Areport tabled at a recent meeting showed that only 10.3 percent of the fundsearmarked for this year, or 3.48 trillion VND (149.3 million USD), had beendisbursed in the first quarter, much lower than in other localities in theSouthern Key Economic Region and putting it among localities with the country’slowest disbursement rates.
Asenior official in the Management Board for Traffic Works Construction andInvestment, which manages many key transport projects, said after having fundallocated in December, the board immediately began to work on projects,designing and submitting to competent authorities for approval, selectingconsultants and evaluating bid documents.
Thesetook a lot of time, leading to slow disbursement in the first quarter, butthings would speed up from the middle of the second quarter, he assured.
Theboard has started work on 13 transport projects costing over 3.5 trillion VND (150.28million USD), including the six-lane 75m My Thuy 3 bridge in District 2, apedestrian bridge in front of the new Eastern Bus Station on Hanoi Highwayin District 9 and a subway under it.
Ithas also coordinated with contractors to speed up work on other projects suchas upgrade of Nguyen Huu Canh Street, Y-shaped Bridge, An Suong undergroundtunnel, To Ky Street and others.
Otherconstruction and investment management boards in the city have also sought tospeed up their work.
Toimprove the situation, city authorities are considering new procedures thatwould improve the management and disbursement of public funds.
Thecity is urgently implementing Decree No.40/2020/ND-CP governing theimplementation of a number of articles of the Public Investment Law andResolution No.27/NQ-CP on piloting mechanisms and processes to reduce the timerequired for land acquisition.
Thecity holds meetings every two weeks to review and evaluate public spendinghoping to achieve a disbursement rate of over 80 percent by October 15.
Accordingto analysts, the most difficult aspect is land acquisition. Delays in this notonly affect disbursement progress and investment efficiency, but also causesmany projects to stall.
Thesecond inherent bottleneck involves administrative procedures and co-ordinationbetween authorised agencies in carrying out public projects.
Allprojects take three to four months merely to complete investment procedures,while the selection of contractors takes 45 days.
Ata recent meeting Vo Van Hoan, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’sCommittee, called on relevant agencies to review and handle these problems tospeed up public spending./.