Ha Long City: Disbursement of public investment capital is unlikely to reach the expected target

In 2024, Ha Long City will allocate nearly VND3,100 billion to 284 projects. As of August 21, the city has only disbursed over VND618 billion (about 20% of the plan). This reality requires the city to have more drastic solutions in public investment disbursement to complete the set goals.

The project of the road connecting Provincial Road 342 to National Highway 279, passing through the center of Son Duong commune, is currently facing many difficulties due to lack of land for embankment.

Despite the determination to accelerate the disbursement of public investment capital from the beginning of the year, after nearly 8 months, the city's capital disbursement rate is still very low. According to the report of the City People's Committee, of the 618 billion VND disbursed, the additional provincial budget capital with new targets disbursed nearly 53 billion VND (reaching 5% of the plan), the city's self-balanced budget capital disbursed over 565 billion VND (reaching 30% of the plan). With this result, the disbursed capital of Ha Long City in the first 8 months of 2024 did not meet the requirements and was much lower than the same period in 2023.

The City People's Committee reviewed and assessed that the low disbursement progress was due to difficulties in projects from the provincial budget. Currently, the project of the Road connecting TL342 to QL279 (through the center of Son Duong commune) is lacking land for embankment. In particular, for the project of Building technical infrastructure for the Provincial General Hospital and high-quality medical and educational facilities in the Nam Cau Trang area (Hong Ha ward, Ha Tu ward) with a capital of 800 billion VND (accounting for more than 1/4 of the city's total public investment capital in 2024), but currently, due to the failure to agree on the compensation plan for site clearance with the Coal industry, the city does not have a site to hand over to the contractor for construction.

Due to the lack of agreement on compensation for site clearance, the project to build technical infrastructure for the Provincial General Hospital and high-quality medical and educational facilities in the Nam Cau Trang area (Hong Ha ward, Ha Tu ward) is directly affecting the results of disbursement of public investment capital of the city.

In addition, the work of clearing and settling completed projects, transitional projects and the progress of new construction is still slow. Specifically, for the group of 119 completed and transitional projects, there are currently 4 projects carrying out investment procedures, 10 projects with less than 50% of completed construction volume.

Of the 72 new projects to be started in 2024 decided by the City People's Committee for investment, only 37 projects have completed investment preparation, signed contracts and commenced construction; 5 projects are selecting contractors; 30 projects are completing investment preparation, signing contracts and commenced construction.

Of the 93 projects decided for investment by the People's Committees of communes and wards, 26 projects are in the investment preparation stage; 23 projects are under construction with a volume of less than 50%.

Through inspection and supervision, it was found that the objective reason was that the Land Law 2024, which took effect from August 1, 2024, adjusted the compensation calculation method in a more favorable direction for the people. Therefore, to ensure the rights of the people, the city has developed a new compensation plan, so the disbursement is slower than the original plan. On the other hand, in the contractor selection process, the Bidding Law 2023 took effect from January 1, 2024, so by the end of April, the guiding documents were fully issued, leading to a prolongation of the contractor selection time and other procedures.

Not only that, some projects with large investment capital of the city are also facing difficulties in zoning planning, land filling and are in the process of coordinating with departments and branches to resolve, so the allocated capital cannot be immediately disbursed. For example: Project of connecting road from TL342 to QL279 (through the center of Son Duong commune); project to improve Van Phong road (Hoanh Bo ward); Police headquarters of communes...

Faced with the low disbursement of public investment capital, on August 23, the Standing Committee of the Ha Long City Party Committee worked with relevant units to clearly identify limitations and bottlenecks and find solutions to remove them in the last 3 months of 2024. Accordingly, the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee requested the City Construction Investment Project Management Board to speed up the completion of investment and bidding procedures, and strive to start all works and projects that have been allocated capital before September 30, 2024. The Department of Finance and Planning proactively reviews and evaluates the disbursement capacity of each project to have a plan to adjust the capital plan from slow-disbursement projects to good-disbursement projects that need additional internal capital from investors according to regulations.

At the same time, relevant units must strengthen field inspection and supervision, urge contractors and consultants to speed up progress; assign specific leaders responsible for monitoring progress, especially for projects with construction sites; require investors to uphold their responsibilities, promote the role of leaders and the sense of responsibility of each individual involved, considering this an important basis when evaluating and classifying the level of completion of assigned tasks in 2024 of collectives and individuals. For completed projects, urgently carry out acceptance, handover and put into use, complete documents and procedures to submit for approval of final settlement of completed projects.

Comrade Vu Quyet Tien, Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Secretary of the Ha Long City Party Committee, affirmed: Public investment disbursement plays a very important role in socio -economic development, completing the strategic infrastructure system, creating new development space for the city. Therefore, the city will tighten discipline and order in disbursing public investment capital, resolutely and strictly handle cases of delay.

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