A series of shortcomings in public investment in Dak Lak

The Standing Committee of the Dak Lak Provincial People's Council has just issued a conclusion on the results of thematic supervision of the implementation of the medium-term public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period.

The total number of public investment projects in the 2021-2025 period is 506 projects, including newly opened and transferred projects. Central budget capital is 59 projects, local budget capital is 447 projects.

The total capital allocated for this phase is over 18,000 billion VND. The central government has allocated 4,857 billion VND, the rest is from the locality. To date, the province has allocated 361/506 projects and about 284 projects have been completed and handed over for use.

The Standing Committee of the Dak Lak Provincial People's Council assessed that the implementation of public investment projects during this period still has many limitations. Specifically, the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021-2025 has not closely followed the socio -economic development situation of the province; some projects are not consistent with related planning.

The structure of allocating public investment capital by sector and field still has shortcomings, such as: Transportation accounts for 37.77%; agriculture and rural areas 33.80%; education and training 4.51%; health and social affairs account for 5.56%.

Investment projects are still fragmented, spread out, and lacking focus, not creating the driving force for connectivity and socio-economic development in the province.

Many public investment projects in Dak Lak are behind schedule.

Forecasting and determining public investment capital sources in Dak Lak are not close to reality. This leads to budget revenue from land use not meeting the plan, requiring adjustments to the medium-term and annual public investment plan many times (6 medium-term adjustments, 5 annual adjustments, 15 adjustments to national target programs).

The detailed allocation of annual public investment capital plans is still slow. The detailed allocation and transfer of capital sources to implement programs and projects, the proposed capital transfer is large, especially for national target programs. The arrangement of counterpart funds for national target programs has not ensured the prescribed ratio.

Specifically, in 2023, the local budget to match the national target program for socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas is 35 billion VND, lower than the minimum requirement of 50,549 billion VND. Advances and recovery of advanced capital have not been completely recovered; the situation of overdue debts for basic construction still occurs (2021: 44,785 billion VND; 2023: 11.1 billion VND).

The disbursement of the annual public investment plan is slow and has not met the set requirements. The progress of implementing projects, sub-projects and disbursing national target programs is still very slow, with low disbursement rates. Some projects using ODA capital and preferential loans are still behind schedule and have low disbursement rates.

Yen Ngua Reservoir Project, Phase 1 (adjusted 3 times), is not yet completed.

The appraisal and approval of feasibility study reports and investment proposal reports are not accurate in terms of scale and total investment, especially compensation and site clearance costs, leading to adjustments, additions or cuts and suspension of project implementation, leading to projects being implemented for many years, and not effectively utilizing allocated capital.

The implementation of investment procedures and project adjustments is still slow and prolonged; the planning and implementation of procedures for land fill mines is slow, affecting the progress of project implementation; some projects have to adjust investment policies and projects many times, slowing down the progress of implementation and disbursement of capital plans.

Some projects have been transferred and invested in from the previous phase but have not been completed and put into use; some projects have been implemented but are not included in the medium-term public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period and have not been allocated capital.

Huynh Thuy

Source: https://tienphong.vn/loat-bat-cap-ve-dau-tu-cong-tai-dak-lak-post1739953.tpo