Ministry of Transport (MoT) has invited some police officers to participate in monitoring activities on build-transfer (BT) and build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects, reported Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) Newspaper. — Photo tuoitre.vn

HÀ NỘI – Ministry of Transport (MoT) has invited some police officers to participate in monitoring activities on build-transfer (BT) and build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects, reported Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) Newspaper.

This was a proposal put forward by MoT minister Nguyễn Văn Thể at a recent meeting on anti-corruption held in Hà Nội.

According to the minister, many BT and BOT projects had exposed several weaknesses and shortcomings due to incomplete legal framework.

Thus, he suggested measures enhancing State management and preventing corruption at the projects to ensure transparency.

“We asked the Ministry of Public Security to send some senior lieutenant colonels to work with the Transport Ministry’s vice directors of Construction Management Department to monitor BT and BOT projects”, Thể told the paper.

The team would help highlight and report mistakes during the projects’ implementation to authorities, he said.

The MoT also invited the Ministry of Construction to take part in evaluating estimated investment in BT and BOT projects.

The State Auditing Agency would be in charge of auditing the projects and define the time to collect fees. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning and Investment were asked to carry out inspections on the projects.

The measures aimed to complete legal mechanisms on the BT and BOT investment forms as well as strengthen state management of BT and BOT projects.

“This was the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport. We had issued some of our own regulations to manage projects”, said Thể.

“For example, we asked investors to first submit design documents, construction drawings, and estimated investment. The investors would get approval following evaluation by the ministry”, he added.

The ministry would manage BT and BOT projects as State-funded projects because investors would refund their investment by collecting fees from people who pay taxes to the State Budget.

Moreover, the MoT would publicise information on BT and BOT projects, including the names of investors, capital investment, time for toll collection, plans for toll reduction and exemptions to avoid complaints, he said.

All information would be posted on the MoT website.

The minister pledged not to carry out BOT projects on current roads and highways. Also, all BT and BOT would be subject to open bidding.

As scheduled, the ministry would implement automatic toll collection on National Highway 1 later this year, and on the Hồ Chí Minh Expressway section passing through the Tây Nguyên (Central Highlands) region by late next year.

“We will post all information relating to fee collection at toll stations so people can monitor the situation by themselves”, Thể said. – VNS