Prime Minister's instruction on key solutions to accelerate the disbursement of public capital in Vietnam

Prime Minister's instruction on key solutions to accelerate the disbursement of public capital in Vietnam (Image from the internet)

On August 8, 2024, the Prime Minister of Vietnam issued Directive 26/CT-TTg on tasks and key solutions to accelerate the disbursement of public capital in the last months of 2024.

Prime Minister's instruction on key solutions to accelerate the disbursement of public capital in Vietnam

Directive 26/CT-TTg clearly states: 2024 must be a breakthrough year in disbursing public capital. The aim is to achieve a disbursement rate of over 95% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister, creating favorable conditions to achieve socio-economic development goals for 2024 and aiming to complete at least 3,000 km of highways by the end of 2025.

To achieve the abovementioned objectives, the Prime Minister of Vietnam requires ministries, central agencies, and localities to implement the following key tasks and solutions:

(1) Speed up the completion of investment procedures and project bidding in Vietnam

- Assign specialized staff to closely follow the process of organizing, appraising project documents; thoroughly check and review the quality of documents before submitting for appraisal to minimize file editing due to non-compliance.

- Regularly inspect and urge specialized agencies to guide and handle files related to project appraisal work, advise on quality and progress; effectively coordinate with provincial departments and authorities, localities, investors, and project management boards to quickly handle administrative procedures, especially those related to the implementation and disbursement of public investment projects.

- Strengthen coordination among relevant agencies to advise competent authorities during the reception, negotiation, signing, and ratification of ODA loan agreements; manage and use ODA loans; further enhance information connection, report explanation, and monitor compliance with regulations, processes, progress, effectiveness, and project goals (avoid passivity in the implementation of ODA-funded projects and preferential loan funds from foreign donors, minimize procedures, and adjustments to project investment policies, cost increases, causing capital loss and reducing project efficiency).

- Urgently complete investment and bidding procedures, aim to start all public investment projects under the management scope, duly assigned and allocated public investment plans for 2024.

(2) Develop detailed disbursement plans for each project and strictly comply with monthly and quarterly disbursement plans

- Enhance on-site inspection, supervision, and urge contractors and consultants to accelerate progress. Assign leaders specifically responsible for monitoring the implementation progress; closely follow and promptly solve difficulties and be responsible for the disbursement results of each project, considering it an important basis when evaluating the performance of tasks assigned in 2024 for organizations and individuals.

- Proactively review, assess each project's disbursement capability, compile the need for additional capital for projects, and have plans to adjust capital plans from slow disbursement projects to projects that can disburse within ministries, central agencies, and localities according to regulations, ensuring the complete disbursement of allocated capital.

(3) Accelerate project compensation and site clearance in Vietnam

- Focus on leadership, direction, and determine that compensation and site clearance work is a bottleneck in project implementation that needs to be addressed; direct investors and project management boards: Collaborate closely with local authorities where the project is implemented to announce the plan, mark the scope of compensation, clear site; promptly provide related documents to local authorities to carry out procedures related to site clearance; fully calculate the technical infrastructure works that need to be relocated, prioritizing early implementation to avoid blockages and cost increases during execution.

- Prioritize allocating sufficient funds for compensation, and site clearance for areas eligible for compensation; avoid projects waiting for sites, especially national important projects, key highways, regional connecting roads, and coastal roads.

- Recommend political-social organizations participate in public communication to mobilize people in the compensation and site clearance work to accelerate the implementation of the 2024 public investment plan.

(4) Focus on resolving difficulties and obstacles related to land and resources in Vietnam

- Continue to seriously implement the Prime Minister’s and Deputy Prime Minister’s directives on resolving difficulties related to mining licenses and quarrying, sand, earth serving public investment projects ensuring quick, effective, and legal compliance.

- Implement measures to control both the price and quality of construction materials serving public investment projects; intensify inspection, examination, and strict handling of violations, especially in assigning material mines to the wrong subjects or without proper authority. Update and adjust the publication of construction material prices, construction price indexes monthly, aligning them with market price movements following legal provisions on construction, as a basis for adjusting project package costs and total investment. Strictly handle situations creating fake shortages, collusion among mine owners to increase prices, non-compliant exploitation, and supply affecting project execution.

(5) Promote the settlement and finalization of public capital for projects in Vietnam

- Direct investors/project management boards to complete all documentation and legal paperwork, and acceptance records of completed work within five working days after work completion, and promptly send them to the State Treasury as a basis for inspection, payment, and reimbursement as per regulations; do not allow backlog of actual completed volumes waiting for payment, avoid year-end payment accumulation.

- Urgently complete the approval procedures for the finalization and disbursement of completed projects. Direct functional agencies to regularly monitor, guide, and urge investors/project management boards to create project completion settlement reports according to content, form, and stipulated timelines; promptly handle investors/project management boards that violate the project completion report submission timeline; promptly resolve difficulties and problems for investors in project finalization work according to authority.

(6) Enhance monitoring compliance with regulations in managing and disbursing public capital

- Increase project inspection frequency to immediately rectify existing issues, accelerate project implementation, and disbursement of public capital. Tighten discipline and order in public investment disbursement, strictly handle investors, project management boards, organizations, and individuals deliberately causing obstacles, irresponsibly delaying capital allocation, capital adjustment, project execution, and public investment disbursement. Promptly replace inefficient officials and public employees who are incompetent, sluggish, corrupt, or negative; decisively handle negative behaviors in public investment management.

- Ensure substantial public investment disbursement, avoid over-relying on contract advances. Strictly manage contract advances in accordance with Directive 20/CT-TTg dated July 12, 2024, on correcting and strengthening the management of public capital advances sourced from the state budget by ministries, central agencies, and localities.

- Ensure project financing timelines follow the stipulations of the Law on Public Investment 2019, and limit the duration extensions for project financing by competent authorities. Focus on accelerating the disbursement and completion of projects permitted by competent authorities to extend the financing period until the end of 2024.

- Enhance training and capacity building for officials managing public investment; cultivate a proactive, creative, self-reliant, and resilient spirit, avoid dependency, undue caution, or responsibility aversion; encourage protecting those who dare to think, dare to act, and dare to take responsibility for common benefits; promptly replace incapable, stagnant, avoiding, or shifting responsibilities officials.

(7) Continue the activities of special working groups of the Prime Minister to inspect, urge, resolve difficulties, and accelerate the disbursement of public capital; working groups led by Government members to urge localities' production, business, public investment, infrastructure construction, and import/export situations. Enhance the quality of reporting in meetings with working groups, clarify causes of obstacles, ensure clear, substantial information, and identify issues at specific projects or stages for consideration and resolution by working group leaders.

Continue to enhance the effectiveness of the special task force on public investment disbursement led by provincial People's Committee chairpersons to direct detailed disbursement plans for each project, promptly resolve difficulties, and accelerate the disbursement of public capital for projects in the locality.

(8) Ensure local budget capital for development investment:

- Direct functional agencies to closely monitor and assess market conditions to propose revenue-increasing solutions, land use rights auction solutions to supplement local budget capital for investment; ensure budget capital allocation plans following the project's loan agreement’s specified re-borrowing ratio.

(9) Direct specialized agencies and competent local authorities to closely coordinate with ministries and central agencies that have public investment projects in their managed areas in introducing and approving construction sites; land allocation procedures for project construction; preparing and adjusting detailed/master plans, infrastructure, and transport connection agreements...

More details can be found in Directive 26/CT-TTg issued on August 8, 2024.

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