To no longer be afraid of making mistakes and avoiding bidding
Recently, General Secretary To Lam, Head of the Central Steering Committee on preventing and combating corruption, waste and negativity, sounded the "drum order" to prevent and combat waste. From the General Secretary's "drum order" to prevent and combat waste, the urgent issue of transformation in all sectors and levels is raised, the need to "cure" the fear of making mistakes and taking responsibility in all areas of economic and social life.
Looking at the field related to bidding activities, as mentioned by Lao Dong Newspaper in the article "Untangling the bottleneck in bidding, unblocking capital sources for socio-economic development", not only in the health sector, but also in many other areas of socio-economic life, there are difficulties, partly due to institutional problems, and partly due to the fear of making mistakes and taking responsibility of the implementers.
It must be affirmed that the 2023 Bidding Law has many breakthroughs, giving initiative to investors and localities, but due to the fear of making mistakes and taking responsibility, they do not dare to implement it, leading to difficulties in bidding and the risk of wasting resources. To solve this problem, many opinions say that key officials, heads of units and localities must improve their sense of responsibility and bravely take on the responsibility. In addition, the law also needs to be open, with a mechanism to protect those who dare to think and dare to do.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper about this issue, National Assembly Delegate Hoang Van Cuong - Member of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee - said that it is true that currently some units have a fear of making mistakes and avoid bidding, leading to many bidding packages not being implemented.
"We must handle the responsibility of those who are assigned tasks but do not perform according to their functions and duties. There are laws but they are not implemented according to regulations, so projects cannot be bid, which is a huge waste of resources" - Delegate Hoang Van Cuong emphasized.
Making recommendations on bidding responsibilities in the health sector, Mr. Hoang Cuong - Deputy Director of the Department of Financial Planning, Ministry of Health - commented: In fact, at some points in time, there are interruptions in the supply of some drugs, leading to a shortage of drugs in medical facilities.
"The main problem here is due to the implementation stage, because the officials directly involved in bidding still do not fully understand the new regulations, but still follow the old regulations. I would like to give an example of only wanting to take the lowest quotation, leading to no bidders participating or the winning goods not meeting the requirements. The regulations are available and very specific, but many times to implement the regulations, it takes time, it takes time to wait. Meanwhile, the need for medical treatment of the people is calculated in days, even hours. This requires flexible and creative ways of applying the regulations, but also poses challenges for investors. Those who are afraid of making mistakes, afraid of responsibility, will be afraid and not dare to do it" - Mr. Cuong stated the reality.
A representative of the Ministry of Health said that in many directive documents, the leaders of the Ministry of Health have emphasized that the head of the hospital must take responsibility if there is a shortage of medicine and medical supplies. Clearly defining such responsibilities will overcome the fear of making mistakes and being responsible among some officials, and also prevent the disease of wasting resources in the health sector in accordance with the direction of the General Secretary.
Removing institutional bottlenecks, creating openness for businesses and people
According to National Assembly Delegate Tran Huu Hau (Tay Ninh delegation), in order to eliminate "fear of mistakes and avoidance" in bidding, it is necessary to first amend legal regulations in a transparent manner.
“Currently, the procurement, renovation, upgrading, expansion, and construction of construction items in projects that have been invested in construction 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, are subject to bidding. This is a long-standing regulation that is no longer suitable for the country's socio-economic development, with the devaluation of materials, raw materials, and labor costs. I believe that many officials have shaken their heads in dismay when simple jobs such as re-roofing, filling cracked walls and repainting, and replacing peeling floor tiles with a total value of over 100 million VND have to go through bidding procedures.
A delegate from a central agency told me that it is very difficult, not only in purchasing equipment or construction, if organizing a specialized conference with a budget of over 100 million VND, it must also be bid, there are annual purchases that are exactly the same but must be re-bid every year, which is not only impractical, time-consuming, laborious, and the cost increases by tens of millions, which is very painful" - Delegate Tran Huu Hau stated the reality.
From these realities, he proposed to raise the level of bidding for jobs using regular expenditure to the same level as public investment. Specifically, consulting packages worth over 500 million VND, procurement, construction, and non-consulting service packages worth over 1 billion VND...
Innovating thinking in law making, taking people and businesses as the center
Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said that the viewpoint of law making revolves around the direction of the General Secretary on innovation in thinking about law making and according to the direction of the National Assembly Chairman on law making, which is to ensure the requirements of both state management and encouraging creativity in development and releasing resources, clearing bottlenecks, sticking to reality, not being hasty but also not being perfectionist, taking people and businesses as the center.
These are very important guidelines for us to have direction. In addition, we must deeply demonstrate the spirit of breakthrough in decentralization, delegation of power, simplification of administrative procedures and must change the management method from pre-control to post-control, creating favorable conditions for businesses and investors. Next, we need to focus on core, urgent, important issues that are mature, clear, proven in practice and have high consensus to ensure inheritance as well as synchronous and unified supplementation in our legal system.
From those perspectives, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said that the Ministry of Planning and Investment will report to the Government and submit to the National Assembly for consideration to amend the Law on Bidding in the direction of increasing the limit on designated bidding for consulting, non-consulting, and goods bidding packages, focusing on people and businesses.
Regarding drug bidding, the Minister agreed with the idea of allowing pharmacies to be autonomous, make their own decisions, and take responsibility for themselves. “If anyone commits wrongdoing, colludes, or raises prices, we will have other laws to deal with it. There is no problem with us having to force bidding. The Ministry will propose amending the law in the direction that whether or not to bid is up to the pharmacies to decide, and whether to purchase directly or how to purchase is up to them to choose,” Minister Nguyen Chi Dung emphasized.
PV GROUP
Proposal to hold leaders responsible for patients lacking medicine
At the 8th Session, chaired by Politburo member and National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, the National Assembly discussed the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance. At the National Assembly Hall, Delegate Thach Phuoc Binh, National Assembly Delegation of Tra Vinh Province proposed to supplement Article 43 of the Law on Health Insurance, stipulating: Medical examination and treatment facilities must be responsible for ensuring adequate supply of necessary medicines and medical supplies for health insurance patients. If the patient has to buy outside, the medical facility is responsible for refunding the cost before the patient is discharged from the hospital. This regulation helps ensure the rights of health insurance patients right at the medical facility, reduce unnecessary administrative procedures, and shorten the time to process costs.
Agreeing with this opinion, Delegate Nguyen Hoang Bao Tran, National Assembly Delegation of Binh Duong Province proposed to consider adding regulations on the responsibilities of the head of the medical examination and treatment facility in Article 43 of the Law on Health Insurance. The head of the medical examination and treatment facility is responsible for ensuring adequate and timely supply of medicines and medical equipment to patients within the scope of their rights.
At the same time, it is stipulated that in case of shortage of drugs and medical supplies due to objective reasons, the medical examination and treatment facility is responsible for examining the patient for the costs of drugs and medical supplies that the patient must purchase himself according to the regulations of the doctor before completing the discharge procedures, synthesizing the payment and being responsible for the payment request file with the Social Insurance agency.
TRANS-EAST
One law amends many laws to remove bottlenecks
Issues related to bottlenecks and some shortcomings in the fields of bidding and investment that Lao Dong Newspaper reported have received the attention of many National Assembly delegates.
Delegate Tran Thi Nhi Ha - Deputy Head of the Petition Committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee - stated that currently, hospital pharmacies are lacking many types of medicines and medical equipment to serve the needs of the people. In addition to medicines, pharmacies and hospitals also have a number of other items such as medical equipment, cosmetics, functional foods, food supplements, nutrition, medicine, and milk, which are all essential items that directly serve patients and their families.
Due to the characteristics, hospital pharmacies sell drugs according to the needs of patients, without being able to predict the list, quantity, model, and diseases that are constantly changing, so it is difficult to propose a plan to select a contractor. Lack of drugs at hospital pharmacies forces people to buy them outside, which is both inconvenient and difficult to control quality and price, affecting the right to access the best medical services.
“From the above analysis, I propose to amend Clause 2, Article 55 of the Bidding Law as follows: "For the purchase of vaccines for vaccination in the form of services to purchase drugs, medical equipment, cosmetics, functional foods, and other essential goods at retail establishments within the premises of public medical examination and treatment facilities, medical examination and treatment facilities shall decide on the procurement themselves to ensure publicity, transparency, economic efficiency, and accountability without having to apply the forms of contractor selection as prescribed in the Bidding Law" - delegate Tran Thi Nhi Ha proposed.
