Minister of Finance: Public Investment Law is 'tying up' repair and upgrade projects

Mr. Ho Duc Phoc said the upgrade and expansion project cannot be implemented due to the 2014 Public Investment Law, and there needs to be a handling mechanism so that "officials do not make mistakes when following instructions".

Difficulties in renovating and expanding projects using public capital in many localities, and overlapping regulations of the Law on Public Investment and the Law on State Budget were raised by National Assembly deputies at the question-and-answer session on the morning of November 6.

Mr. Tran Chi Cuong, Vice Chairman of Da Nang City, raised the issue that the State Budget Law stipulates the use of regular budget expenditures to purchase equipment for the operation of the apparatus. However, the Public Investment Law stipulates the nature of public investment projects, leading to the understanding that all new construction, renovation, upgrading, expansion, asset purchase, repair, upgrading projects... must come from public investment capital.

"This leads to overlapping provisions of the State Budget Law and other specialized legal provisions in the use of regular expenditures for purchasing, repairing, and upgrading public assets," he said, and asked the Minister of Finance to clarify solutions to resolve the issue.

Explaining, Mr. Ho Duc Phoc, Minister of Finance said that he had carefully studied the Law on Public Investment and the Law on State Budget. Accordingly, the 2014 Law on Public Investment "ties" all projects to repair, upgrade and expand public assets regardless of the value of the project. In addition, if the project is not included in the medium-term public investment plan, it cannot be spent, according to the Law on Public Investment.

Finance Minister Ho Duc Phoc answers questions on the morning of November 6. Photo: Hoang Phong — Finance Minister Ho Duc Phoc answers questions on the morning of November 6. Photo: *Hoang Phong*

According to him, the annual medium-term public investment plan must be consistent with the medium-term public investment plan for the entire period, otherwise it will be a violation. That is, planning costs, investment preparation costs, and interest rate support issues are also included in the public investment law.

This has led to the situation where the State owes 2,200 billion VND to commercial banks but has not been able to allocate funds to support policy banks. Or in many places, houses are broken but there is no funding to repair them. "For example, the Vietnamese embassy in Germany is lacking a fence, but the Public Investment Law does not provide for a medium-term arrangement, so the fence cannot be built, that is the truth," he said.

Minister of Finance answers questions about public investment. Video: *Loc Chung*

Mr. Phuc suggested that this issue must be resolved to ensure economic development, to avoid obstacles for officials, and to avoid mistakes when following instructions.

Adding, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung commented that the problem here "may not be due to the Law on Public Investment, but rather the Law on State Budget". According to him, the repair and upgrading of public asset projects is currently being implemented normally, without any problems, only new construction projects must follow the procedures according to the Law on Public Investment. Minister Dung informed that the Government is submitting to the National Assembly that projects under 15 billion VND will be implemented under regular expenditure.

Not satisfied with Minister Dung's answer, from his executive position, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue added more about the boundary between regular expenditure and investment expenditure. He said that according to the Government's submission, the National Assembly agencies affirmed and responded to the Government that in practice, there is no legal document or case that stipulates the level of regular expenditure and investment expenditure based on the value of the amount of money.

"Over 15 billion VND is not public investment, under 15 billion VND is regular expenditure. We spend hundreds of billions on salaries and education and training, this is the nature of the expenditure, not based on the value of the expenditure," he said.

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue chaired the question-and-answer session on the morning of November 6. Photo: Hoang Phong — National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue chaired the question-and-answer session on the morning of November 6. Photo: *Hoang Phong*

The National Assembly Chairman said that after reviewing the law, the National Assembly agencies said that there were no problems with the Law on Public Investment, and asked the Government to review whether there were any problems with the Law on Budget. The result was that there were no problems reported. Therefore, the National Assembly removed the resolution on special regular expenditure and investment from the program, even though the Government submitted it three times.

"The Government and ministries should make proposals on the National Assembly Standing Committee's responsibility to explain the law. Only the National Assembly Standing Committee can explain it. The Standing Committee cannot explain what is clear and what no one has asked for explanation," he said.

The National Assembly Chairman added that this issue has been debated a lot. At the National Assembly forum, the Minister of Finance once said "from now on, this issue will not be raised again", but today the Minister said it again. "Because we have returned this document to the Government three times. Whether it is related to the Budget Law or not in this review, the Ministry of Finance has not said that there is any issue that needs to be reviewed", he informed.

According to the National Assembly Chairman, the legal document review team of the Government and the National Assembly works independently, synthesizing from ministries, branches and localities from 500 documents, circulars, decrees to the State Budget Law and the Public Investment Law.

"But no ministry has said anything about this issue," said Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue, adding that if there are any problems, they will be ready to amend and supplement. If it is not clear, they will be ready to explain the problem and the cause.

To clarify, Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue said he would invite Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh to report further on this issue.

Mr. Minh

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