New proposals for management and organization mechanisms for implementing national target programs

*Forces participating in supporting working days to help poor households remove dilapidated houses in Ha Nam province. (Photo: nhandan.vn)*

According to the Ministry of Finance , the purpose of developing the draft Decree of the Government regulating the management mechanism and organization of implementation of national target programs (hereinafter referred to as the draft Decree) is to create a unified, synchronous, transparent, feasible, accessible, effective and efficient legal framework in the management of national target programs.

The Draft Decree has 8 chapters and 62 articles, with the following contents.

Chapter I on "General Provisions" includes 4 articles regulating the scope of regulation; applicable subjects; interpretation of terms; principles in management and organization of implementation of national target programs.

Chapter II on “Establishing, approving, assigning, and adjusting plans for implementing the national target program for the 5-year period and annually” includes 6 articles with some noteworthy contents. Specifically:

Firstly , regulations on the establishment and assignment of plans for implementing national target programs for the 5-year period (Articles 5 and 6) are in the direction of specifying in detail the process from the stage of proposing the need for medium-term public investment capital to the stage of allocating, assigning, and issuing implementation plans at ministries, central agencies and localities. In particular, the following provisions are added:

- The process and responsibility of the program owner is to propose the need for allocating medium-term public investment capital for the 5-year period of each program at the same time as completing the Investment Policy Proposal Report and Feasibility Study Report.

- Allocate and assign the 5-year medium-term public investment plan in the direction of the Prime Minister allocating and assigning the 5-year medium-term public investment plan to implement each program according to the total capital of each program in accordance with the direction of the Prime Minister at the Government Standing Committee meeting on August 4, 2025.

- The People's Council at the provincial level decides or delegates to the commune level to decide on the detailed allocation of the 5-year medium-term public investment plan to the list of component projects and public investment projects to implement each national target program.

- Contents of promulgating plans to implement national target programs at central and local program management agencies.

Second , regulations on the order of preparation and decision on state budget estimates and annual public investment plans (Article 7) including allocation and assignment of estimates and plans for capital support from the central budget to localities according to the principle that the Prime Minister assigns the total estimates and plans according to the program; localities decide on detailed allocation.

Third , supplement regulations on the organization of implementation of national target programs (Article 8) to clarify the time limit for allocation, assignment, and implementation; reporting content; principles and responsibilities for handling when ministries, central and local agencies fail to allocate and disburse capital assigned by the Prime Minister.

Fourth , continue to implement the community participation planning method in planning the implementation of national target programs at the commune level (Article 9) to ensure people's participation according to the principle of the State and people working together.

Fifth , supplement regulations on adjusting the implementation plan of national target programs for the 5-year period and annually (Article 10) to complete the content and handle recommendations and proposals from localities during the implementation of national target programs.

Chapter III on “Mobilizing and using capital sources to implement national target programs”, including 6 articles, stipulates the inheritance of solutions to ensure the mobilization and use of each capital source in the process of organizing the implementation of national target programs at the local level.

The contents include: balancing, arranging, and using state budget capital (Article 11) and specific mechanisms in using state budget capital to support investment for policy subjects (Article 12); solutions for integrating capital sources (Article 13), mobilizing credit capital (Article 14), and mobilizing other legal capital (in Article 15). In which, new regulations are added:

Firstly , in principle, the allocation of state budget to implement national target programs (in Clause 2, Article 11) is adjusted in the direction of:

- Allocate central budget capital to implement national target programs according to the principle of central allocation to ministries, central agencies and localities according to the total capital of each program; ministries, central agencies and localities decide on detailed allocation, select content and implementation solutions.

- The Prime Minister decides or authorizes Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, and agencies directly under the Government to decide on principles, criteria, and norms for allocating central budget capital to ministries, central agencies, and localities.

- The People's Council at the provincial level decides on the principles, criteria, and norms for allocating state budget capital (including targeted support capital from the central budget and self-balancing capital from the local budget) to agencies, units, and affiliated levels to implement national target programs at the local level.

Second , regarding the specific mechanism in supporting investment for policy subjects within the content of the national target program, 3 options are proposed.

Option 1: Supplement and amend regulations on special mechanisms suitable for the organization of two-level local governments; at the same time, separate the regulations on special mechanisms into 1 article in Chapter III.

Option 2: Abolish the special mechanism regulations.

The reason given by the Ministry of Finance is that the special mechanism is included in Decree No. 38/2023/ND-CP to supplement the legal basis for using public investment capital to support people in ethnic minority areas to build houses under Project 1 of the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority Areas for the period 2021-2025. However, this mechanism is not unified and does not have simple procedures like the mechanism for using public capital to support people in poor districts to build houses under Project 5 of the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the period 2021-2025 (the project aims to support housing for about 100,000 poor and near-poor households in poor districts with safe, stable housing that can withstand the impact of natural disasters, contributing to improving the quality of life and sustainable poverty reduction).

According to the report, localities only apply the mechanism to disburse public investment capital under Project 1 of the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority Areas for the 2021-2025 period; no new policies applying this mechanism are issued. At the same time, most localities propose to unify the implementation of housing support policies using regular budgets.

According to the document of the Conference summarizing the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas, the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions proposed to use public capital to implement housing support policies for ethnic minorities; it did not propose to use public investment capital for support.

Third , supplement the method of mobilizing policy credit capital to implement national target programs in localities through implementing the mechanism of entrusting local budget capital according to the provisions of the 2024 Law on Public Investment.

Chapter IV on “Special mechanism in organizing the implementation of small-scale, non-complicated technical construction investment projects” includes 7 articles. The content of this chapter is based on the inheritance of the provisions of Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP at the request of the Ministry of Construction; at the same time, supplementing and adjusting the authority of the district level to the commune level according to the provisions of Article 5 of Decree No. 125/2025/ND-CP, criteria for selecting special projects. In particular, the criteria for selecting special projects are expected to be implemented according to 3 options.

Option 1: Determine criteria for selecting projects to implement special mechanisms based on technical factors, without specifying the total project investment value in the Decree. In which:

The project has non-complicated techniques according to the provisions of construction law or has sample designs, typical designs or available designs that have been applied in the provincial area;

At the same time, the program owner is assigned to prescribe the total project investment value to apply specific mechanisms according to the content of each program, without prescribing the absolute value of the total project investment in the Government's Decree.

Option 2: Determine criteria for selecting projects to implement special mechanisms based on technical factors, only determine the type of project suitable for applying special mechanisms, do not specify criteria for total project investment. In which:

The Ministry of Construction is assigned to specify detailed technical criteria for determining projects with non-complex techniques for construction investment projects.

Assign specialized management ministries (such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Health, etc.) to specify detailed technical criteria for determining projects with non-complex techniques for projects under their management.

The program owner shall prescribe criteria for project types to which special mechanisms are applied in the implementation of national target programs within its management scope to ensure suitability with the characteristics of each sector and field.

Option 3: Maintain current regulations. Accordingly, projects that are subject to special mechanisms must have a total project investment not exceeding VND 5 billion; have uncomplicated techniques, have sample designs, typical designs or available designs that have been applied in the province and are on the list of project types that are subject to special mechanisms issued by the Provincial People's Committee.

Chapter V on “Mechanism for implementing production development support activities under the national target program” includes 5 sections and 21 articles. The content of this chapter is built on the basis of inheriting the contents prescribed in Clauses 11, 12, 13, and 14, Article 1 of Decree No. 38/2023/ND-CP and adding regulations to clarify the recommendations of localities in the period 2021-2025; at the same time, abolishing the provisions on procedures, contents, and requirements that are no longer suitable to reality or have not been effective in practice.

Chapter VI on “Organization and management of national target programs” includes 5 articles. The content of this chapter specifies the management function of national target programs according to the provisions of the Law on Public Investment, clarifies solutions to improve the capacity of management, implementation and communication of national target programs at the grassroots level and in the community to concretize the principle of “decentralization and empowerment” according to the direction of the Prime Minister.

Chapter VII on “Monitoring, inspection, evaluation and supervision of national target programs”, consisting of 5 articles, specifies the provisions of the Law on Public Investment on monitoring, inspection, evaluation and supervision of national target programs.

Chapter VIII on “Implementation” includes 9 provisions to clearly define the responsibilities of ministries, central and local agencies in managing and implementing the national target program; transitional provisions; implementation provisions and effective period.

According to Nhan Dan Newspaper

Source: https://baotuyenquang.com.vn/xa-hoi/202509/de-xuat-moi-cho-co-che-quan-ly-to-chuc-thuc-hien-cac-chuong-trinh-muc-tieu-quoc-gia-df50614/