On September 15, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc chaired a meeting with ministries, branches and localities on the Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 85/2025/ND-CP dated April 8, 2025 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Public Investment.
One of the notable contents in the draft is the proposal to abolish regulations on district level to suit the organization of local government at both levels.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the commune level currently has the authority to develop, approve, and manage the medium-term and annual public investment plan of its level and to decide on investment policies and investment decisions for group B and group C projects (the highest total investment can be up to VND 4,600 billion).
The commune level also has the authority to implement projects previously approved and implemented by the district level but not yet completed (in case of being decentralized by the provincial level).
Concluding the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister stated that regarding decentralization, previously the commune-level government only managed administration, when merging and implementing the two-level local government, the commune-level government both carried out administrative management and economic management, including the task of managing public investment projects (Group B, Group C).
Therefore, the agency in charge of drafting the decree needs to study legal regulations on investment and practical organization of the apparatus, capacity of the personnel team at the commune level to design regulations that are both strict and in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Public Investment and in line with the reality of the grassroots government to operate public investment at the commune level smoothly and effectively.
In the draft decree, it is advisable to design regulations in cases where the capacity of the People's Committee at the commune level does not meet the requirements, the Chairman of the People's Committee at the commune level proposes that the specialized department be responsible for appraising the project for the Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune to decide.
Regarding regulations related to public investment capital plans, the Deputy Prime Minister agreed with the opinions of ministries and branches and requested the drafting agency to study and complete the regulations strictly, in the direction of: The Prime Minister approves the total capital, portfolio and capital for each project of ministries, branches and localities from the central budget.
The Ministry of Finance "only announces" investment in the budget estimate, along with the budget estimate and is responsible for supervising and inspecting the implementation.
Regarding investment project adjustment: ministries, branches and localities allocate to investors and adjust and supplement them during the implementation process. If there are difficulties and problems, report to competent authorities, clearly stating the reasons, ensuring transparency and compliance with legal regulations.
For the capital of the public service unit that is collected, it will be assigned to the public service unit for decision. If it is a source of capital from the state budget allocated to public service units, the state agency must manage it.
For public investment projects passing through 2 provinces or centrally run cities (for example, 1 bridge passing through 2 provinces), the two localities will be assigned to agree on the decision, if they cannot agree, they will be submitted to the Prime Minister for decision.
Regarding regular expenditures of an investment nature (other investment items) implemented in accordance with the provisions of the State Budget Law and guiding decrees.
At each level, capital and capital are managed by the level, the level is the investor and is fully responsible for investment implementation. The central agency is only responsible for state management.
