Decreased interest rate does not ensure rate, not in accordance with regulations
In the State Audit's 2023 State Budget settlement report, Mr. Ngo Van Tuan presented to the National Assembly on the afternoon of May 16 a notable issue arose about the source of salary reform policies with a large Fund balance.
The audit report stated that the source for implementing the salary policy in 2023 to 2024 is 536,394 billion VND, including the local budget of 387,186 billion VND and the central budget of 149,207.9 billion VND. Audit results show that many ministries, branches and localities have not yet implemented it in accordance with regulations.
Some public service units of ministries and central agencies have not yet set aside and set aside unsecured salary reform funds, in which many ministries have incorrect implementation figures of up to tens of billions of VND. Another notable shortcoming is that some ministries and central agencies have not yet decided on the ratio of revenue sources to be set aside to create a source for salary reform.
For example, in one ministry, public service units that self-insure regular expenditures do not decide on the rate of revenue to be allocated to create a source for implementing salary reform according to regulations; in another ministry, some units have not decided on the rate of revenue to be allocated and have not yet allocated to create a source for implementing salary reform according to Decree No. 24/2023/ND-CP. Meanwhile, in other sectors, there are units that are not subject but still allocate funds for salary reform.
In localities, some places have not fully reviewed resources when determining demand, leading to additional central budget allocations in the year, but there is still a surplus to reform wages at the end of the year. Some places have not yet allocated enough or determined an inappropriate salary reform source of VND 3,528.72 billion, so the State Audit (SA) has recommended reducing the estimate for next year or paying to the state budget in 17/56 localities VND 959 billion, 18/56 localities have allocated an additional VND 1,361.635 billion, 13/56 localities have recommended monitoring the source of VND 1,208.06 billion). Along with that, 11/56 localities monitored and managed inappropriate salary reform sources of VND 3,715.52 billion; 18/56 localities used salary reform sources for investment, regular expenditure or other tasks that were not in accordance with regulations of VND 1,389.679 billion...
Establishing a budget to create a source of unproper salary reform
According to Article 4 of Circular No. 88/2024/TT-BTC dated December 24, 2024 of the Ministry of Finance stipulating the implementation of the implementation of the State budget estimate 2025, the creation of salary reform sources from: 70% increased local budget revenue compared to the estimate; 50% increased the local budget revenue on the current annual estimate compared to the adjacent previous year's estimate; 40% of career revenue, 35% of hospital fees; 10% savings increased recurrent expenditure ...
Through auditing practice, the State Audit assessed that the need to use 70% of the local budget revenue increase compared to the estimate to create a source for salary reform, but the recovered estimate tends to be not close to the actual ability, leading to a high increase in revenue, but mainly used for salary reform, while many other necessary and urgent expenditure tasks, such as: development investment expenditure, science and technology, innovation, etc., lack resources to spend.
Through the summary of the salary reform funding, the accumulated balance of this source increased rapidly over the years (in 2021 was 262,974 billion VND, in 2022 was 432,350 billion VND, 2023 was VND 536,394 billion) and in Resolution No. 159/2024/QH15 dated November 13, 2024 of the National Assembly on budget estimates in 2025 expansion of the wage reform source for local salary reform for the local salary reform for the local salary reform for "the reform of the wages of the local salary" Local spells use remaining salary reform sources to invest in connected projects ... ”; With the central salary reform "allowed from July 1, 2024, it is expanded to adjust the pension, social protection benefits, monthly allowances, preferential benefits of people with meritorious services and payroll streamlining".
Regarding the use of salary reform funds according to the National Assembly's resolutions on state budget estimates in 2024 and 2025, the total cost of wage reform used is 185,659 billion dong. In particular, in 2024, localities used the salary reform source of the local budget until the end of 2023 left to be 19,040 billion dong to implement the base salary of 1.8 million dong/month; Adding VND 55,000 billion to the central budget's salary reform to the budget estimate in 2024 ... In 2025, using the salary reform funding until the end of 2024 left over to implement the base salary of VND 2.34 million/month with the amount of VND 111,619 billion (including VND 60,000 billion to the salary reform of the central budget and VND 50,619 billion of the local budget reform).
Thus, by 2025, the salary reform source in 2023 to 2024 still has a surplus of VND 350,735 billion (536,394 billion VND - 185,659 billion VND), while the accumulated salary reform source mentioned above does not include the amount to be allocated to create salary reform sources for 2024 and 2025.
Through the audit, the SAV recommends that it is necessary to study and advise the Government and the National Assembly to consider the decision to adjust the reduction of the rate of extracting salary reform from the increase in the state budget revenue (currently 70% of the increase in collection compared to the estimate of land use revenue, construction lottery, state -owned housing collection ...) to focus resources for the task of investing and developing investment, science and technology, conversion of other necessary science and technology.
National Assembly deputies Le Minh Nam (Delegation of Hau Giang MPA) said that, in the context of our country, focusing on promoting the development of science and technology and digital transformation, the petition of the SAV is very reasonable. However, we are in the stage of building a pure, compact, strong, performance, effective, efficient apparatus and location, the salary reform resource is also essential. Therefore, it is necessary to consider and evaluate this issue in a comprehensive, complete and cautious way to effectively manage this resource and ensure the goals as the SAV's recommendations as well as ensure salary reform resources. Accordingly, there must be a close impact assessment to decide.
