Disbursement of public investment capital: Unable to accelerate

07:40, August 10, 2023

Public investment capital (PIC) disbursement is currently the issue that most concerns sectors and levels. Many "ultimatums", directives and instructions have been issued. However, the disbursement speed has not yet accelerated.

On "hot"

Demonstrating the determination to promote the disbursement rate of public investment capital in the locality, since the beginning of 2023, the Provincial People's Committee has issued many "hot" instructions. Notably, Directive No. 05/CT-UBND, dated March 2, 2023 of the Provincial People's Committee on "strengthening the implementation and disbursement of the 2023 public investment plan in the province".

Accordingly, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested heads of departments, branches, sectors, chairmen of People's Committees of districts, towns, cities and investors to urgently complete investment procedures, promptly register project information immediately after capital allocation. At the same time, proactively and actively coordinate to carry out site clearance procedures to promptly hand over the site to the contractor for construction on schedule. Moreover, the organization of the selection of consulting contractors must comply with regulations, ensure sufficient capacity, and meet the requirements of the bidding packages for implementation. For completed projects, it is necessary to promptly complete the project acceptance documents.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee also requested investors to comply with the registration and commitment to specific disbursement plans for each project according to the time milestones and to implement them according to the committed progress. In case projects and works have been allocated capital plans for the year but cannot disburse according to the progress, there must be a written proposal to transfer capital to other projects and works.

Construction of the project to renovate and upgrade Provincial Road 9 (section through Krong Bong district).

In addition, the Provincial People's Committee has directed departments, branches, localities and investors to strengthen management and payment work to speed up the disbursement of public investment capital from the state budget...

Recently, the Provincial People's Committee has established 4 working groups to inspect, urge, remove difficulties and obstacles and promote the disbursement of ODA in 2023 to monitor and promptly handle "bottlenecks" in the disbursement of ODA in the province. At the same time, urge investors to speed up the construction progress of projects and handle arising problems.

To resolve the difficulties and problems, investors have requested the province to implement many solutions, including allowing investors to self-adjust procedures in non-critical cases to shorten the time and reduce administrative pressure. Some units have reviewed and transferred slow-progressing projects that are unable to disburse all the capital assigned in 2023 to propose transferring them to projects that are not stuck with site clearance and construction ahead of schedule, and are able to disburse all the capital arranged to be transferred to ensure the correct capital source according to the approved project...

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Vo Van Canh has directed investors to thoroughly resolve problems to speed up the disbursement of ODA capital, especially the problems of slow site clearance and lack of construction materials. Departments, branches and localities must proactively advise, review, supplement and adjust soil and rock mines, not "wait for shortages to happen".

In particular, the investor must take full responsibility before the Provincial People's Committee and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee for the construction progress, disbursement, payment of completed volume, quality of works, selection of consulting units and contractors that do not ensure capacity. The disbursement results of investors are one of the bases for assessing the level of completion of tasks in 2023 of the unit's leaders.

Under "entanglement"

It can be said that the province has had strong leadership and direction in the issue of disbursement of public investment capital. However, overcoming the shortcomings and weaknesses in disbursement of public investment capital is still very slow. The most obvious manifestation is that by July 19, 2023, the whole province had only disbursed over 1,341/4,859 billion VND (equal to 27.6% of the plan).

Although the disbursement rate in the province has improved, 6.1% higher than the same period last year (21.5%), there has been no breakthrough. If this situation continues, the allocated capital will certainly not be fully disbursed in 2023. This leads to the consequence of "having money but not being able to spend it", having to transfer the source to the following year, and the planned target will not be met.

Accounting for over 46% of the province's 2023 capital plan, the Provincial Management Board of Investment Projects for Construction of Traffic Works and Rural Development was assigned over VND 2,433 billion. Of which, the central budget is VND 1,428 billion, the provincial budget is over VND 995 billion. As of August 7, 2023, the Board has disbursed over VND 855/2,433 billion (equal to 35% of the plan).

Mr. Phan Xuan Bach, Deputy Director of the Provincial Management Board of Investment Projects for Construction of Traffic Works and Rural Development, said that although a large amount of capital was allocated in 2023, the Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot Expressway Construction Investment Project alone accounted for more than VND 1,359 billion. However, this capital source was only allocated from May 2023, so the unit is implementing site clearance work.

In addition, when there is a volume of construction that can be accepted, but the investor collects many volumes to accept at once to reduce procedures, so the disbursement progress is affected. Another reason is that ODA projects have a fairly large investment capital but the procedures are too complicated. For example, for projects with technical adjustments, adjustments to the total investment must be related to adjustments to the project policy. In addition, some projects of the Board are still stuck with construction material mines and waste dumps, leading to delays in construction progress.

Construction of Ho Chi Minh Road Project, Eastern bypass of Buon Ma Thuot City.

Accounting for the second largest amount of capital, the Provincial Management Board of Civil and Industrial Construction Investment Projects was assigned over VND 858 billion of the 2023 capital plan (accounting for 17.7% of the province's capital plan). As of July 19, 2023, the Board had only disbursed over VND 141/VND 858 billion (equal to 16.6% of the plan).

Director of the Provincial Civil and Industrial Construction Investment Project Management Board Lu Ngoc Sinh explained that the low capital disbursement rate of the Board was due to the fact that during the implementation of some projects, many procedures arose; some projects had to change their time and make adjustments.

This is also the difficulty and problem of many other investors in the province in disbursing ODA. Regarding the cause of the above "stuckness", if in 2022 it is still explained by the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, but in 2023, the epidemic control situation is much better, life has returned to normal but the disbursement rate still has not accelerated. Notably, many units have very low disbursement rates, even the whole province has up to two units that have not disbursed any money. If this situation continues, it will lead to the risk of stagnation. Therefore, it is time to come up with tough solutions to change the situation.

Kha Le

Source