Amend the law to cure the "disease" of slow disbursement of public investment funds.

According to Le Quang Manh, Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee, the revised Public Investment Law project mainly focuses on solutions to address the "chronic problem" of slow disbursement of public investment funds.

Separating the GPMB (General Planning and Management Board) will create greater flexibility and initiative.

On the afternoon of October 29th, the National Assembly held group discussions on the draft Law on Public Investment (amended) and the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Securities, the Law on Accounting, the Law on Independent Auditing, the Law on State Budget, the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets, the Law on Tax Management, and the Law on National Reserves.

Commenting on the draft Law on Public Investment (amended), the majority of opinions agreed with the new draft law separating land clearance into a separate project; increasing the scale of public investment capital for nationally important projects from VND 10,000 billion to VND 30,000 billion or more; and doubling the scale of Group A, Group B, and Group C projects compared to current regulations.

Ms. Van Thi Bach Tuyet, Deputy Head of the Ho Chi Minh City National Assembly Delegation, contributed her comments at the group meeting.

Contributing her opinion, Deputy Head of the Ho Chi Minh City National Assembly Delegation, Van Thi Bach Tuyet, agreed to separate land clearance work into an independent project for all projects, including Group B and C projects.

Representative Tuyet argued that this approach would create proactiveness and prevent waste. In practice, when compensation and resettlement projects are combined into construction projects, many delays and obstacles related to land acquisition and resettlement occur. As a result, construction projects have to be adjusted multiple times, wasting a lot of time, money, and effort for the investor.

Separating the two projects will create greater autonomy in implementation.

Furthermore, the female delegate from Ho Chi Minh City argued that separating the land compensation and resettlement project would also address the situation where the locality wants to create a land fund for auction.

Under current regulations, this is impossible. Without a specific construction project, a compensation plan cannot be established. Local authorities wanting to create cleared land for auction to generate revenue for development will face obstacles.

Secondly, regarding the regulations on the Prime Minister 's authority to assign the Provincial People's Committee as the managing agency for projects in areas covering two or more provincial-level administrative units; the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee may choose to assign a District People's Committee as the managing agency for projects in areas covering two or more district-level administrative units or to organize the implementation of the project within their authority.

Delegates believe that this regulation aims to strengthen decentralization and delegation of authority, creating proactive coordination without having to wait for central agencies to act as project investors.

Many central agencies and ministries are responsible for numerous projects, including key national projects. If all the investment is concentrated in a single central ministry, it will inevitably cause delays.

Regarding increasing the scale of public investment capital, Representative Tuyet fully agreed and stated that the Ho Chi Minh City National Assembly delegation had suggested this point a long time ago, but it had not yet been studied and incorporated by the National Assembly.

According to her, in practice, there are quite a few public investment projects within a province or city, unrelated to other provinces or cities, that have a capital scale exceeding 10,000 billion VND. If they had to follow the procedures of Group A projects, it would take a lot of time, effort, and paperwork.

Therefore, increasing the capital scale of key national projects from 10,000 billion VND to 30,000 billion VND is appropriate. For projects in groups B and C, the female representative suggested that instead of doubling the amount as proposed in the draft law, a threefold increase could be considered.

Minimize administrative procedures and avoid the "request-and-grant" mechanism.

Also agreeing with the draft amendment to the Law on Public Investment, delegate Duong Ngoc Hai (from Ho Chi Minh City delegation) pointed out that some provisions in the current law do not meet and are not in line with the actual situation and the requirements of socio-economic development in the new context.

In particular, some provisions lack specific and clear regulations regarding authority, procedures, and processes, leading to inconsistencies and differing interpretations. Therefore, this results in buck-passing and a system of "request-and-grant" between localities and ministries, and between ministries themselves.

Delegate Duong Ngoc Hai (from Ho Chi Minh City delegation) speaks at the group meeting.

In addition, there are obstacles such as the fact that the quality of investment preparation in the past has not met the requirements. Some investment projects and programs need adjustments to their investment policies, which prolongs the process and affects the project's progress...

Given the aforementioned difficulties, delegates strongly agreed with the view that the law and policy mechanisms under the amended Public Investment Law should be amended to strongly decentralize power from the central to local levels in the spirit of "local authorities decide, local authorities act, and local authorities are responsible," while the central government should strengthen inspection and supervision to ensure clarity of roles, responsibilities, and tasks.

"Based on that, we need to minimize administrative procedures to enhance accountability, avoid shirking responsibility, and prevent the 'request-and-grant' mechanism," Mr. Hai said, expressing his hope that this amendment to the Law will resolve all obstacles faced by localities and accelerate investment projects.

Create flexibility, ensure timely resource availability.

Speaking at the group meeting, Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh stated that the revised Public Investment Law mainly focuses on solutions to address the chronic problem in public investment, which is the slow disbursement of public investment funds.

According to Mr. Mạnh, every year, the press and mass media frequently mention the issue of slow disbursement of public investment funds.

Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh speaks at the group meeting.

Explaining the causes of this disease, Mr. Mạnh said that one of the main reasons is the land clearance process.

Another reason is that investment preparation is often rushed, leading to numerous revisions during the implementation process.

"Around the world, many countries spend years preparing for investment in Group A or Group B projects but only implement them within one year, while in our country it's the opposite," said the Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee.

Other reasons Mr. Manh pointed out include the multi-level management system leading to lengthy administrative procedures; complex procedures for ODA projects; and the inconsistent use of different sources in public investment implementation.

Therefore, according to Mr. Manh, this time the Government is focusing on amending five main groups of solutions.

The first step is to decentralize power and authority to local governments and ministries to streamline procedures. Mechanisms that have been piloted in many localities and sectors have proven effective and will be codified into law for implementation nationwide.

Another solution is to separate the GPMB (General Planning and Management Board) to shorten project implementation time and synchronize with other laws. In addition, there is a separate set of solutions for ODA (Official Development Assistance) projects.

"The amended Public Investment Law focuses on addressing the causes of slow disbursement, in line with the delegates' desire to create flexibility and ensure timely resources to meet real-life needs," he emphasized.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/sua-luat-de-chua-can-benh-cham-giai-ngan-von-dau-tu-cong-192241029173026996.htm