Many shortcomings and deficiencies were pointed out in the audit results of the National Target Program on New Rural Construction.

According to Decision No. 120/QD-KTNN dated February 23, 2023 of the State Auditor General, from March 1 to April 29, 2023, the State Audit (SA) conducted an audit of the National Target Program on New Rural Development (hereinafter referred to as the Program) for the period 2021-2025 at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the following localities: Phu Tho, Hanoi, Hai Duong, Hai Phong, Thanh Hoa, Binh Phuoc, Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau , Tay Ninh, Vinh Long, Can Tho City.

Detecting shortcomings and deficiencies

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has been slow in implementing the task of developing and submitting to the Prime Minister for promulgation a decision detailing the principles, criteria, and norms for allocating central budget capital (NSTW) and the proportion of counterpart capital from local budgets (NSĐP) compared to the plan assigned in Decision No. 1689/QD-TTg dated October 11, 2021 of the Prime Minister; has been slow in submitting to the Prime Minister for approval and promulgation of a set of criteria for evaluating and classifying OCOP products; has not completed the development of indicators and forms for monitoring and evaluating the Program as prescribed in Article 32 of Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP dated April 19, 2022 of the Government. In addition, the urging and consultation of a number of ministries and branches on the draft of 5 Programs to support the National Target Program has not met the time requirements in the Documents of the Government Office .

Many shortcomings were pointed out in the audit results of the national target program on new rural construction, Figure 1. — The progress of building and promulgating the set of criteria for new rural communes and districts, advanced new rural areas and model new rural areas of localities is slow. Illustration photo: dangcongsan.vn

The work of developing the capital allocation and allocation plan for the 5-year period 2021-2025, each year of the Program still has some shortcomings in determining the data source on the number of communes meeting new rural standards (NTM), the number of communes in region III, affecting the amount of capital allocated by the central government to some localities. Some localities have been allocated higher capital support than the reviewed plan of 358.39 billion VND, while some localities have been allocated lower capital support of 150.46 billion VND.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has not yet presided over and coordinated with relevant ministries, central agencies and localities to prepare a 5-year Program Plan and send it to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and the Ministry of Finance according to the provisions of Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP dated April 19, 2022 of the Government as a basis for submitting to the Prime Minister to allocate 5-year public funding in the central budget structure to the Program's governing agencies.

Up to now, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has not received the expenditure estimates as well as the budget settlement data assigned to the national target programs of ministries, central agencies and localities. This problem has affected the monitoring and synthesis of budget estimates assigned to budget levels and the settlement of the state budget estimates assigned to the Program owners. This is the main reason why the Program host agency (the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) does not have enough basis to prepare a report summarizing the funding situation and finalizing the Program's funding to report to the Government to submit to the National Assembly as prescribed.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment is slow to submit to the Government a document amending and supplementing Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP; slow to submit to the Government for approval the report on allocation of central budget funds in 2022; and has not completed the establishment of the National Target Program Monitoring and Evaluation System as prescribed in Article 32 of Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP.

The Ministry of Finance has not yet compiled and proposed the allocation of central budget funds for the 5-year period to each ministry, central agency, and locality according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 35 of Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP to submit to the Prime Minister for assignment to the Program's governing body according to regulations.

Some relevant ministries and branches are slow to announce specific targets and issue implementation instructions for criteria and targets under the National Criteria Set for New Rural Communes in the 2021-2025 period, which somewhat affects the progress of building and promulgating the Criteria Set for New Rural Communes, Advanced New Rural Communes and Model New Rural Communes of localities and affects the assessment of the implementation results of New Rural Communes and Advanced New Rural Communes.

In 13 audited provinces and cities, some provinces have not yet established a Steering Committee for the National Target Program or have not yet completed the organization and staffing of the New Rural Area Coordination Office at all levels as prescribed; the organization of the model and working mechanism of the New Rural Area Coordination Office at all levels at the local level are not yet unified; a number of documents guiding the organization and implementation of the Program have not yet been issued as prescribed in Article 40 of Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP.

Mobilizing, integrating capital sources, and implementing the Program's goals still have many shortcomings.

According to the State Audit Office's assessment, for the State budget source, localities have not been able to accurately determine the capital mobilization data to implement the Program in 2021 and 2022 for the State budget capital allocated for targeted support to districts and communes. Part of the reason is that the capital allocation level and capital structure for each activity and investment project portfolio are not expected; there are no specific regulations on the integration mechanism, payment process and procedures, and settlement of combined capital; solutions to mobilize capital to implement the Program have not been determined...

Regarding credit capital, it is not possible to accurately determine the credit loans for investment in implementing the components of the Program because the credit capital is synthesized by the State Bank branches in provinces and cities on all loans of the Social Policy Bank and commercial banks in rural areas, without specifying the loan programs and loans related to the contents of the National Target Program on New Rural Construction for the period 2021-2025.

Many shortcomings were pointed out in the audit results of the national target program on new rural construction, figure 2. — Localities have not been able to accurately determine the capital mobilization figures for implementing the Program in 2021 and 2022 for the State budget capital allocated for targeted support to districts and communes. Illustration photo: N.Loc

In implementing the capital mobilization mechanism and the mechanism for integrating capital sources to implement the Program in some localities, the mechanism for integrating capital sources between target programs and other programs and projects in the area as prescribed in Article 10 of Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP has not been issued; a detailed list of projects under the Program and a list of projects integrating the Program's objectives and subjects has not been established.

According to the report of the Central Office for New Rural Area Coordination, by December 31, 2022, the targets of communes meeting advanced new rural standards, communes meeting model new rural standards, districts recognizing standards, and completing new rural construction tasks were all lower than the assigned plan targets; the progress of implementing some specific contents of 5 specialized programs under the National Target Program on New Rural Area Construction for the 2021-2025 period is still slow or has not been implemented.

In 13 audited localities, the implementation results of some targets have not been achieved compared to the targets and plans assigned by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 653/QD-TTg dated May 28, 2022, specifically: 6/13 localities have not completed the target of the number of districts recognized as meeting standards/completing the task of building new rural areas; 1/1 locality has not completed the target of districts meeting advanced new rural standards; 5/13 localities have not completed the rate of communes meeting new rural standards; 7/13 localities have not completed the rate of advanced new rural communes; 3/6 localities have not completed the rate of model new rural communes.

Shortcomings in compliance with financial and accounting regimes; regulations on construction investment

In implementing the public investment plan, the medium-term public investment plan with the general State budget capital for both the National Target Program on New Rural Construction and the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction, the detailed medium-term public investment plan for the project was not specifically assigned (Hanoi City); the list of medium-term public investment plans did not include the National Target Program on New Rural Construction for the period 2021-2025 (Ho Chi Minh City); the People's Council was not submitted before the People's Committee issued a Decision on the public investment plan (Phu Tho province); the Decision on allocating the medium-term plan was not issued after the People's Council issued a Resolution on the medium-term public investment plan (Tay Ninh province).

Regarding the allocation of budget estimates and capital allocation for the Program implementation, the work of synthesizing data on State budget capital allocated for the Program in 2021 and 2022 of localities reporting to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for national synthesis (excluding integrated capital) and the central State Treasury for monitoring and synthesis still has large differences, mainly because some localities do not allocate separate State budget capital to implement the Program but allocate it to other Programs, projects, and projects but have an indirect impact on the implementation of the Program's criteria (but when synthesizing, they synthesize the whole into this Program); some audited localities do not specifically and in detail allocate capital for the New Rural Program; have not allocated career capital; have not allocated budget estimates for the Program according to the instructions in Circular No. 71/2020/TT-BTC dated July 30, 2020 of the Ministry of Finance; The allocation of state budget capital (including central and local budgets) is not in accordance with the criteria, norms, contents, and subjects prescribed in Decision No. 263/QD-TTg dated February 22, 2022, Decision No. 07/2022/QD-TTg dated March 25, 2022 of the Prime Minister and regulations related to the Program for the period 2021-2025 such as: debt repayment for projects in the period 2016-2020, expenditure on building commune headquarters, bonus expenditure for welfare projects...; slow adjustment of annual state budget capital plan; slow allocation of career capital (central budget source).

Many shortcomings were pointed out in the audit results of the national target program on new rural construction, figure 3. — Through the audit of the National Target Program on New Rural Development for the 2021-2025 period, the State Audit Office recommended handling hundreds of billions of VND. Illustration photo: dantocvamiennui.vn

Regarding the summary of the Program's budget settlement, in the provinces and cities, the budget from the local budget to support districts and towns to implement the National Target Program (including the National Target Program on New Rural Construction for the period 2021-2025) in 2021 and 2022 was not monitored by the districts and towns, and the summary of the budget settlement for the Program was not sufficient, leading to insufficient basis to determine the data of the district and commune-level State budget directly supporting the Program. In addition, the provincial budget support for districts to implement the Program has not been instructed to enter the target program code on the Tabmis system of the State Treasury but is monitored by project code or economic career content according to the provincial budget estimate, so the monitoring is scattered, making it difficult to manage and summarize reports on the support capital source at each local budget level. Therefore, the synthesis of funding sources and finalization of funding for the National Target Program on New Rural Construction for the period 2021-2025 in localities does not accurately reflect the investment capital data for the Program in 2021 and 2022. The audit results also show that the State budget capital allocated for the Program has expired and has not been reviewed by localities and returned to the superior budget according to regulations;

Through the audit results of investment projects in audited localities, it is shown that there are still some shortcomings in determining the total investment of the project; the survey and design work at some projects under the Program has not fully complied with the regulations on design; the work of preparing, appraising and approving estimates still has errors in volume, not in accordance with the regulations, increasing the value of the approved estimate by 15,101 million VND; the work of managing, implementing acceptance and payment at many projects still has errors in determining volume and unit price, the audit results recommend a reduction of 10,460 million VND.

Many shortcomings and limitations in policies and regimes

Some documents guiding the implementation of the Program still have shortcomings and limitations that cause difficulties and obstacles for localities in organizing and implementing the Program, such as:

Circular No. 53/2022/TT-BTC dated August 12, 2022 regulates the management and use of public service funds for the 2021-2025 Program from the central budget. However, the content of Circular No. 53/2022/TT-BTC does not have specific instructions and regulations on applicable subjects, expenditure contents, expenditure levels, expenditures on specific contents... for subjects using public service funds from the local budget. This does not ensure consistency in the use of public service funds (including the central budget and local budget) to implement the Program for the 2021-2025 period in the provinces implementing the Program, especially in the provinces not allocated the central budget to implement the Program for the 2021-2025 period.

In Clause 3, Article 1 of Decision No. 319/QD-TTg dated March 8, 2022 of the Prime Minister on regulations on model new-style rural communes for the period 2021-2025, it is stipulated: "There must be at least 01 smart village model, specifically regulated by the Provincial People's Committee". However, the Government, relevant ministries and branches have not issued specific instructions, leading to confusion among provinces when developing criteria and inconsistency in the number and content of criteria.

The set of criteria for new rural communes on health stipulates the rate of electronic medical examination and treatment. However, due to different infrastructure conditions, unsynchronized information technology platforms, and no official application for electronic health records, the Ministry of Health is in the process of developing specific regulations on personal health records, electronic health records, and remote medical examination and treatment according to the current amended Law on Medical Examination and Treatment.

Proposal to handle hundreds of billions of dong and rectify and overcome many problems

Through the audit, the State Audit Office recommended financial handling of VND 145,728 million, including recovering and returning to the budget VND 46.3 million of illegal expenditures; recovering excess funds of VND 36,724 million; reducing payments of VND 6,597 million; arranging local budget funds to refund the program VND 102,360 million. Other handling recommendations included VND 307,259 million, mainly adjusting and not incorporating into the final budget of the Program for the 2021-2025 period, which is VND 298,932 million.

At the same time, for the People's Committees of the audited provinces, the State Audit recommends directing relevant units to urgently complete and submit to the Provincial and Municipal People's Councils to promulgate a mechanism for integrating capital sources to implement the Program according to current regulations for the period 2021-2025; inspect, review, compare, and synthesize data on capital sources invested in the National Target Program on New Rural Construction for the period 2021-2025 (2021, 2022) of the locality; strengthen inspection and review of projects in the Program to ensure capital allocation for investment implementation in accordance with the content, objects, and capital allocation in accordance with the regulations of the Program for the period 2021-2025.

For the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the State Audit recommends reviewing the documents directing and guiding the implementation of the Program to promptly advise competent authorities on amendments, adjustments and supplements to ensure consistency and suitability with the actual conditions of each locality (region), promoting the effectiveness of the Policy, ensuring convenience for localities to implement the Program.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development needs to coordinate with ministries and branches in charge of the Program's components to develop a plan to implement the Program, agree on targets and specific annual tasks expected to be assigned to each ministry, central agency and locality for implementation.

Coordinate with localities to implement the Program to review, compare, and synthesize data on capital sources invested in the National Target Program on New Rural Construction for the period 2021-2025 (2021, 2022) of the province and city to ensure accuracy and have a basis for evaluating and synthesizing data for the finalization of the Program's budget.

Review the Program's capital allocation plan for localities with errors in data sources on the number of communes meeting NTM standards and the number of communes in region III in the plan. On that basis, coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance to synthesize a report for the Government to submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee for consideration and decision.

Correct and learn from the delay in submitting the decision detailing the principles, criteria, and norms for allocating central budget capital and the proportion of counterpart capital from local budget; delay in submitting to the Prime Minister for promulgation of support programs and the set of criteria for evaluating OCOP products; not completing the development of indicators and forms for monitoring and evaluating the National Target Program on New Rural Construction as prescribed in Article 32 of Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP dated April 19, 2022 of the Government; not presiding over and coordinating with relevant ministries, central agencies and localities to develop the Plan for the National Target Program on New Rural Construction for the 5-year period 2021-2025 to send to the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance according to Clause 3, Article 5 of Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP dated April 19, 2022 of the Government as a basis for submitting to the Prime Minister; The plan for allocating central government funds to localities to implement the Program still has shortcomings and errors.

For the Ministry of Planning and Investment, urgently coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to complete the National Target Program Monitoring and Evaluation System as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 32 of Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP to ensure the updating and storage of monitoring and evaluation information of National Target Programs nationwide. Correct and learn from the limitations in the delay in issuing documents directing and guiding the implementation of the Program.

For the Ministry of Finance, it is necessary to coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant units to review the documents directing and guiding the implementation of the Program under the Ministry's responsibility to promptly consider amending and adjusting any problems to ensure consistency and suitability with the actual conditions of each locality (region), promoting the effectiveness of the Policy in the process of implementing the Program.

Urgently coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant units to synthesize and propose the balance of career capital from the central budget to implement the Program for the 5-year period, notify the annual estimated career budget inspection number and the next two-year period to serve as a basis for the program owner to develop an allocation plan, notify the expected level of career capital from the central budget to implement the National Target Program on New Rural Construction to ministries, central agencies and localities according to regulations so that the Program implementing units have a basis to deploy and carry out the Program's tasks.

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