Strengthening risk prevention in state budget management

Transaction Office No. 5 - State Treasury Region XVIII in Chau Thanh District - Ben Tre.

New machine goes into operation

The Ministry of Finance has issued Decision No. 385 regulating the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the State Treasury. Accordingly, from March 1, 2025, the State Treasury will be organized from the central to local levels according to a 2-level model: the State Treasury at the central level has 10 units, the State Treasury at the local level is organized according to 20 regions. In particular, the regional State Treasury is organized with staff offices, support offices and transaction offices.

The State Treasury of Region XVIII includes the provinces of Tra Vinh, Ben Tre, and Soc Trang; its headquarters is located in Tra Vinh province. The organizational structure of the State Treasury of Region XVIII includes 8 functional departments and 13 transaction offices, of which Tra Vinh has 3 transaction offices; Ben Tre and Soc Trang each have 5 transaction offices.

From March 15, 2025, the State Treasury of Region XVIII began operating under a new organizational model. Current business processes are more streamlined and focused; focusing on promoting digital transformation, especially transactions with state budget (NSNN)-using units carried out through online public services (DVCTT), electronic payments, non-cash payments... ensuring smooth operations. All revenues and expenditures of the unit are paid quickly and without interruption, especially with DVCTT. Thereby, creating favorable conditions, reducing time and costs for units using the state budget as well as contractors.

Risks in state budget management

Along with the work of streamlining the apparatus, the Board of Directors of the State Treasury of Region XVIII always pays attention to, directs and thoroughly instructs civil servants working in payment and disbursement of the State budget through the State Treasury to enhance their study and research of documents and regimes to grasp and properly implement regulations in the process of payment and disbursement of the State budget; clearly propagates and guides, creating favorable conditions for customers to properly carry out payment records and procedures to prevent and minimize risks while making payment and disbursement of the State budget.

However, the management and use of the State budget through the State Treasury still has some limitations and risks, especially in the period of streamlining the apparatus:

State budget users often face risks due to regulations, guidelines, policies, etc. issued by many competent authorities, lasting for many years, the effective date of the articles and clauses being changed, supplemented, or transitioned has content related to many different documents, overlaps, or unclear instructions; thereby causing each individual and each state budget user to have a different understanding, leading to confusion when implementing; or some documents have been abolished, replaced, amended, or supplemented with some content on mechanisms, norms, policies, etc., but state budget users have not updated them promptly and continuously.

The State budget spending unit has not strictly implemented the management of digital certificates and digital signatures in accordance with Decree No. 130/2018/ND-CP dated September 27, 2018 of the Government detailing the implementation of the Law on Electronic Transactions on digital signatures and digital signature certification services; Decree No. 48/2024/ND-CP dated May 9, 2024 of the Government amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 130/2018/ND-CP; Decree No. 165/2018/ND-CP dated December 24, 2018 of the Government regulating electronic transactions in financial activities.

Specifically, account owners, due to being busy with work, not having time, especially during the current period of streamlining the apparatus, or not being familiar with using computers, should hand over their digital signature, digital certificate, issued DVCTT program account, information about the digital certificate, login account (login code and password) to the Chief Accountant to sign payment transactions in financial activities.

In principle, the State Treasury is not responsible for managing digital certificates and digital signatures of units using the State budget; the State Treasury only checks, controls, and verifies to ensure that "the digital signatures on money transfer documents must be in the correct full names and titles of members according to the decision of the competent authority, and have been registered with the State Treasury" (stipulated in Circular No. 17/2024/TT-BTC).

However, if the Account Owner gives the Chief Accountant full decision-making authority in financial transactions with the State Treasury, it will be very likely to cause loss of the State budget.

In addition, there are cases where the payment content is the same but the State budget using unit sends the payment request file multiple times on different days. According to the feedback from the State budget using units, there are many reasons why the data sent to the State Treasury shows duplicate payments 2, 3 times, or even many times in a year, such as: Dividing the cost of 1 invoice equally for several spending tasks, so many files are paid, many times for 1 invoice; due to the name and account of the receiving unit being incorrect, the bank refunds and the State budget using unit pays again...

However, through remote monitoring and internal inspection, the results show that there are still cases where the State budget using unit sends duplicate payments many times: For the same expenditure, the same invoice, and document, the State budget using unit sends the request file to the State Treasury for payment many times, at different times. The State Treasury has requested the State budget using unit to withdraw and reduce expenditure or pay the State budget immediately upon discovery.

Although the State Treasury system in Ben Tre province has promptly informed the heads of the units using the State budget of the above situation to strictly control the documents before sending them to the State Treasury for payment by "Official dispatch on warning of risks of duplicate payment of invoices and documents" in accordance with the requirements in Official Dispatch No. 5105/KBNN-TTKT dated September 8, 2023 and Official Dispatch No. 6521/KBNN-KSC dated November 13, 2024 of the State Treasury; the units using the State budget have also closely coordinated in reviewing, comparing, completing, adjusting and implementing the payment of the State budget, the risk of risks and losses of the State budget is still very high, especially in a period of many changes and fluctuations like the present.

Therefore, focusing on directing, strengthening inspection and supervision, and taking more effective measures to further improve the quality of management and spending of the State budget, improve the quality of expenditure control and payment of State budget expenditures, prevent risks, strengthen discipline and order in compliance with laws on finance and the State budget... are not only the tasks and goals of the State Treasury system but also of the units using the State budget.

Risk prevention in state budget management

In recent years, the work of inspecting and examining the State budget has always received attention and focus from local authorities at all levels. Through inspection and examination, the work of inspection has promptly detected and corrected the accounting of fake documents and intentional duplicate payments. The work of controlling expenditures of the State Treasury system in Ben Tre province in recent years has been effective, many expenditures of State budget users have been refused payment due to payment exceeding the approved estimate, wrong standards and norms, incorrect State budget directory, invalid documents, lack of documents and records... which has greatly reduced errors.

To continue to promote the effectiveness of state budget financial management, use state money and assets economically and effectively, limit risks, and overcome shortcomings in the implementation process, in the coming time, it is necessary to focus on performing well the following tasks:

Strengthen guidance, training, and fostering of management knowledge to promptly update new regimes, policies, and regulations of the State in transactions with the State Treasury for Account Holders and Chief Accountants of units using the State budget.

The head of the unit (account holder) regularly pays attention to the basic regimes, standards, and norms in the use and expenditure of the State budget; has measures to monitor to know which documents have been sent to the State Treasury for payment requests; strictly controls the files and documents before sending them to the State Treasury; in case the first payment has incorrect information about the recipient, he/she must receive a notice of refusal or refund to the account with a specific reason before signing to approve the second payment; pays attention to the work of data reconciliation with the State Treasury; to avoid making multiple duplicate payments.

Actively propagate in many forms to agencies and units using the State budget participating in the State Treasury's public services to strictly implement regulations on electronic transactions in financial activities according to Decree No. 165/2018/ND-CP dated December 24, 2018 of the Government.

The account owner must be responsible for managing and keeping secret the means and information used for digital signature; absolutely do not give the digital signature and digital signature information to others to sign on his/her behalf; immediately notify the information system owner when the means or information used for digital signature is lost or disclosed; and prevent the risk of loss of the State budget.

Article and photos: Anh Tuan - Thoai Vi

Source: https://baodongkhoi.vn/tang-cuong-phong-ngua-rui-ro-trong-quan-ly-ngan-sach-nha-nuoc-05042025-a144722.html