Economic Recovery and Development Program

Socio-economic Recovery and Development Program: Every session mentions slow disbursement progress

The disbursement progress of many investment projects using capital from the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program is greatly affecting the implementation results of Resolution No. 43/2022/QH15.

Delegate Nguyen Quang Huan, National Assembly delegation of Binh Duong province, speaking at the Hall on the morning of May 25

Delegate Nguyen Quang Huan, National Assembly delegation of Binh Duong province requested clarification of the cause of slow disbursement.

"It is necessary to further analyze the reasons for the slow disbursement of Ngai Ngan, because since I joined the National Assembly, almost every session has mentioned the slow disbursement progress, but the analysis is still somewhat qualitative," said delegate Nguyen Quang Huan at the meeting hall this morning, May 25, about the report of the Supervisory Delegation and the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on the results of thematic supervision of the implementation of Resolution No. 43/2022/QH15 dated January 11, 2022 of the National Assembly on fiscal and monetary policies to support the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program and the National Assembly's resolutions on a number of important national projects until the end of 2023.

In the monitoring report by Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh, Deputy Head of the Standing Supervisory Delegation, reported to the National Assembly at the beginning of the discussion session, in addition to the basic positive results, some shortcomings and limitations were pointed out.

Investment preparation for some projects is slow, not ensuring readiness for implementation and capital disbursement according to the deadline requirements of Resolution No. 43.

The progress of implementation and disbursement of capital for many projects does not ensure the prescribed deadline in 2022 - 2023, especially investment projects in the fields of health and information technology have very slow progress, so the Government has proposed and the National Assembly has approved to extend the implementation and disbursement time of projects using capital from the Program at the 6th Session of the 15th National Assembly.

Some policies did not achieve the planned targets, such as: the policy of supporting interest rate of 2%/year through the system of commercial banks achieved a low disbursement rate (only reaching about 3.05% of the plan); the policy of supporting rent for workers (reaching 56% of the plan), had to transfer resources to implement other policies.

Support policies for people and workers in some localities are still slow and confusing; the appraisal and settlement of support funds for beneficiaries face many difficulties and are slower than required...

"We have mentioned many reasons, all of which are correct, but which reason causes what percentage of delay, we must calculate specifically to have a specific solution," delegate Huan suggested.

For example, the reason that the economy has difficulty absorbing affects which projects are disbursed and what percentage. The reason that the time is too short, the economy cannot absorb, then why can some places absorb?

"If the cause is clarified, then if we determine where the absorption is slow, we will put it into areas and projects that can absorb it, such as the land clearance of key projects, important projects...", delegate Huan suggested and said that this method will achieve the goal of pumping money into the economy.

Delegate Huan mentioned the reason for the delay due to the process and procedures. “The report mentioned that the Government has submitted the list of projects to the National Assembly Standing Committee 5 times. As I understand it, if a state of emergency is declared, the National Assembly only needs to approve the policy and budget, and the selection of projects is the Government's job, the National Assembly supervises and inspects the implementation... But the Government has to submit it 5 times, but up to now, only 72% of the capital has been allocated and 61% has been disbursed. It is necessary to analyze whether such a process causes delays or not?", Delegate Huan emphasized.

It is worth mentioning that, according to delegate Huan, the procedures of the special mechanism are still slow, so if there is no special mechanism, the procedures will take a long time.

"It is necessary to study procedures to ensure quick disbursement," delegate Huan suggested.

Also discussing the remaining problems in implementing Resolution 43, delegate Mai Van Hai, Thanh Hoa delegation, mentioned that the leadership and direction of some ministries, branches and localities were not really drastic.

“The documents guiding capital allocation and disbursement procedures are still complicated. There are still problems in applying special mechanisms and many officials are in a state of shirking responsibility, avoiding responsibility, and are afraid of making mistakes and being held accountable,” delegate Hai emphasized.

This is the reason why delegates suggested that the Government focus on directing ministries, branches and localities to urgently review and find solutions to resolve recommendations, difficulties and problems related to the implementation of investment projects, and speed up disbursement progress.

In particular, he proposed that the National Assembly consider continuing to expand the application of a number of specific policy mechanisms not only to important national projects and highways but also to other important national and provincial projects.

Delegate Pham Van Hoa, Dong Thap delegation also mentioned the cause of slow investment preparation for projects. "This is the main cause of low disbursement," Delegate Hoa emphasized. In addition to the many shortcomings in site clearance, it is necessary to clarify the investment portfolios submitted to the National Assembly that are not close to reality, leading to many adjustments, affecting capital allocation, construction progress and disbursement of projects.

Some shortcomings and limitations in implementing the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program
(1) Some policies are not really feasible; in actual implementation, some policies do not ensure the requirement that "the resources provided can be disbursed and absorbed quickly".
(2) The viewpoint of the Resolution is to correctly identify the subjects in need of support; however, there are subjects in need of support that are not identified accurately, leading to cancellation, postponement, and non-implementation; there are policies that identify the number of subjects that are too large compared to reality.
(3) Investment preparation for some projects has not been timely, only when capital is available, investment procedures are carried out; selection of investment projects is not linked to capital absorption capacity, leading to delays in completing investment procedures, capital allocation, having to extend the capital disbursement period to December 31, 2024 and possibly having to continue to extend until 2025, affecting the efficiency of capital use of the Program.
(4) Some policies have low implementation results. Data assessing the implementation of specific policies shows that 07 policies with quantitative targets set out in Resolution No. 43 have not been implemented as planned. Among them, some major policies under Resolution No. 43 were prioritized for large resources but the results achieved were very low.
Source: Thematic monitoring results "Implementation of Resolution No. 43/2022/QH15 dated January 11, 2022 of the National Assembly on fiscal and monetary policies to support the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program and resolutions of the National Assembly on a number of important national projects until the end of 2023"

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