On the afternoon of November 6, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Planning, the Law on Investment, the Law on Investment under the public-private partnership model and the Law on Bidding.
Delegate Tran Huu Hau (Tay Ninh Delegation) said that on August 24, the Government issued Decree 138/2024/ND-CP allowing localities, agencies and units to use regular expenditure funds of up to 15 billion VND to purchase equipment; renovate, upgrade, expand and construct new construction items in invested construction projects.
According to the delegate, this is great news for localities across the country and many ministries and branches, the result of heated, even very heated debates throughout four sessions of the National Assembly.
The delegate pointed out that these days, when localities and ministries are developing plans for 2025, with this regulation, thousands and possibly tens of thousands of cadres, civil servants and public employees when allocating and using regular expenditure funds no longer have to fear mistakes or responsibility.
"Just by changing one number, we will no longer have to use many ineffective methods to propagate, remind, and review cadres, civil servants, and public employees about the fear of making mistakes and fear of responsibility. Because there is no longer a regulation that makes them afraid," the delegate said.
Regarding the bidding issue, according to the delegate, in just a few months, thousands, even tens of thousands of officials, civil servants, and public employees, many of whom today hold their heads high, will be afraid of making mistakes and being responsible again. Because the items with capital from the regular expenditure budget will enter bidding.
Currently, the work of purchasing, renovating, upgrading, expanding, and constructing new construction items in invested construction projects using regular expenditure funds with a value of over 100 million VND, applied according to point m, clause 2, Article 23 of the Law on Bidding, is subject to bidding.
Delegates believe that many delegates in the hall shook their heads in dismay when simple jobs such as re-roofing, filling cracked walls, repainting, replacing peeling floor tiles... with a total value of over 100 million VND had to go through bidding procedures.
"Yesterday, a representative from a central agency told me, "It's very difficult, brother." Not only in purchasing equipment or construction. We organized a specialized conference with a budget of over 100 million, but we also had to bid.
There are purchases that are the same every year but have to be re-bid every year... which is not only impractical, time-consuming and laborious, but also increases the cost by tens of millions, which is very painful," the delegate said.
The Tay Ninh delegation delegate stated that, based on current regulations, construction, equipment procurement, and non-consulting service packages worth over VND100 million when using the "competitive bidding" method must also go through the steps of preparing - appraising - approving bidding documents; then posting electronic bidding documents.
The delegate emphasized that for simple jobs, a cost of several hundred million VND that has to be bid out will not be very meaningful. On the contrary, it will result in unnecessary additional costs.
Furthermore, according to the delegate, this can lead to negative consequences and in many cases, bidding is just a formality, done just to follow procedures, without being reviewed or criticized by superiors and authorities.
Therefore, the delegates proposed to raise the level of bidding for jobs using regular expenditure to the same level as public investment. That is, consulting packages will have a value of over 500 million; and procurement, construction, and non-consulting service packages will have a value of over 1 billion VND.
"If the inside is not clear, it will be difficult to be open on the outside. If cadres, civil servants and public employees are still constrained and have to carry out complicated procedures for necessary and small matters, it will be difficult to have the mindset to boldly create openness for people and businesses," the delegate emphasized.
