On the morning of November 6, at the National Assembly House, continuing the 8th Session Program, under the chairmanship of National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man , the National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law on Public Investment (amended).
Participating in giving comments, National Assembly Deputy Mai Van Hai, Provincial Party Committee member, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Thanh Hoa province, basically agreed with the Government's submission and the inspection report of the Finance and Budget Committee.
To continue perfecting the draft Law, National Assembly Deputy Mai Van Hai contributed some specific opinions, namely: Article 18. Authority to Decide on investment policies for programs and projects: The content has many new points in the spirit of strong decentralization for agencies to consider deciding on investment policies. In particular, point b, clause 6 and clause 7 on the authority to Decide on investment policies of the People's Council and People's Committee at the provincial level for projects implemented in 2 or more provinces, in 2 or more districts and communes, Deputy Mai Van Hai completely agreed; However, it is proposed that in order to determine the provincial People's Committee as the governing body, for projects from 2 provinces or more, it is necessary to stipulate that the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall preside over and work with the provinces with projects implemented in the area, to unify the selection of the provincial People's Committee as the governing body, report to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision (point b, clause 6 and clause 7) and propose not to report to the Provincial People's Council for approval, and the proposed provincial People's Committee as the governing body does not have to report to the Prime Minister as prescribed in clause 2, Article 30 on procedures for deciding on investment policies for projects implemented in the area of 2 or more provincial administrative units.
Similarly, for the order and procedures for deciding on investment policies for projects in areas of 2 or more administrative units at district or commune level, it is proposed to assign the Department of Planning and Investment to preside over and work with the districts to implement the project, to unify the District People's Committee as the governing body, without having to report this policy to the District People's Council and the Department of Planning and Investment on the basis of the districts' agreement, report to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee for consideration and decision to assign a District People's Committee as the governing body to implement the project. This will shorten the time for deciding on investment policies, without creating additional procedures.
In Article 58. Time for capital allocation to implement the project: Time for capital allocation to implement group A projects is no more than 6 years, B is no more than 4 years, C is no more than 3 years as per the 2019 law. In which, Clause 2 stipulates that in case of not meeting the capital allocation deadline, "for group A, B, C projects, the extension is no more than 1 year, group A projects with a total amount of 10-30,000 billion VND, the extension is no more than 2 years; national target programs are extended by the investment decision-making authority. In case of exceeding the extension period, the competent authority shall report to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision. For local budgets, the Chairman of the People's Committee at all levels shall decide on the time for capital allocation to implement the project, reporting to the People's Council at the same level at the nearest session.
The extension of time and decentralization to the Chairman of the People's Committee at all levels to decide on the capital allocation time will increase the initiative and flexibility in the allocation of capital under the central budget and local budget management, but it is recommended that the extension time for group A, B, C projects should not exceed 1 year; group A projects of 10-30,000 billion should not exceed 2 years, because if the deadline is exceeded, it must be reported to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision, leading to the capital allocation time possibly being extended. It is recommended that the regulation on the extension of the capital allocation time should be assigned to the competent authority deciding on the investment to consider and decide on the extension of the capital allocation time. In addition, to avoid arbitrarily extending the capital allocation time, prolonging the project implementation time, causing waste and expense for the state budget, it is recommended that specific regulations should be considered on the conditions, bases, and cases in which adjustments can be made.
Clause 3, Article 98 of the draft Law stipulates: “3. In case projects implemented through two consecutive medium-term public investment planning periods specified in Points a and d, Clause 2 of this Article exceed the level of 20%, the competent authority shall report to the Prime Minister for central budget capital, and People's Councils at all levels for local budget capital under their management for approval but not exceeding the level of 50% corresponding to the provisions in Points a and d, Clause 2 of this Article.”
However, Clause 1, Article 56 of the draft Law stipulates that one of the conditions that must be met for programs, projects, tasks, and other public investment objects to be included in the medium-term public investment plan is “1. The transitional project is included in the list of the medium-term public investment plan of the previous period.”
Thus, according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 56, transitional projects in the list of public investment plans of the previous period are included in the public investment plan of the next period, when ensuring compliance with legal provisions on principles and criteria for allocating public investment capital.
In fact, some projects have been approved by competent authorities for investment with the schedule of starting and completing within 1 medium-term public investment plan period; however, due to objective reasons, the projects have not been completed and need to be continued to be implemented in the next phase, or some urgent and key projects have been added in the last years of the previous medium-term plan period, but have only been allocated capital for investment preparation, the capital for investment implementation (accounting for the majority of the total investment of the project) is arranged in the next phase. The remaining capital of these projects must be arranged in the next phase, causing the total value of the total investment of the programs and projects to be implemented in the medium-term public investment plan of the next phase to exceed 50% of the capital of the previous medium-term public investment plan according to each capital source. Thus, the implementation of these projects in the public investment plan for the next period, although ensuring compliance with the provisions on principles and criteria for allocating public investment capital as prescribed in Article 56 of the draft Law, is not consistent with the provisions in Article 98 of the draft Law.
Therefore, to ensure consistency and unity among the provisions in this draft amended Law, and at the same time increase the initiative and flexibility in implementing the medium-term public investment plan, in accordance with the actual situation, it is proposed not to stipulate the percentage between the total value of the total investment of projects implemented in the medium-term public investment plan of the next period, compared with the capital of the medium-term public investment plan of the previous period according to each capital source as prescribed in Clause 3, Article 98 of the draft Law.
Quoc Huong
Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/dbqh-mai-van-hai-doan-dbqh-tinh-thanh-hoa-tham-gia-gop-y-ve-du-an-luat-dau-tu-cong-sua-doi-nbsp-229592.htm
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