RESOLUTION No. 36/2004/QH11 OF DECEMBER 3, 2004 ON CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION INVESTMENT WITH STATE CAPITAL

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

Pursuant to Article 84 of the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which was amended and supplemented under Resolution No. 51/2001/QH10 of December 25, 2001 of the X^th National Assembly, the 10^th session;

Pursuant to the Law on the National Assembly’s Supervisory Activities;

After considering the Government’s Report No. 1601/CP-KTTH of October 26, 2004; the National Assembly Standing Committee’s Report No. 273/UBTVQH11 of October 20, 2004 on results of supervising the implementation of investment plannings and plans by sectors and territorial regions nationwide, results of overcoming the situation of even-spread investment and capital construction investment capital’s outstanding debts, low efficiency and losses in capital construction investment; and comments of National Assembly deputies,

RESOLVES:

1. The National Assembly basically agrees with the evaluations of the obtained results, limitations, weaknesses, causes, responsibilities of involved collectives and individuals, and major solutions to raising the efficiency, enhancing disciplines and restoring order in capital construction investment with State capital, which have been stated in the Government’s Report and the National Assembly Standing Committee’s Report on supervision results; and, at the same time emphasizes the following issues:

Over the past years, the development investment capital sources of the State in particular and of the entire society in general have increased year after year, thus greatly contributing to economic restructuring along the direction of industrialization, modernization and socio-economic infrastructure development, considerably raising the new production capacity, boosting economic growth, eliminating hunger, alleviating poverty, creating new jobs and improving the people’s material and spiritual life. The State’s capital construction investment capital really plays a leading role, guiding, attracting and mobilizing more the society’s annual capital sources for development investment.

The State management over capital construction investment in the recent years has seen such improvements as the legal framework for capital construction investment management has step by step been supplemented and perfected; the Government’s direction, administration, examination and inspection have been enhanced; the supervision by people-elected agencies, the public and people over capital construction investment activities have initially paid off with detection of weaknesses and negative phenomena in management, thus contributing to step by step limiting and remedying law violations in this domain.

However, the management of capital construction investment capital in general and the State’s capital in particular is still hamstrung by many burning problems: investment plannings and plans are not yet synchronous and their quality remains low; branch plannings and plans are not yet closely associated with regions or localities; a number of investment decisions and undertakings are inaccurate; situation of even-spread investment is seen everywhere; losses and waste are made in many branches and domains and at all stages of the investment process, from investment undertakings, plannings,  project formulation and evaluation, survey, design to effecting investment, bidding, pre-acceptance test, increasing estimates, settlement and putting works into operation or use; capital construction investment capital’s outstanding debts are at a high level and tend to increase; investment efficiency remains low.

Among the causes pointed out in the Government’s Report and the National Assembly Standing Committee’s Report, it is necessary to frankly and profoundly realize the important and direct causes, which are: (1) Legislation on capital construction investment has not yet been strictly observed; not a few managerial officials or administrators lack sense of responsibility, have poor ethical qualities, abuse their functions or tasks to commit misappropriation or corruption; (2) Several branches and localities have not yet paid due attention to the planning work, have been incautious in deciding on investment undertakings, have failed to strictly comply with the plannings or plans already approved by competent authorities or have made amendment or supplementation ultra vires; (3) The mechanism of assignment, decentralization and coordination in the State management over capital construction investment has not been clearly defined and fails to raise the sense of responsibility of each ministry, branch and locality, especially individual responsibility; (4) The examination, inspection and audit have not been conducted regularly, extensively, intensively and qualitatively; (5) The handling of violating organizations and individuals remains not stringent enough,  not radical and prolonged after examinations and inspections; (6) Current legal documents on capital construction investment remain unspecific and lack severe penalties.

2. The National Assembly requests the Government to provide resolute direction and apply effective remedies to restore order and disciplines in capital construction investment, focusing on the following matters:

a/ To specify processes and measures for inspection, examination and supervision of the State’s capital construction investment capital at each stage of the investment process; to promulgate principles, criteria and norms for capital construction capital allocation; investment estimation norms and criteria for evaluation of investment efficiency of each project and each branch. To publicize law provisions, projects and works, from investment undertakings, evaluation and approval of investment projects, survey, design, bidding to pre-acceptance test and settlement; to publicize inspection and examination results as well as handling results through examinations and inspections.

b/ To formulate institutions on raising and handling individual responsibilities at each stage of the investment process, especially responsibilities of persons deciding on planning projects or investment projects; to clarify errors and violations, clearly identify persons to bear responsibilities, and resolutely and strictly handle them by administrative or penal measures, and compensations for material damage; to put an end to the situation where collectives were generally blamed for irresponsibility, errors and weaknesses as in the past; to resolutely remove from the public administration apparatuses those officials and public employees who have poor ethical qualities, lack the sense of responsibility, cause troubles or harassments, or have poor professional capabilities for capital construction management.

c/ To review for adjusting or supplementing existing investment plannings and plans or elaborate new ones. To associate plannings with socio-economic development strategic objectives, economic restructuring, ensuring that they are of inter-branch or inter-regional nature. To clearly define and decentralize powers and responsibilities to each ministry, among ministries, between ministries and provinces/cities; to clearly define and raise the responsibilities of ministers for managing and administering their respective entire sectors, and of investors. To preclude in time and strictly handle cases of failing to strictly observe law provisions or decisions of competent agencies or superior authorities. To draw up specific roadmaps for applying models and mechanisms to do away with the situation of behind-closed-door management in capital construction investment.

d/ To carry out the overall review and evaluation of the current legal documents on capital construction investment in order to amend, supplement or promulgate in time legal documents, thus forming a more synchronous legal system of higher legality.

e/ In 2005, the Government shall continue devising plans on directing the examination and inspection of works and projects with negative phenomena, which are informed by voters and the public.

f/ From now till the end of 2006, to devise specific plans and strong handling measures to resolutely settle capital construction capital’s outstanding debts; annually, to report settlement results to the National Assembly.

3. The National Assembly requests judicial agencies, according to their functions, to devise specific plans, expeditiously perform their tasks, preclude, detect and strictly handle in time organizations and individuals that violate legislation on capital construction investment, regardless of status of such organizations or individuals.

4. To take 2005 as the year of “Raising investment efficiency, combating losses, wastefulness, even-spread investment and capital construction investment capital’s outstanding debts”. In that spirit, the Government should concentrate its direction to make marked improvements in this domain and report on implementation results at the 2005 year-end session of the National Assembly.

5. To assign the Standing Committee, the Nationality Council and the Committees of the National Assembly; delegations of National Assembly deputies to continue organizing specialized supervision of capital construction investment and supervise the implementation of this Resolution.

The People’s Councils of all levels shall supervise capital construction investment and the implementation of this Resolution in their respective localities.

6. Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations, professional associations and press agencies shall, within the ambit of their respective tasks and powers, coordinate with concerned State agencies in supervising the implementation of this Resolution, detect, and propose in time the handling of, negative phenomena and weaknesses in capital construction investment.

7. To encourage and commend in time, and take measures to protect, according to law provisions, organizations and individuals that detect and actively fight acts of corruption, losses or wastefulness in capital construction investment.

Branches, levels, organizations and individuals shall, according to their respective functions and tasks, raise their responsibilities before the State and people, strictly and efficiently implement this Resolution, thus practically contributing to preventing wastefulness, losses and corruption in the use of the State’s capital and assets.

This Resolution was adopted on December 3, 2004 by the XI^th National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at its sixth session.

Chairman of the National Assembly
NGUYEN VAN AN