Efforts to disburse public investment must be enhanced in the remaining months of this year as the workload to reach the Government’s finish line remains huge.

Statistics from the Ministry of Finance show that more than VND253 trillion (US$10.6 billion) worth of public investment was disbursed as of September 30, making up 46.7 per cent of the Government’s plan.

The Government on September 15 issued Resolution No 124/NQ-CP as a push to stagnant public investment disbursement, which set the target for public investment disbursement at 95-100 per cent this year.

Public investment is an important and efficient solution to promote economic growth, improve the economy’s competitiveness, and draw investment inflow, especially in global uncertainties.

The disappointedly slow public disbursement was leading to delays in the implementation of development goals and causing waste.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said that there were three groups of difficulties which were hindering the disbursement of public investment.

The first group included difficulties related to institutions, mechanism, and policies, especially in land, natural resources, environment, State budget and public property, construction and bidding.

The second group included difficulties encountered during implementing public investment projects, such as slow land clearance, limited capacity of the investors and contractors and lack of drastic management measures.

The final group included specific difficulties in 2022. Skyrocketing raw material price was a major reason for the slow disbursement of public investment this year.

The prices of construction materials increased by 48.8 per cent against the same period last year, electricity and water system installation services by 13.37 per cent, iron and steel products by 11.08 per cent in the first nine months of this year.

Meanwhile, the Government’s cost norms were outdated, some of which was equivalent to 30 per cent of the market prices.

Identifying difficulties encountered during the implementation of public investment projects to be a major cause for the stagnant disbursement, Phuong said that accountability must be enhanced to improve the situation.

Phuong said that ministries, agencies and localities must strictly comply with the established regulations on public investment, adding that the focus must be placed on speeding up and improving the quality of preparations for implementing public investment projects.

A report by an inspection team of the National Assembly revealed that the preparation and evaluation for public investment projects, including surveying, project making, and appraisal, still lacked accuracy, resulting in that thousands of projects must be adjusted investment value, even several times. As a result, some projects had adjusted investments much higher than the initial approved.

The report pointed out that this was a problem that had existed for many years and had not been resolved thoroughly, causing considerable waste in the use of public investment.

Inspection must be enhanced to prevent violations, Phuong stressed. He added that administrative procedures must be simplified and information technology strengthened to handle public investment procedures.

The ministry’s statistics showed that 39 out of 51 ministries and central agencies, and 22 out of 63 provinces and cities, reported disbursement rates lower than the country’s average.

Former Director of the General Statistics Office Nguyen Bich Lam said that unreasonable cost norms should be reviewed to ensure the appropriateness of the market prices.

Under Resolution No 124/NQ-CP, the Government also asked for price control and quality of construction raw materials for public investment projects to be enhanced in the context of rising prices.

At the Government’s meeting about public investment in late September, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh urged drastic measures and efforts to be raised to speed up the disbursement of public investment. — VNS