Many localities simultaneously petitioned the Ministry of Construction on the establishment of economic and technical norms.

The Ministry of Construction is currently soliciting comments on the draft Circular guiding the method of determining and managing costs of public services for urban lighting and urban trees.

Notably, the draft Circular stipulating in Article 6 on " Management of public service norms " is attracting many comments from provinces and cities across the country.

Article 6 of this draft stipulates: "Economic and technical norms issued, amended and supplemented by the provincial People's Committee are the basis for issuing prices, unit prices of products or making estimates of public service costs ."

The Ministry of Construction is proposing standards for public services (trees, public lighting) to be developed by localities and issued with economic and technical standards (Illustration: Thu Huong)

At the same time, Clause 3, Article 7 of the draft stipulates: “ Professional agencies of the provincial People's Committee are allowed to hire consulting organizations and individuals with sufficient capacity and experience to develop or examine economic-technical norms, prices, and unit prices of public career services from local budget sources. The cost of hiring consulting organizations and individuals is determined by cost estimates in accordance with the content and requirements of the necessary work .”

Some opinions say that requiring the People's Committees of provinces (63 provinces) to develop sets of public service norms for urban trees and urban lighting is similar, leading to waste of state budget, not ensuring consistency and difficulty in implementation.

In addition, the establishment of norms is a specialized job, and most localities do not have consulting units capable of establishing norms. Therefore, it may lead to localities having to place exclusive orders with units of the Ministry of Construction such as: Construction Economics Consulting Center - Ministry of Construction or Construction Economics Institute.

Recently, a series of provinces such as Phu Yen, Lao Cai, Nam Dinh, Kien Giang ... have sent written comments to the Ministry of Construction requesting that this Ministry be responsible for developing economic and technical norms in accordance with the provisions of law.

Specifically, in Document No. 3474/UBND-DTXD dated June 13, 2024 of Phu Yen Provincial People's Committee sent to the Ministry of Construction, it is stated: According to Clause 3, Article 10 of Decree 123/ND-CP September 1, 2016 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of Ministries and ministerial-level agencies, which stipulates the tasks and powers of the Ministries " Issuing economic and technical norms applicable in the fields of public service, regulations on bidding, delivery, assignment of tasks to provide and implement public service in the field of management ".

And according to the provisions of Decree 32/2019/ND-CP dated September 1, 2019 of the Government stipulating the assignment of state budget tasks from regular expenditure sources at Point b, Clause 1, Article 26 on the responsibilities of Ministries, central agencies... and a number of other provisions of the Decree stipulating the responsibilities of the Provincial People's Committees to promulgate, amend and supplement according to their authority the work of building technical-economic norms, cost norms (if any) applicable to public products and services as a basis for promulgating unit prices and prices of public products and services.

Public lighting services are subject to regulation of the draft Circular.

In comparison with the above regulations, the People's Committee of Phu Yen province has proposed that the Ministry of Construction complete the draft Circular replacing Circular No. 14/2017/TT-BXD dated December 28, 2017 stipulated in Article 6 in the direction that the Ministry of Construction promulgates economic-technical norms for public career services (promulgates general norms applicable to the whole country) as a basis for localities to promulgate estimated norms for technical infrastructure services in the area that are not included in the estimated norms announced by the Ministry of Construction, or are available but are not suitable for the technical process and economic conditions of the province.

Similar to Phu Yen's comments, in Official Dispatch No. 3122/UBND-XD dated June 13, 2024 of Lao Cai Provincial People's Committee or Official Dispatch No. 1457/SXD-QLXD dated June 13, 2024 of Kien Giang Provincial Department of Construction, Official Dispatch 1134/SXD-PTDT&HTKT dated June 11, 2024 of Nam Dinh Provincial Department of Construction sent to the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Construction also requested the Ministry of Construction to amend the content of the provisions in Clause 1, Article 6 and Clause 3, Article 7 of the draft on promulgation of economic and technical norms issued by the Ministry.

According to localities, this is to ensure consistency, suitability with actual conditions, and avoid difficulties and problems in the process of organizing and implementing the management of urban public service costs nationwide. Avoid localities issuing different economic and technical norms while the work is of the same nature, causing unnecessary waste.

Circular No. 14/2017/TT-BXD dated December 28, 2017 of the Ministry of Construction guiding the determination and management of urban public service costs and the norms issued together with Decision No. 592/QD-BXD dated May 30, 2014 of the Minister of Construction on promulgating the estimated norms for collection, transportation and treatment of urban solid waste.

Previously, in May 2024, at the conference to provide comments on the draft Circular promulgating technical procedures for the collection, transportation and treatment of domestic solid waste and the draft Circular promulgating economic and technical norms for the collection, transportation and treatment of domestic solid waste developed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, many opinions from related businesses and industry associations said that there were still some contents that were not in accordance with the provisions of Circular No. 14/2017/TT-BXD dated December 28, 2017 of the Ministry of Construction. Therefore, the Ministry of Construction's drafting of a Circular to replace Circular No. 14 is expected to resolve many problems that environmental businesses in localities are still facing.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/nhieu-dia-phuong-dong-loat-kien-nghi-bo-xay-dung-ve-xay-dung-dinh-muc-kinh-te-ky-thuat-326079.html