The Economic - Construction Investment Management Department (Ministry of Construction) received the content reflected by Ms. P.T. C. L on the System of reflection and recommendations on legal documents related to Circular No. 17/2025/TT-BXD dated June 30, 2025 of the Ministry of Construction promulgating norms and methods for preparing and managing costs for urban and rural planning activities.
The reflected content is as follows: "According to the provisions of Article 11 of Circular No. 17/2025/TT-BXD on planning cost management. Specifically, the clause: "the agency assigned to manage planning nghiệp vụ is allowed to hire consulting organizations and individuals with sufficient capacity and experience to prepare and appraise planning cost estimates" is understood that hiring consultants to appraise estimates is only the choice of the management agency, not a mandatory procedure or not.
In case the agency has hired a consulting unit with sufficient capacity to prepare the estimate, after the specialized agency inspects and reviews the dossier, is it allowed to submit the estimate to competent authorities for approval without having to carry out the appraisal or evaluation step of the estimate or not.
At the same time, it is proposed that the Ministry of Construction provide specific guidance on the order and procedures for managing, considering and approving planning cost estimates according to Article 11 of Circular No. 17/2025/TT-BXD so that localities have a basis for unified implementation. Because the current Circular no longer has the step of appraising estimates before specific approval as in Article 10 of Circular 20/2019/TT-BXD before.
After considering the proposed content, the Economic - Construction Investment Management Department has the following opinions: According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 11 of Circular No. 17/2025/TT-BXD, the agency managing the planning process has the right to choose to organize the implementation or hire consulting organizations and individuals with sufficient capacity and experience to prepare and appraise the planning cost estimate.
Hiring the above-mentioned consulting organizations and individuals does not change the responsibility of the management agency in the planning process according to the provisions of law on urban and rural planning.
The order, process, authority to prepare, appraise, and approve planning cost estimates shall be implemented according to the order of preparing, appraising, and approving urban and rural planning tasks specified in Article 16 of the Law on Urban and Rural Planning and Articles 11, 12, 13 of Decree No. 178/2025/ND-CP dated July 1, 2025 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Urban and Rural Planning.
