What are duties of financial authorities at all levels, agencies of Vietnam in charge of reviewing the final accounts for public investment funds for projects upon completion?

What are duties of financial authorities at all levels, agencies of Vietnam in charge of reviewing the final accounts for public investment funds for projects upon completion?

Pursuant to Article 50 of the Decree 99/2021/ND-CP stipulating duties of financial authorities at all levels, agencies of Vietnam in charge of reviewing the final accounts for public investment funds for projects upon completion as follows: 

1. Inspect the distribution of state budget-funded investments in accordance with the Law on State Budget and this Decree. Synthesize budgets for mid-term and annual public investment of the state budget (including domestic and overseas funds), and legitimate revenues that state authorities or public service units retain for investing purposes within their remit.

2. Cooperate with regulatory authorities in providing regulatory payment bodies, investors and contractors performing public investment mandates and projects with guidance on financial regulations and policies for investment, management, payment/disbursement and final settlement of public investment funds; inspecting their compliance with these regulations, policies and performance towards management, payment/disbursement, final settlement of public investment funds in order to take actions against violations or issue decisions to retrieve funds disbursed in breach of regulations currently in force.

3. Implement regulations on reporting of disbursement and final accounting of public investment funds under regulations in force.

4. Request regulatory payment bodies, managing agencies and investors to provide documents, materials and information necessary to perform the tasks of state management of finance, state budget and public investment, including documents serving the needs of management of public investment projects, distribution of budgets, reporting of implementation and disbursement of mid-term and annual public budgets according to regulations on the reporting regime; documents serving the needs of audit of year-end and upon-completion final accounts of public investments in accordance with regulations laid down herein.

5. Every six months or each year, based on reports of regulatory payment bodies, with respect to the projects under the authority of ministries or central authorities, the Ministry of Finance shall issue regulatory official letters to strengthen the inspection and assessment of implementation of the budget and recovery of advance funding for public investment of the state budget, and request actions to be taken against overdue balances of advance funding that are not recovered to ministries and central authorities; for projects under the management of all-level People’s Committees, Departments of Finance and Divisions of Finance and Planning in districts shall report on and recommend measures to be taken to treat unrecoverable amounts of advance funding that are overdue to the same-level People’s Committees.

6. In addition to the tasks specified in clause 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this Article, they can assign the Ministry of Finance to:

a) Assist the Government in the uniform regulatory control of management, disbursement of public investment funds, and final settlement of public investment funds of the state budget in the budgetary year, and final settlement of completed projects. Lead and cooperate with relevant ministries and agencies in taking responsibility for guidance on implementation and implementation of this Decree.

b) Instruct and check the implementation of regulatory provisions on management and disbursement of public investment funds, and final settlement of public investment funds of the state budget in the budgetary year, and final settlement of completed projects. Where there is any defect or violation detected during the process of review and approval of final accounts of public investment funds for completed projects, it is mandatory to request final accounts-approving authorities to make necessary adjustments; consider taking actions under their jurisdiction or request competent authorities to take actions against such violation under law in force.

c) Take charge of entering and validating public investment budgets of the state budget on Tabmis on an annual basis.

d) Impose regulations on final settlement forms and charts and provide instructions about relevant matters.

dd) Submit the synthesis report to the Government to seek its decision in special cases where regulations other than those of this Decree on project dossier (legal, advance funding and disbursement dossier), disbursement mechanism (mechanism for advance funding, recovery of advance funding, payment for completed quantities) are needed.

7. The agency in charge of reviewing the final settlement of public investment funds for completed projects shall guide and inspect the investor’s implementation of final settlement of public investment funds for completed projects; review of final accounts of public investment funds for completed projects in accordance with this Decree; bear responsibility for direct results of review of the final accounts on the basis of the dossier on final settlement of public investment funds for completed projects that the investor provides. Bear no responsibility for accuracy of quantities successfully tested by investors and contractors and entered into the final accounts; of the cost estimate approved by competent authorities, or the winning bid proposal decided by authorities having competence in deciding the contract awarding and recorded in the contract by mutual agreement between investors and contractors.

What are duties of regulatory payment bodies of Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 51 of the Decree 99/2021/ND-CP stipulating duties of regulatory payment bodies of Vietnam as follows: 

1. Carry out control and disbursement activities to ensure that funds are disbursed in a timely and full manner to projects when all requirements and schedule prescribed in law in force and this Decree are met. Give written opinions to investors on disbursement reductions or refusals, and respond to queries of investors about fund disbursement.

In case of discovering that documents included the dossier provided by the investor are in breach of current regulations, the regulatory payment body shall make the written request for reconsideration and clearly state recommendations; after the prescribed time limit, in case of receiving none of answers or any answer in breach of current regulations, regulatory payment bodies shall report to superior competent authorities and financial authorities for review and further action.

2. Push investors into compliance with regulations on advance funding, recovery of advance funding, debts; cooperate with investors in checking over amounts already disbursed in advance to serve the purposes of recovering amounts of advance disbursement not yet used or misused, and closing out accounts of the projects obtaining approval of final settlement in accordance with regulations. Obtain permission to temporarily suspend fund disbursement or cooperate with investors in recovering funds used to serve wrong purposes, beneficiaries or in breach of regulatory provisions on financial management currently in force, and report on such situation to the Ministry of Finance for its proper actions.

3. Carry out the communication, reporting regime and the year-end final accounting in accordance with this Decree and regulations in force.

4. Confirm the disbursement amount in the year and the disbursement amount accumulated from the project commencement date to end of the state budgetary year for specific projects or confirm the disbursement amount at the administrative request; for foreign funds, the regulatory payment body (State Treasury) shall confirm such amount according to data on request for advance funding and disbursement by the investor (project owner) that are accepted by the regulatory payment body.

5. Provide specific instructions about controlling and disbursement methods within the system.

Best regards!