Recently, the settlement of outstanding debts for the basic construction of the new rural program in the 2016-2020 period at the district and commune levels in the province has been delayed. Meanwhile, the progress of disbursement of support capital from the state budget at all levels in 2022 is quite slow.
Construction debt overhang
According to the Provincial New Rural Area Coordination Office, as of the end of December 2022, the total outstanding debt in the period 2016 - 2020 in Quang Nam was more than 191.7 billion VND, of which the debt for implementing the criteria for new rural communes was more than 160.2 billion VND and the debt for implementing the criteria for new rural districts was nearly 31.5 billion VND.
Regarding the above debt, the central and provincial budgets have no debt, the district budget owes more than 126.1 billion VND, the commune budget and other sources owe nearly 65.6 billion VND.
Of the more than 191.7 billion VND in outstanding debt, the settled construction debt is nearly 41.4 billion VND (district level owes approximately 21 billion VND, commune level and other sources owe more than 20.4 billion VND), the unsettled construction debt is more than 150.3 billion VND (district level owes nearly 105.2 billion VND, commune level and other sources owe more than 45.1 billion VND).
Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Tran Anh Tuan requested departments, branches and localities to urgently direct the implementation of the allocated capital for 2023, complete the allocation of investment capital according to the list to the commune level before March 15, 2023 and select contractors no later than April 2023.
By June 30, 2023, any project with a disbursement rate of 0% will be considered for transfer to another project in the commune or to another commune in the district. The provincial State Treasury directs the district-level State Treasury to stop disbursing for projects with a disbursement rate of 0% by June 30, 2023 to serve the transfer...
Mr. Ngo Tan - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Chief of the Provincial New Rural Coordination Office acknowledged that, in addition to balancing counterpart funds to implement the New Rural Program for the 2022 - 2025 period, there is still a lot of debt for basic construction at the district and commune levels, and debt repayment mainly depends on land fund exploitation. However, land fund exploitation still faces many difficulties and complicated procedures.
According to Mr. Tan, recently the prices of construction materials and labor have increased; especially the prices of sand, gravel, and landfill soil have not been adjusted in a timely manner, the commune level and the people have to bear the increased part, so it is easy for debts to arise at the commune level.
“It is noteworthy that the project settlement work for completed projects implemented in the period of 2018 - 2020 is still quite large. Currently, there are 1,042 projects that have not been settled. This is an alarming issue and needs attention and direction in 2023,” said Mr. Tan.
According to Mr. Ngo Tan, authorities at all levels need to focus on directing the settlement of completed projects to handle outstanding construction debts, especially debts from the 2018-2020 period, in the second quarter of 2023.
In addition, review the investment portfolio, reduce the scale of projects that are not really urgent, prioritize the payment of basic construction debts before investing in new projects. The Provincial People's Committee considers and prioritizes the arrangement of increased revenue sources, and annual revenue surpluses to support localities with difficulties in paying off basic construction investment debts.
Resolutely handle the responsibility of the chairmen of the People's Committees at the commune and district levels if the commune still has outstanding debts for infrastructure construction in violation of regulations, especially in communes that have met the new rural standards. If there is no plan to handle the debt, revoke the certificate of recognition of meeting the new rural standards and review the organizations and individuals involved.
Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Tran Anh Tuan agreed with Mr. Ngo Tan's proposal; at the same time, he requested all levels and sectors to actively coordinate in the coming time to remove difficulties and obstacles arising in exploiting land funds to create revenue sources for localities to resolve outstanding debts in basic construction.
Slow capital disbursement
Mr. Nguyen Kim Van - a specialized officer of the New Rural Area Program of Que Son district said that to implement the New Rural Area Program in 2022, the locality received support from the central budget of 19.4 billion VND (development investment capital of more than 15.5 billion VND, career capital of nearly 3.9 billion VND) and the provincial budget supported more than 14 billion VND (development investment capital of 11.3 billion VND, career capital of more than 2.7 billion VND).
However, the disbursement of the above capital channels has been quite slow in recent times. As of January 31, 2023, Que Son has only disbursed more than VND 5.5 billion out of more than VND 15.5 billion in development investment capital from the central budget (reaching 35.7%) and nearly VND 9.9 billion out of VND 11.3 billion in development investment capital from the provincial budget (reaching 87.6%).
Regarding career capital, the central budget has not disbursed any money, while the provincial budget has only disbursed 475 million VND out of more than 2.7 billion VND (17.3%).
In 2022, the total capital mobilized by Quang Nam to implement the New Rural Program is more than 1,982.5 billion VND, including nearly 1,590.4 billion VND from the state budget at all levels, nearly 40 billion VND from credit capital, nearly 28.6 billion VND from enterprises and cooperatives, and nearly 323.6 billion VND from people's contributions.
As of January 31, 2023, localities had only disbursed 42% of the budget support funds in the plan to implement the New Rural Program in 2022.
Some opinions say that there are many reasons for the slow disbursement of capital for the construction of the new rural areas in 2022. Specifically, on July 20, 2022, the Provincial People's Council issued a resolution on capital allocation for the 2022 plan and the 2021-2025 period. From there, the District People's Council approved a detailed list of medium-term public investment projects to implement the new rural areas program in 2022 and the 2021-2025 period.
In addition, the central budget capital for 2022 is slow to be allocated, so the organization, implementation and disbursement of the 2022 plan capital source faces many difficulties, with a low disbursement rate. Notably, according to the decentralization mechanism, many districts are slow to direct the approval of medium-term plans and slow to allocate capital to commune levels...
According to Mr. Ngo Tan, units and localities urgently complete the work of transferring resources and extending the 2022 budget to 2023 to implement according to the time limit directed by the Provincial People's Committee in Official Dispatch No. 8668 (dated December 23, 2022).
Focus on disbursing 100% of capital in 2022 to 2023 before December 31, 2023. In case any unit or locality fails to disburse all capital plan for 2022, it will be responsible to the Provincial People's Committee and will reduce the capital allocation for the following year.
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