HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Transport (MoT) will punish organisations and individuals in project management units whose failure to fulfill their responsibilities cause a slow disbursement of funds.

The decision followed Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc’s requirement. In the monthly Government conference last month, PM Phúc asked the MoT to implement more measures to speed up disbursement progress.

For example, the Mai Dịch-Thăng Long flyover project is one of the main projects in Hà Nội. It planned to disburse more than VNĐ2.1 trillion (US$90.4 million) of official development assistance this year. However, by the middle of this month, its disbursement was too low compared with schedule. Its first package disbursed VNĐ443 billion ($18.7 million), reaching 39.4 per cent of the plan, whereas in its second package it disbursed VNĐ403.3 billion ($17.2 million), reaching 38.6 per cent of the plan.

Dương Viết Roãn, director of the Thăng Long Project Management Board – the project’s investor – said the slow disbursement was because of many reasons.

The project changed technological design thus it needed more time. Moreover, transporting large girders, each weighing about 100 tonnes, must use special vehicles so the licensing procedure was prolonged.

The same situation was also witnessed at the Hồ Chí Minh Trail project management board.

Lâm Văn Hoàng, director of the board, said this year the board was given VNĐ1.5 trillion ($64.7 million) and VNĐ114.8 billion ($4.9 million). So far it has disbursed VNĐ96 billion ($4.1 million) from this year’s capital, reaching 6.4 per cent of the plan, and VNĐ88.2 billion ($3.8 million) from last year’s capital, reaching 71 per cent of the plan. 

Nguyễn Duy Lâm, director of the Planning and Investment Department under the MoT, said by the end of last month, the MoT disbursed about VNĐ6.8 trillion ($295.7 million), making up only 27.4 per cent of the scheduled amount. 

Lâm said that one of the main reasons for the slow progress was that the project met difficulties in completing procedures related to capital supplements and the settlement of completed parts.

The department summed up plans for disbursement of every project and submitted it to the MoT. The MoT and concerned organisations would give guidance to investors and project management units, resolving their difficulties to ensure the MoT’s disbursement progress, Lâm said.

Director Roãn also confirmed that from now until the end of this year, the Thăng Long Project Management Board would ask contractors to speed up construction work and assign more human resources.

The committee would work with localities to resolve every obstacle related to ground clearance, he added.

Minister of Transport Nguyễn Văn Thể said that the disbursement progress depended on the project management board.

If any project disbursed less than 95 per cent of its capital, the MoT would not assign more duty in the next year, Thể said.

The MoT recently also sent a letter asking investors and project management boards to strengthen supervision on construction site’s quality. — VNS