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NA Standing Committee investigates waste of State capital in construction
State capital used in capital construction is not being used efficiently, according to the National Assembly Standing Committee’s supervisors.
Supervisors investigated the use of investment in 11 provinces and cities and worked with leaders from seven ministries, sectors and agencies, some project management boards, groups and corporations.
They found that from 2005 to 2007, total investment for capital construction was VND237 trillion (US$ 14 million), accounting for around 22 per cent of total investment in the country.
State budget allocated to capital construction was still limited, the supervisors said. Investment was haphazard and disbursement was slow, meaning lack of profits. To ease the situation, outstanding debts and cumbersome procedures in management in this area had to be tackled, they said.
Last year, 3,979 projects, 13.9 per cent of the country’s total, were delayed or slow to complete. These include HCM City National University’s Lecture Hall, which was completed in early 2006 but was not put into use until 2007; and a waste water treatment plant for the Bac Thang Long – Van Tri urban area, finished in October 2005 but still out-of-use because it has no electricity supply.
While the country still faces electric shortages and blackouts, dozens of Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) projects to build electric plants have been slow.
Also, in urban development, a project to build Thanh Tri Bridge and roads in southern Ha Noi with capital of VND7.6 trillion ($458 million) was delayed for several months, with investors having to pay VND1.5 billion ($89,820) in interest per day.
According to the NA’s supervisors, in the last three years, total investment in capital construction from the State budget was VND237 trillion ($14 million), of which VND151 million was managed by cities and provinces, and the remainder managed by ministries and sectors.
This figure might be larger than previous years but it still failed to meet demand, the supervisors said. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development received VND6.5 trillion ($389 million), but this sum met only 52 per cent of its demand.
Capital earmarked to pay outstanding debts for capital construction in localities had helped to ease the problem, but there was still VND3.8 trillion ($231 million) of debt yet to be paid to contractors of completed projects.
Phung Quoc Hien, chairman of National Assembly’s Financial and Budgetary Committee attributed waste of State capital and problems with disbursement to slowness in site clearance; bidders’ poor capability; and in particular, cumbersome policies and mechanisms.
To deal with these problems, most of the NA deputies agreed that it was necessary to revise policies and mechanisms.
Deputy Chief Inspector of the Government Mai Quoc Binh said it would be necessary to establish a working group to tackle the issue.
VNN
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