[Audio] Problems slowing down public investment progress

The North-South axis road construction investment project in Thanh Mien district is expected to disburse more than 60% of the allocated capital in 2023.

Subjective causes are the main ones.

The investment project to build the North-South axis road in Thanh Mien district was approved by the Provincial People's Council at the end of 2020 and adjusted at the end of September 2022. The project will implement phase I with a total investment of nearly 398 billion VND. The route is more than 6 km long, connecting with Provincial Road 392 and the Hanoi - Hai Phong Expressway. In 2023, the project was allocated nearly 336 billion VND, including 200 billion VND of newly allocated capital, the rest is extended capital from 2022. Although the project is on schedule, the disbursement rate by the end of July reached nearly 40%, but there are still problems with the site clearance at some points in Thanh Mien and Binh Giang districts. In addition, due to objective reasons, as it takes about 6 months to handle weak ground, it is likely that by the end of 2023, the estimated disbursement rate will only reach more than 60% of the allocated capital plan. Therefore, the investor proposed to adjust the surplus capital to supplement other projects.

In 2021, the Provincial People's Council also decided on the investment policy to build a subject classroom building, a 3-storey functional classroom and ancillary works for Tu Ky High School with a total cost of nearly 15 billion VND. In early June 2023, the Tu Ky District People's Committee approved the adjustment of the detailed construction plan for the school. According to preliminary calculations, the total investment after adjustment exceeds the time approved by the Provincial People's Council. Therefore, the investor, the Provincial Construction Investment Project Management Board, coordinated to review, evaluate and propose an investment plan according to actual needs. Although the medium-term public investment capital for 2021-2025 was allocated, the project has not yet completed the investment preparation task to allocate detailed capital.

The intertwined objective and subjective reasons have caused the allocation and disbursement of public investment capital to be slow. The province's total public investment capital plan for 2023 is nearly 7,400 billion VND, but by the end of July, only about 23% had been disbursed. According to the Department of Planning and Investment, the disbursement of public investment capital is limited and has not met practical requirements due mainly to subjective reasons. From the time the project is formed until the time it can disburse capital, it must go through many stages, each stage is affected by many different regulations and laws such as construction, land, bidding, tax, environment, etc. Therefore, many units are confused in implementation, taking a long time to complete the documents.

In addition, the low quality of project preparation, poor survey and design work has led to many projects having to adjust investment policies and investment decisions, affecting the balance, allocation of capital and completion of projects on schedule. The 2023 capital plan has not yet allocated details for large projects, more than 860 billion VND. The public investment capital plan at district and commune levels still has many limitations, investment capital mainly comes from land use revenue. When the real estate market is sluggish, localities do not allocate enough capital to implement projects...

Due to the adjustment of the detailed planning, the investment project to build a 3-storey subject classroom building, functional classrooms and auxiliary works of Tu Ky High School has not completed the investment preparation task (photo provided by Tu Ky High School)

Disassembly

Faced with difficulties "blocking" the allocation and disbursement of medium-term and annual public investment capital, the immediate task is to ensure the disbursement rate in 2023 reaches over 95% according to the set target, the Department of Planning and Investment has proposed many solutions. In which, focusing on the best conditions for investment preparation work. The assigned agencies prepare periodic investment policy proposals reports 3 times/month to report on the results of task implementation to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles of each project.

Agencies and units shall increase the arrangement of competent and experienced staff to appraise investment proposal reports, striving to shorten the appraisal and approval time of projects by at least 50% compared to regulations. Based on the approved investment decision, the project management board and investor, when preparing the capital allocation proposal, must include a plan for the implementation progress and disbursement of capital for each project by month.

To avoid delays in project implementation, it is necessary to enhance the role and responsibility of leaders in leadership, direction, management and operation. Timely report to competent authorities to resolve difficulties and problems in implementing public investment plans and project implementation. Thoroughly handle problems in site clearance with synchronous solutions, creating consensus and agreement from the people...

For public investment plans managed by district and commune levels, it is necessary to ensure the preparation and adjustment of public investment plans, arrangement, balancing, allocation and disbursement of public investment capital in accordance with the provisions of law and in line with the actual situation. Overcome the situation of spreading out public investment plans and capital allocation not in the correct order of priority according to the Law on Public Investment. Capital allocation for newly started projects shall only be made after all outstanding debts for basic construction have been paid.

PV