Create initiative and flexibility in implementing national target programs

Delegates highly appreciated the Government agencies for seriously and fully absorbing the opinions of the National Assembly's Supervisory Delegation. The Ethnic Council and the National Assembly agencies have thoroughly and comprehensively examined the regulations on a number of specific mechanisms to fully institutionalize the regulations and policies on management and organization of the implementation of national target programs for the period 2021 - 2025 in the direction of increasing decentralization, empowering, creating favorable conditions for ministries, branches and localities to accelerate the implementation progress, completing the goals of each program as required by the National Assembly.

At the same time, many opinions suggested that the drafting agency clarify some unclear contents in the draft resolution so that localities can implement it immediately when it is issued.

Point c, Clause 1, Article 4 stipulates the allocation and assignment of annual central budget regular expenditure estimates, stating: “The Provincial People's Council decides to allocate the annual central budget regular expenditure estimates of each national target program in detail to component projects. If necessary, the Provincial People's Council decides to delegate to the District People's Council the decision on detailed allocation to each component project of the national target program.”

Delegate Chu Thi Hong Thai (Lang Son) suggested that it is necessary to clarify which cases are necessary so that the Provincial People's Council has a basis to assign to the district level to implement if the district meets the requirements or cases where assigning to the district level for detailed allocation will be more convenient in the implementation process.

Regarding the pilot mechanism of decentralization to district level in managing and organizing the implementation of national target programs, the Government proposed two options.

Option 1: Not implementing the pilot mechanism immediately in the 2024 - 2025 period, only regulating policy content with orientation for the organization to implement national target programs in the 2026 - 2030 period.

Option 2: Implement a pilot decentralization mechanism right in the management and organization of implementation of national target programs for the 2024 - 2025 period.

Expressing agreement with option 2, however, delegate Chu Thi Hong Thai said that it is necessary to stipulate criteria for selecting districts to conduct the pilot. The delegate proposed that the National Assembly assign the Provincial People's Council to base on local realities, on the realities of districts implementing all 3 national target programs with difficulties and problems that need to be resolved, and on the implementation capacity of the staff to select districts to conduct the pilot.

To thoroughly remove difficulties and obstacles in implementation, delegate Chu Thi Hong Thai recommended that the Government and Government agencies continue to review, revise, supplement, and issue new contents under their authority that are still missing or inappropriate in the implementation of the National Target Programs as indicated in Resolution No. 108 of the National Assembly, such as: Review, revise, and supplement criteria and indicators in the New Rural Criteria at all levels to suit the practical situation. The National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas has a number of policies and projects that are not close to reality, so they have not been effective, and people's lives have been slow to improve.

“In fact, there are still some policies that people cannot access, such as housing support and production development support for poor households, which require very difficult responses, so the disbursement of these capital sources is not much, so it is difficult to achieve the goals of the Program,” the delegate pointed out.

Regarding the pilot mechanism of decentralization to district level in managing and organizing the implementation of national target programs, delegate Nguyen Quoc Luan (Yen Bai) proposed that the National Assembly consider and choose option 2.

According to delegates, this plan will solve difficulties for localities, ensure thorough decentralization to the district level, create initiative and flexibility in the operation, management, organization and implementation of national target programs and ensure unity in the province's common goals.

The regulation that the Provincial People's Council, based on practical conditions, can decide to select one district (1 district) to pilot the decentralization mechanism is suitable to the practical conditions of the localities. At the same time, the delegate suggested that the Resolution should further stipulate: Based on the results of decentralization, the Provincial People's Council can decide to decentralize to other districts but not exceeding 50% of the number of district-level units in the area.

Commenting on some specific contents related to the allocation and assignment of annual central budget regular expenditure estimates, delegate Nguyen Quoc Luan expressed his agreement with the regulation that the Provincial People's Council decides to allocate the annual central budget regular expenditure estimates of each national target program in detail to each component project.

However, according to the delegate, the actual implementation of the National Target Programs in localities shows that some project contents under the National Target Programs have been completed, so there are no more beneficiaries or beneficiaries are not eligible for support according to regulations. Meanwhile, the tasks and contents of spending on infrastructure investment are very necessary, but resources have not met the needs, especially for mountainous localities, remote areas, and areas with difficult socio-economic conditions.

Therefore, the delegates proposed that the National Assembly consider and add the regulation: "Allowing the Provincial People's Council to adjust the capital structure from regular expenditures of contents and projects that no longer have spending objects or are unable to disburse funds to switch to infrastructure investment expenditures, implementing the goal of building new rural areas", to create flexibility and initiative for localities in balancing and using resources to serve socio-economic development tasks.