What is needed for successful vehicle inspection equitization?

According to the new regulations, the inspection centers under the Department of Transport will have to be equitized. When the "privilege" for State inspection units is no longer available, the centers will have to improve the quality of their services to survive.

Increase investment to compete

On the morning of November 1, at the 2401D Motor Vehicle Inspection Center ( Lao Cai ), vehicle inspection activities took place normally. Inside the waiting area, customers leisurely sat drinking water and watched the inspection activities through the surveillance camera screen.

Equitization of vehicle inspection centers helps improve service quality but there are still many concerns about effective implementation.

The center's leaders said that in 2016, this unit equitized and switched to operating as a 100% private-owned joint stock enterprise.

"Although the initial stage encountered many difficulties, the equitization helped the center gain autonomy in investment as well as operations. We have focused on investing in equipment, improving service quality to meet people's needs, increasing competitiveness and attracting customers," he said.

Similarly, in Son La , Mr. Pham Tuan Anh, Director of Son La Ministry-Water Vehicle Inspection Joint Stock Company (2602D) said that after equitization, the unit's operations changed in a more dynamic direction to compete with other private centers in the area.

In particular, focusing on improving service quality, the operating system when restructured is no longer cumbersome as before, minimizing procedures. Each employee has to take on different jobs but always serves enthusiastically and wholeheartedly.

However, according to Mr. Tuan Anh, because it is no longer a public service unit, the price of land rental, electricity, water, etc. are all higher than before, while the number of vehicles is decreasing due to the appearance of many other centers in the area. At the same time, after the regulations on exemption from first-time inspection and extension of inspection cycles for some types of vehicles came into effect, the price of inspection services has not increased in the past 10 years, causing the unit to fall into a difficult situation.

"Salary for inspectors and technical staff has decreased and is no longer attractive enough, so recruiting more staff is becoming increasingly difficult," Mr. Tuan Anh shared.

In the same situation, the leader of the 2401D Inspection Center said that although it has been equitized for 8 years, the unit still has financial difficulties, and its revenue is not enough to cover its expenses. Currently, the income of inspectors and professional staff is only slightly above the minimum wage.

Separation of management and service provision

According to Decision 17/2024 of the Prime Minister (effective from December 10, 2024), public service units in the field of technical inspection of road motor vehicles and inland waterway vehicles (except for the field of ship and marine construction inspection) will be converted into joint stock companies, with the State holding more than 50% of the charter capital.

Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc has just signed Decision No. 17/2024 amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decision No. 26/2021 on the list of industries and fields implementing the conversion of public service units into joint stock companies, effective from December 10, 2024.

The Decision has added 3 more sectors and fields of public service units to be transformed into joint stock companies, with the State holding more than 50% of the charter capital, including: Technical inspection of labor safety; Construction inspection; Technical inspection of road motor vehicles and inland waterway vehicles (except for the field of ship and marine construction inspection).

In fact, in many localities, since 2016, in addition to private inspection centers, many inspection centers that were previously units under the Department of Transport have also been equitized.

Thus, unlike the previous period, when inspection centers were public service units that could be 100% privately owned, now the maximum shareholding is only 49% privately owned, with the State still holding over 50% of the charter capital.

A representative of the Department of Enterprise Management, Ministry of Transport said that according to the current model, the inspection centers of block V (under the Ministry of Transport) are not subject to Decision 17/2024 to convert to the equitization model.

For local inspection centers (under the Provincial People's Committee) which are public service units, they will have to implement Decision 17/2024 when qualified.

In addition, the Vietnam Register is currently building and completing the Project "Innovation of State management in the field of registration" in the direction of separating the State management function from the provision of public services.

In particular, public career centers will be established to manage the inspection units. When the project is approved, the public career centers will come into operation, and within 3 years, they will review and evaluate whether to equitize or not, as well as the plan and roadmap for equitization.

Only profitable activities qualify.

An expert in the field of vehicle inspection said that according to Decree 150/2020, the conditions for converting a public service unit into a joint stock company are that the unit must have capital and assets, be an independent legal entity, have 3-year financial reports, self-guarantee regular expenses and investment or self-guarantee regular expenses in the year closest to the time of conversion (ie profitable operations).

When the unit meets these conditions, the owner plans and schedules the equitization, reports to the Prime Minister, and gets approval before it can be implemented.

Applying the above conditions to the field of motor vehicle inspection, currently, the inspection centers of block V (under the Ministry of Transport) are not subject to this subject when they do not have assigned assets (the assets are mainly human resources), rented premises and financial resources still depend on the owner unit.

For inspection centers that are local public service units (block S), the People's Committee of the province/city will be responsible for reviewing the conditions of each unit to plan equitization and report to the Prime Minister before implementation.

What do inspection centers expect?

According to the investigation of Giao Thong Newspaper reporters, in the period of 2017-2020, in 2018-2019, Inspection Center 2201S (Tuyen Quang) also carried out procedures for asset valuation and equitization plan.

However, according to the representative of this center, when the Provincial People's Committee sent an official dispatch to the Ministry of Planning and Investment to report to the Government, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that the equitization of public service units operating in the field of motor vehicle inspection would not be implemented until before 2025.

"Therefore, although it is ready, the center is still a public service unit. In the future, if the province reviews and decides to re-equitize, the unit will have to re-evaluate assets and re-equitization plan from the beginning," he said.

In Hoa Binh, the 2801S Inspection Center decided to equitize 7 years ago but has not yet been able to do so. The representative of the unit said that the center has just changed its location, invested in new equipment, and the depreciation period is still long. Equitization will be difficult to attract investors due to high costs, while the number of vehicles inspected has decreased.

The leader of the 2903V Vehicle Inspection Center (Hanoi) said that although there has been no equitization policy in the past, the impact of policies on vehicle inspection cycles has caused a sharp decrease in the number of vehicles. The unit has also proactively restructured its personnel and arranged the most streamlined working apparatus to structure costs reasonably and effectively. Up to now, this vehicle inspection center has only 21 officers and employees, while previously there were 25-30 people.

"If there is a policy and conditions for equitization are met, it will be implemented according to the roadmap. However, equitization means that the center must pay salaries and bonuses to employees while for many months, the unit has had to ask for support from the Vietnam Register.

Never before has the number of vehicles coming for inspection in early October been so low as it is now. If the price of vehicle inspection services does not increase, most inspection centers will have to bear losses every month. In this context, it is difficult to attract investors to buy shares," he said.

Sharing the same view, the leader of the 2201S Inspection Center said that it is expected that in the period of 2025-2027, the number of vehicles requiring inspection will hardly increase. Not to mention, when converting to a business model, it means that the costs of land rental and electricity will also increase, and they will no longer enjoy the same price as public service units.

While the number of inspection centers is increasing, for effective equitization, it is necessary to soon issue new inspection service prices. The increase must ensure the center's revenue to be able to pay expenses and pay appropriate salaries to employees. On the other hand, it is necessary to soon have toxic allowances for inspectors because the working environment is very harsh, thereby, adding a factor to attract human resources to this field.

According to statistics, the country currently has 292 motor vehicle inspection centers with 542 production lines, of which 69 are S-block units and 13 are V-block units, the rest are private inspection centers.

There are 10 localities that have equitized vehicle inspection centers in the past time, including: Quang Ninh, Thai Binh, Ha Tinh, Lao Cai, Son La, Ben Tre, Hau Giang, Quang Nam, Bac Kan, Hai Duong.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/can-gi-de-co-phan-hoa-dang-kiem-thanh-cong-192241105001126426.htm