Still difficult to disburse capital for national target programs

Model of growing Solanum procumbens in the direction of supporting linkage in Tua Chua town, Tua Chua district from capital sources of national target programs. *Photo: Quoc Huy*

In 2023, Tua Chua district was assigned 130,621 billion VND (the capital extended to 2023 is more than 9,208 billion VND) to implement 3 national target programs. Immediately after being assigned capital, Tua Chua district allocated it to units and directed to focus on implementation and speed up the disbursement of capital sources. By September 2023, the total capital plan had disbursed more than 42,464 billion VND (reaching 32.51%); of which the disbursed career capital was low, more than 9.28 billion VND (reaching 9.6%). The disbursement progress of capital sources for national target programs is not high due to many different reasons. For example, the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas, for Project 1 to address the shortage of residential land, production land and domestic water in terms of job conversion support, most of the households eligible for support are poor households that have just separated from their households and do not have land use right certificates, so it takes a lot of time to check and measure the production land area that the households are using. The support for domestic water is dispersed due to the large number of beneficiaries (1,009 households), which must be reviewed, adjusted, and reviewed many times; a part of the capital is adjusted from another sub-project in the middle of the year; the bidding work must ensure the prescribed time, the evaluation of bidding documents lasts a maximum of 45 days because many contractors participate in the bidding package, so the implementation is still slow. In addition, in sub-project 2 of project 3 on supporting the development of production according to the value chain, precious medicinal herb growing areas, promoting business start-ups, startups and attracting investment in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, from the beginning of the year, the district directed 2 units (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development; District Agricultural Service Center) to issue a notice to select units to preside over projects linking production with product consumption, but no units registered, so the projects all switched to production development and livelihood diversification. Along with that, some documents of the Central Government are not unified, there is no clear mechanism, leading to some projects not being implemented, such as: Project 8 on implementing equality and solving urgent problems for women and children, the total allocated economic career capital is 499 million VND, it is expected that it will not be disbursed due to the lack of specific instructions and no support objects.

The difficulties and obstacles in Tua Chua district are also common difficulties in other districts, leading to a low disbursement rate of capital for national target programs. By the end of September 2023, the total capital plan of the 3 programs in the province had disbursed 453,178 billion VND out of a total of more than 1,176 billion VND, reaching 38.52%. Of which, the Socio-Economic Development Program for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas was 240.12 billion VND, reaching 37.96%; the Sustainable Poverty Reduction Program was 179,708 billion VND, reaching 41.22%; the New Rural Development Program was 33,349 billion VND, reaching 30.86%.

Regarding subjective causes, the capacity to plan, control project documents, and organize implementation at some units still has many shortcomings, is not drastic, and is not effective, leading to slow completion of investment procedures, not ensuring conditions for detailed allocation of capital plans for 2023 before December 31, 2022. The coordination between units assigned to be investors with state management agencies and localities with investment projects in the area is sometimes not smooth and effective, especially in completing project document procedures and coordinating site clearance.

To speed up the disbursement of capital for the 3 national target programs, it is necessary to focus on reviewing the policy mechanisms for implementing the 3 new programs issued by the Central Government, promptly issuing policies under the authority of the province (if any). Urgently deploy investment preparation work for new projects to ensure sufficient conditions for arranging the 2024 capital plan according to regulations. Strengthen inspection and supervision of implementation; promptly direct the handling of arising shortcomings and problems and propose to the Government, ministries and central branches to amend and supplement them in accordance with the actual conditions of the locality.

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