during the project implementation process, there were some items that were stuck when they were put into construction, the construction design had to be revised many times and each time it had to be submitted to the competent authority for approval, which took a lot of time, affecting the project's progress. Therefore, the consulting and contractor work in the bid packages had problems, so the remaining bid packages, the City People's Committee was requested to carefully consider, if the old way of doing things continued, the project would continue to be stuck and delayed.

Regarding the low rate of resolving meritorious people's records and the reasons mentioned by Mr. Nguyen Trung Chau, the Chairman of the City People's Council said that, through Mr. Nguyen Trung Chau's explanation, the city's responsibility and the role of related professional departments have not been seen. Mr. Minh also said that the result of 989 records was that only 21 cases were resolved, this number is small, because the number of cases exposed in Vinh city is not small. Therefore, the City People's Committee needs to focus on this work. The City People's Council and voters hope that the implementation of meritorious people's policies must be highly accurate, creating trust among the people, correctly reflecting the preferential policies of the Party and State for meritorious people, avoiding cases of taking advantage of the policy, causing counterproductive effects.

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