Clear direction to completely handle the outstanding debt of Hoa Trung

Hoa Trung oil field has been put into use for 10 years now, but the construction units have not yet received the payments as committed.

The Ministry of Finance has just issued Official Dispatch No. 14323/BTC - PTHT to Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc regarding advising the Government on arranging capital to repay the debt of the Hoa Trung Bridge Construction Investment Project.

Clarify responsibilities

According to the Ministry of Finance, Hoa Trung Bridge belongs to the Ca Mau - Dam Doi Road Construction Investment Project under the management, operation and capital arrangement authority of the People's Committee of Ca Mau province.

Because the People's Committee of Ca Mau province encountered difficulties in arranging capital sources, in Notice No. 55/TB-VPCP dated February 14, 2015, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung assigned: "Regarding the investment in the construction of Hoa Trung bridge under the project to upgrade and expand Ca Mau - Dam Doi road: The Ministry of Transport shall apply appropriate investment forms; carry out the appointment of consulting and construction contractors and the mechanism for contractors to advance construction capital according to regulations, with the State budget paying annually to complete in 2015".

On that basis, the Ministry of Transport decided to approve the project (without implementing the steps of preparing, appraising, and approving the investment policy according to Article 26 of the 2014 Law on Public Investment) and appointed the contractor, CIENCO1 - CIENCO4 Joint Venture, to provide capital to organize and implement the construction.

Although the project has been completed and put into operation (February 2016), up to now the investor has not yet arranged public investment capital to repay the Project, leading to outstanding debt for basic construction after January 1, 2015, with the responsibility of state management belonging to the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction).

In Official Dispatch No. 14323, the Ministry of Finance said that the provisions of the Public Investment Law 2014, 2019, 2024 and Law No. 90/2025/QH15 only allow the allocation of public investment plan capital to pay off outstanding basic construction debts arising before January 1, 2015.

At the same time, Clause 6, Article 16 of the 2014 Law on Public Investment (effective from January 1, 2015) also strictly prohibits requiring organizations and individuals to invest their own capital when the program or project has not yet been decided on investment policy, has not been approved or has not been allocated planned capital, causing outstanding debt in basic construction.

Therefore, the authority to allow capital allocation for the outstanding debt of the Hoa Trung Bridge Construction Investment Project (arising after January 1, 2015) belongs to the National Assembly.

Based on the above, recently, the Ministry of Finance has reported to the Government leaders on the implementation status and difficulties and problems in arranging capital to repay the debt of the Hoa Trung Bridge Construction Investment Project.

According to the Ministry of Finance, in Resolution No. 132/2024/QH15 (Point i, Clause 2, Article 4), the National Assembly assigned the Government to: "Report to the National Assembly on the handling of outstanding debts for basic construction of state budget capital as of December 31, 2022, and the debts arising and accruing as of December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2024".

Implementing Resolution No. 132/2024/QH15 of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister issued Directive No. 36/CT-TTg dated October 3, 2024, assigning ministries, central and local agencies to: "Review and accurately determine the outstanding debt of basic construction capital from the state budget, send it to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance ... for synthesis and reporting to competent authorities."

Based on the above direction, the Ministry of Finance issued Document No. 4080/BTC-TH dated April 1, 2025 requesting ministries, central and local agencies to report on the outstanding debt situation of basic construction of state budget capital, including outstanding debts arising from January 1, 2015.

In Document No. 3994/BXD-KHTC dated May 26, 2025, the Ministry of Construction reported the preliminary situation of outstanding construction debts arising after January 1, 2015.

However, in this dispatch, the Ministry of Construction did not propose a solution to handle the outstanding debts of basic construction, including the Hoa Trung Bridge Construction Investment Project.

Urgent debt payment

In Official Dispatch No. 14323, the Ministry of Finance affirmed that the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Construction both agreed that the debt of the Hoa Trung Bridge Construction Investment Project is a basic construction debt arising after January 1, 2015 according to the provisions of the Law on Public Investment, the allocation of capital for the Project to pay off basic construction debt is under the authority of the National Assembly.

On that basis, in Document No. 9235/BXD-KHTC dated August 29, 2025, the Ministry of Construction proposed the Ministry of Finance to synthesize and report to competent authorities for consideration and decision.

To completely resolve the long-standing problems in arranging capital to repay the Project's debt, the Ministry of Finance proposed Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc to assign the Ministry of Construction to urgently carry out the tasks assigned by the Government's leaders, clearly identify the responsibility for the occurrence of outstanding debts in basic construction, propose the capital amount and plan to report to the competent authority on the Hoa Trung Bridge Construction Investment Project in the total outstanding debts in basic construction arising after January 1, 2015 of the Ministry of Construction; send to the Ministry of Finance for synthesis, report to the Government, the Prime Minister to submit to the National Assembly for consideration according to authority.

“The Ministry of Construction is fully responsible for the proposal, implementation and management of the Hoa Trung Bridge Construction Investment Project.”

It is known that the representative unit of the investor of the Hoa Trung Bridge Construction Investment Project has submitted to the Ministry of Construction for approval of the final settlement of investment capital for the project to complete the Hoa Trung Bridge Construction Investment Project, Ca Mau province.

Specifically, the value of assets formed through investment in the Hoa Trung Bridge Construction Investment Project is 247,817 billion VND, of which the construction cost is 224,66 billion VND (excluding interest arising from late payment); total debt payable is 247,817 billion VND.

According to the representative of CIENCO 1, the amount of 225 billion VND to the State may not be a large amount of money, but to this unit it is equal to 1/4 of the charter capital of the Corporation.

The lack of cash flow from unpaid infrastructure construction projects, including the Hoa Trung Bridge Project, is causing the Corporation to fall into a state of cash flow disruption, increasing bad debt, causing difficulties for the already difficult business operations.

“We hope that the competent authorities will completely handle the outstanding debt at the Hoa Trung Bridge Construction Investment Project, creating conditions for the construction unit to receive money as soon as possible to gradually resolve salary and insurance regimes for workers and repay credit and supplier debts,” the representative of CIENCO1 proposed.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/ro-huong-xu-ly-dut-diem-khoan-no-dong-xay-dung-cau-hoa-trung---ca-mau-d388059.html