This morning (February 29), the People’s Committee of Da Nang City held a conference to assess the disbursement results of the public investment plan, land clearance work in 2023, and the implementation plan for 2024 with the participation of the Permanent Party Committee, the Standing Committee of the People’s Council, the People’s Committee, the Fatherland Front Committee of Da Nang City, leaders of departments, and districts. At the conference, Mr. Nguyen Van Quang, Secretary of the Da Nang City Party Committee, requested clarification of the responsibility and causes of low disbursement of public investment funds, and proposed more effective solutions based on this evaluation.
Conference on the disbursement plan of public investment funds for 2024
According to the report at the conference, Da Nang City disbursed over 6.5 trillion VND for public investment in 2023, equivalent to 82.5% of the plan. The difficulties in the disbursement included the transition of the project management units proposing investment decisions from the project management boards to the specialized agencies according to the provisions of the Law on Public Investment, which encountered some confusion. Many units still lack management skills and experience. The project management capacity did not meet the requirements.
According to regulations, planning work can only be done after investment decisions for the projects are approved, leading to delays in related activities such as geotechnical survey, preparation of base design documents, and project dossier submission. The process of preparing investment procedures, feasibility studies, and reports also took a long time.
For some healthcare and education projects that involved equipment procurement, there were difficulties in building the equipment list, evaluating equipment prices, and the project owners had to consult many agencies, resulting in a longer time frame. Slow progress in land clearance, scarcity of sand and land resources for leveling according to the schedule, and unresolved technical infrastructure issues were also reasons for the slow disbursement of public investment.
Da Nang speeds up disbursement of public investment from the beginning of the year
In 2024, Da Nang City is allocated over 8.8 trillion VND for public investment. The city strives to complete over 95% of the disbursement plan. To achieve this goal, the city of Da Nang will concentrate on implementing the outlined tasks. The project owners and project management boards have detailed plans to urge contractors to focus on construction, disbursement of investment funds, and immediate settlement from the beginning of the year. They will complete the procedures and commence 48 projects.
The Department of Construction will be responsible for coordinating with relevant units to expedite the review and timely approval of zoning plans, adjust the detailed planning and specific planning of projects. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment will continue to review the content that can be decentralized and delegated to district-level People’s Committees to expedite land clearance.
Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Tam, Director of the Department of Planning and Investment of Da Nang City, said: “For the Department of Planning and Investment, besides the ongoing work, we will continue to focus on reviewing difficulties, obstacles, especially in the management work. And we will report, advise the city’s People’s Committee and the city’s Party Committee leaders promptly and prepare a report to send to the central authorities on the difficulties and obstacles in the disbursement process of public investment to ensure better and better implementation in the near future.”
Removing obstacles for the Software Park No. 2 project
In his speech at the conference, Mr. Nguyen Van Quang, Secretary of the Da Nang City Party Committee, said that this year’s evaluation report was written very well and specifically, but completely lacks the evaluation and handling of responsibilities of individuals and organizations that failed to complete the task of disbursing public investment. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Quang, in 2023, Da Nang City aimed to disburse public investment funds by 100%, then lowered to 98% and finally down to 95%. However, by the end of the fiscal year, it only achieved over 82%. Nevertheless, at this point, the Party Executive Committee of the City People’s Committee has not proposed to review the responsibilities of those involved.
Regarding the reasons for the low disbursement of public investment, the report of the City People’s Committee did not clearly indicate the responsibility of the departments and agencies in the implementation process, but mainly listed objective reasons. There was no mention of whose responsibility it was, whether it belonged to the Department of Planning and Investment or to the Department of Construction, Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
According to the report, the responsibility mentioned was the slow land clearance, the fault of the People’s Committees of the districts and towns. However, until November 2023, the city had adjustments and resolved some difficulties, including allocating land clearance responsibilities to district-level authorities.
Accelerating the construction progress of the common infrastructure for the Lien Chieu Port.
Mr. Nguyen Van Quang requested clarification of responsibility and handling of the relevant groups and individuals who were slow in disbursing public investment funds: “So, I ask you, when it comes to disbursing public investment funds, it’s not until November that we have a decision to decentralize it to the districts and towns. However, since November, it has been the responsibility of the city. Now, you must discuss specific solutions for the groups of projects that we have in the list of 40 projects planned to be completed in 2024. I have a few questions: When do these 40 projects start? How many plans do we expect to complete and by when? How much funding has been disbursed up to this point and how much funding is still to be disbursed in 2024?”
Secretary of the Da Nang City Party Committee requested units and localities to carefully review the 48 projects scheduled to commence in 2024, and whether there are any difficulties or obstacles in the documents by this time. How well has the land clearance work for these 48 projects been carried out? Secretary of the Da Nang City Party Committee also acknowledged his personal responsibility for the low disbursement of public investment in the past year.
