Many localities have lost hundreds of billions of dong in revenue but still "spend lavishly"

The State Audit Office (SA) has just sent the National Assembly a summary report on audit results for 2022. According to this report, the SA has pointed out that some localities, although their provincial budgets have large revenue deficits , have not promptly adjusted corresponding spending reductions.

Nhiều địa phương hụt thu hàng trăm tỉ đồng nhưng vẫn bạo chi như Đồng Tháp, Bến Tre, Trà Vinh, thị xã Đức Phổ - Ảnh 1.

Headquarters of Dong Thap Province Department of Finance. Photo: Nhan Dan Newspaper

In particular, in Dong Thap province, the lottery revenue (XSKT) is short of 216.74 billion VND. The Department of Finance and the Department of Planning and Investment of this province have not coordinated to advise the Provincial People's Committee to adjust the investment capital plan from the lottery revenue in 2021, leading to the total disbursement in 2021 and the amount transferred to the capital plan extended to 2022 (1,475.67 billion VND), exceeding the actual revenue in 2021 by 192.41 billion VND.

In Duc Pho town of Quang Ngai province, the district budget has a deficit in revenue, resources (surplus is only 0.034 billion VND; revenue transferred from previous years is only 0.32 billion VND; advance budget from 2021 and earlier is 4.79 billion VND with no source to recover the advance), however, the People's Committee of Duc Pho town did not cut some regular spending tasks that are not really urgent to compensate for the deficit in revenue, leading to budget imbalance, and at the same time used the additional provincial budget with a target of 10.74 billion VND to supplement the balance, which is not the province's target.

In Ben Tre province, the Department of Finance of this province has not promptly reviewed and advised the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council a decision to adjust the local budget estimate and report to the Provincial People's Council to adjust and reduce some expenditure items under the condition that the lottery revenue did not meet the assigned estimate, leading to the disbursement exceeding the actual revenue in 2021 by 6.5 billion VND; the land use fee revenue did not meet the assigned estimate, however, because the disbursement of 9.51 billion VND was lower than the actual revenue.

In Tra Vinh, the State Audit Office said that the province had a deficit of 115.6 billion VND in provincial budget land use fees, but the State Treasury of Tra Vinh, the Department of Finance and the Department of Planning and Investment of the province had not coordinated to advise the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council to consider and adjust the expenditure estimate from the allocated land use fee revenue at the beginning of 2021 according to regulations.

The State Audit also said that some localities have not yet developed (Buon Ho town, Dak Lak province) or have not submitted to the Standing Committee of the People's Council (Kon Tum province, provincial budget; An Giang, provincial budget and An Phu district; Can Tho, city budget; Soc Trang, My Xuyen district) to handle revenue shortfalls according to regulations or have been slow to advise the Provincial People's Committee to develop a plan to submit to the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council for decision, such as in Tra Vinh province. As of October 26, 2022, the Department of Finance has not yet advised the Provincial People's Committee to develop a plan to handle the 2021 budget shortfall to submit to the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council for consideration, decision and report to the Provincial People's Council at the nearest session according to the provisions of Point a, Clause 3, Article 52 of the State Budget Law.

The State Audit also said that 11/60 localities that were audited did not receive support for the assigned spending tasks with a total amount of VND57.5 billion, such as: Quang Nam province VND16.7 billion; Thanh Hoa VND14.3 billion; Dak Lak (Buon Ma Thuot city and districts VND1.2 billion), Ha Tinh VND6.23 billion; Ninh Binh VND6.5 billion; Thua Thien Hue VND1.3 billion; Dong Nai VND1.3 billion.

In addition, 26/60 localities misused 1,421.5 billion VND, such as: Hanoi 228.7 billion VND; Thanh Hoa 427.7 billion VND, Dong Thap 374.1 billion VND; Dak Lak 65.3 billion VND; Bac Ninh 64 billion VND; Khanh Hoa 44 billion VND; Ca Mau 14 billion VND; Quang Nam 37 billion VND; Binh Dinh 8.7 billion VND; Phu Tho 19.78 billion VND; An Giang 19 billion VND; Ben Tre 17.87 billion VND.

Source