Accelerating Public Investment Disbursement: A Key Focus for 2024
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The directive emphasizes that 2024 must be a breakthrough year for public investment disbursement, with a target of over 95% disbursement of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister. This ambitious goal sets the stage for achieving economic and social development goals for the year and aims to complete at least 3,000 km of expressways by the end of 2025.
To accomplish this challenging task, the Prime Minister has instructed ministries, central agencies, and local authorities to focus on several key missions and solutions.
Expediting Project Investment and Bidding Procedures
Ministries, central agencies, and local authorities are tasked with expediting investment and bidding processes, striving to commence construction on all public investment projects under their management that have been allocated capital in the 2024 public investment plan.
These entities are also responsible for creating detailed disbursement plans for each project, adhering to strict monthly and quarterly disbursement schedules. Increased on-site inspections and supervision will be conducted to monitor contractors and consultants, ensuring accelerated progress. Designated leaders will be held accountable for tracking project milestones, addressing challenges promptly, and ultimately bearing responsibility for the disbursement outcomes of their respective projects.
Additionally, proactive reviews and assessments of each project’s disbursement capacity will be conducted, along with consolidating capital supplementation requests and adjusting plans accordingly. This internal reallocation of capital from slow-disbursing to viable projects will be executed in accordance with regulations, ensuring the full utilization of allocated funds.
Abolishing Project Delays Due to Land Clearance Issues
The Prime Minister has instructed ministries, central agencies, and local authorities to expedite land compensation and clearance procedures, identifying this aspect as a critical bottleneck in project implementation. Adequate funding will be prioritized to compensate for areas that meet the necessary conditions, eliminating project delays caused by land acquisition issues, especially for national priority projects, expressways, key infrastructure, inter-regional roads, and coastal roads.
To facilitate this process, socio-political organizations are encouraged to participate in advocating and communicating with the public about land compensation and clearance, thereby expediting the realization of the 2024 public investment plan.
Additionally, efforts will be made to address challenges related to land and natural resources. Strict adherence to the Prime Minister’s and Deputy Prime Minister’s directives on streamlining procedures for mining and exploiting construction materials such as stone, sand, and soil will be ensured, maintaining efficiency, effectiveness, and legal compliance. Measures will be implemented to control the prices and quality of construction materials, and any instances of artificial scarcity, collusion among mine owners, or non-compliance with regulations that hinder project execution will be strictly handled.
Enhancing Monitoring of Compliance with Public Investment Management and Disbursement Regulations
Increased inspection frequency will be implemented to promptly address any shortcomings and accelerate project progress and public investment disbursement. Stringent discipline will be enforced in public investment disbursement, with severe consequences for project owners, management units, organizations, or individuals who deliberately create obstacles, display negligence, or fail to fulfill their responsibilities in capital allocation, plan adjustments, project execution, and disbursement. Timely replacements will be made for incompetent or sluggish officials, and any instances of corruption or negative behavior in public investment management will be resolutely addressed.
Furthermore, public investment disbursement will be substantiated, avoiding excessive reliance on contract advances. The allocation of capital for projects will adhere to the timelines stipulated in the Public Investment Law, minimizing requests for extended timelines from authorized agencies.
Identifying and Addressing Overlapping and Problematic Regulations
The Ministry of Planning and Investment is assigned to lead the review and amendment of the Public Investment Law and the Law on Investment in the Form of Public-Private Partnership, in collaboration with relevant agencies. The focus will be on simplifying and minimizing administrative procedures, eliminating overlaps and obstacles, ensuring transparency and anti-corruption measures, and enhancing public disclosure and accountability. Particular attention will be given to regulations on project and annual public investment plan formulation, approval, and mid-term public investment plan formulation. The proposed amendments aim to increase decentralization and delegation of authority and are expected to be reported to authorized agencies by September 2024.
The Ministry of Finance, in coordination with relevant agencies, will review and address problematic issues in the Law on State Budget, including local budget expenditure tasks for inter-provincial projects, the use of local budgets for projects under the central government’s management, and streamlining the disbursement process for non-refundable aid. They will also closely monitor market price fluctuations and propose appropriate solutions to the authorized agencies regarding price management, tax and fee policies, and other measures to stabilize prices and reduce costs for businesses, including those in the construction sector.
Securing Construction Material Supplies for Priority Projects
The Ministries of Transport, Natural Resources and Environment, Industry and Trade, and the People’s Committees of provinces and cities are tasked with ensuring a stable supply of conventional construction materials (sand and soil for embankment) for expressway projects, key infrastructure, inter-regional and coastal roads. This effort aligns with the “500 Days and Nights of Determination, Great Efforts, and Successful Completion of Expressway Projects” campaign.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is responsible for providing guidance to ministries, central agencies, and local authorities on forest land use conversion before August 30, 2024, and for reviewing and proposing amendments to relevant regulations as necessary.
The Ministry of Construction will closely monitor the market situation for construction materials, particularly essential ones, and promptly propose solutions to the Prime Minister to address challenges in ensuring supply and demand balance and controlling construction material prices. They will also provide guidance and handle difficulties faced by ministries, central agencies, and local authorities related to urban planning, project acceptance, and inspection, as well as feasibility study approval and design appraisal for construction projects.
Promptly Finalizing and Issuing Implementing Legal Documents for the 2024 Land Law
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is instructed to promptly finalize and issue guiding documents for the implementation of the 2024 Land Law and to submit to the Government for issuance a Decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP dated January 10, 2022, in August 2024. This amendment aims to address challenges related to environmental procedures for construction projects of state agency headquarters. During the same month, guidance will be provided on the management and conversion of forest land and rice land related to the implementation of public investment projects.
Additionally, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, in coordination with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, will take the lead in guiding and handling difficulties and obstacles in implementing projects that overlap with local mineral planning areas.
Strive to fully utilize the government budget in 2024
In terms of allocation, the disbursement of government investment capital requires an acceleration in implementation progress, aiming to fully disburse the state budget capital by 2024.
Investors Face Scrutiny for Low Disbursement
Several departments in Kon Tum have low disbursement rates, including the Forest Protection Department, Department of Health, the Management Board of Civil and Industrial Transport Infrastructure Construction Projects, and the Department of Transport.
Public Investment Disbursement Reaches 115 Trillion in the First Four Months of 2024
The Ministry of Finance has just reported on the disbursement situation of state budget investment capital in March, estimated to have implemented 4 months of the plan for 2024.
