Decree No. 117/2017/ND-CP dated October 19, 2017 stipulating on management and use of state budget for some external activities

THE STATE BANK OF VIETNAM

Decree No. 117/2017/ND-CP dated October 19, 2017 stipulating on management and use of state budget for some external relations activities

Pursuant to the Law on organization of Government dated June 19, 2015;

Pursuant to the Law on state budget dated June 25, 2015;

Pursuant to the Law on overseas representative agencies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam dated June 18, 2009;

At the proposal of the Minister of Finance;

The Government promulgates regulations on management, use state budget for some external relations activities.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1.Scope of application

This Decree regulates on collection and payment of state budget for some external relations activities; planning estimation and settlement and publication of state budget for some external relations activities as stipulated by the law on state budget.

External relations activities of the leaders of the Party, the State are not under the application of this Decree.

Article 2. Subjects of application

This Decree shall apply for ministries, ministerial agencies, agencies under the management of the Government and other agencies at the central level (hereinafter referred to as ministries, central agencies) and provinces, centrally run cities (hereinafter referred to as localities) and organizations, individuals related to management and use of the budget of external relations activities.

Article 3.Interpretation of terms

Overseas representative agencies of Vietnam as stipulated under this Decree include:

1. Overseas representative agencies of the Vietnamese Socialist Republic (hereinafter referred to as overseas representative agencies) are diplomatic representative agencies, consular representative agencies and representative agencies at international organizations to implement the function as the official representative of the Vietnamese state in the relationship with countries, territories, international organizations as stipulated under the law on overseas representative agencies of the Vietnamese Socialist Republic;

2. Other overseas agencies of Vietnam that are not under the organizational structure of overseas representative agencies under ministries, central agencies to enjoy the budget from the state budget or from revenues of the state budget shall be reserved as stipulated by current regulations.

Article 4.Revenue and expense items of state budget in external relations activities

1. Revenue items in external activities include: fees and charges in external activities; fees and charges related to rights and obligations of foreign citizens and other revenues as stipulated by the law;

2. Expense items in external relations activities include: expenditure on development investment, frequent expenditure, aiding expenses and other expenditures as stipulated by the law.

Expense items in external relations activities shall be implemented according to current regulations and in accordance with contents and specific tasks of external relations activities.

Chapter II

EXPENSES OF STATE BUDGET FOR EXTERNAL RELATIONS ACTIVITIES

Article 5.Payment obligations for external relations activities of the state budget

1. Frequent expenditure

a) Expenditure for state diplomatic activities;

b) Expenditure for negotiation, participation, signing, implementing Treaties, Aiding Agreements, borrowing, international agreement;

c) Expenditure for ensuring operation of overseas representative agencies of Vietnam;

d) Expenditure for activities related to border, national territory;

dd) Protection expenditure for benefits of the State, legal rights and benefits of overseas Vietnamese citizens as stipulated by Vietnamese law and international law;

e) Expenditure for public support, creating favorable conditions for overseas Vietnamese to settle down in the host country, maintain Vietnamese culture as stipulated by the law; expenditure for managing overseas Vietnamese workers;

g) Expenditure for diplomatic activities, international integration; strengthening cooperation in many fields;

h) Expenditure for external relations activities of the central agencies as stipulated by the law;

i) Expenditure for propaganda and managing information of foreign reporters;

k) Expenditure for organizing events, introducing and promoting Vietnamese goods, services, labor, investment promotion, science, sports and tourism overseas.

l) Expenditure for collection and purchase of valuable economic information; appraisal and verification of information on economic partners; activities of persuading partners, customers, investors, corporations in the host countries to promote trade, investment, tourism, science and open the market of labor export;

e) Expenditure for organizations, individuals that achieve good results in the implementation of external tasks of ministries, central agencies;

n) Expenditure for training professional knowledge, professions and foreign languages for employees performing external relations activities; expenditure for doing research to serve for predicting external strategies and policies of the Party and the State;

o) Expenditure for renting, purchasing, fixing assets, equipment, transportation in the country and abroad to ensure security, safety and requirements on foreign relations;

p) Expenditure for renting, fixing, maintaining offices, houses, modernizing facilities in the country and abroad to ensure security, safety and requirements on foreign relations;

q) Expenditure for improving facilities in the country and offices, foreign relations office, houses for employees of overseas Vietnamese representative agencies;

r) Expenditure for operation of the system to serve for external relations activities of ministries and central agencies;

s) Expenditure for other foreign relations that are assigned by the Party and the State as stipulated by the law;

2. Expenditure for development investment

a) Expenditure for building works related to national border

b) Purchase, build, improve and upgrade facilities in the country to serve for external relations;

c) Purchase, build, improve and upgrade facilities of overseas representative agencies of Vietnam;

d) Expenditure for renting the house, the land (over 30 years) to implement the investment projects of constructing and improving houses and offices of overseas Vietnamese agencies;

3. Expenditure according to Agreements, commitments with Governments;

Article 6.Payment obligations for foreign relations of local budget

1. Frequent expenditure:

a) Expenditure for foreign corporation activities on politics, national defense, security, economics, culture, society; serve for diplomatic cultural activities under the task of the local;

b) Expenditure for negotiations, participation, signing, implementing international agreements under the competence of the locality as stipulated by the law on signing and implementing international agreements;

c) Expenditure for external relations related to the management of national borders under the task of the locality;

d)Expenditure for external relations of the group in the locality supported by the state budget to ensure the operation;

dd) Expenditure for overseas Vietnamese people; expenditure for protecting legal rights and benefits of overseas Vietnamese citizens as stipulated by the Vietnamese laws and international law under the function and tasks of the locality;

e) Expenditure for management of foreign organizations and individuals in the locality;

g) Expenditure for economic diplomatic activities; management and receipt of foreign government funding at the locality;

h) Expenditure for propaganda and manage information of foreign reporters in the local;

i) Expenditure for activities to serve for recommending on awarding to foreign groups, individuals that achieve good results recognized by the locality; activities to serve for receipt of awarding forms of international organizations, foreign organizations;

k) Expenditure for organizations, individuals that achieve good results in the implementation of external tasks of localities;

l) Expenditure for training professional knowledge, professions and external languages for local foreign relations employees;

m) Expenditure for fixing, improving, upgrading facilities to serve for external relations;

n) Expenditure for operation of the system to serve for external relations of the local;

o) Expenditure for implementing other external relations tasks as stipulated by the law;

2. Expenditure for development investment: building, upgrading and improving facilities to serve for external relations;

Chapter III

ESTABLISHMENT, COMPLIANCE, SETTLEMENT AND PUBLICATION OF STATE BUDGET FOR SOME EXTERNAL RELATION ACTIVITIES

Article 7.Establishment, compliance, settlement and publication of state budget for external relation activities

1. This Decree stipulates regulations on specific contents in the establishment of estimate, accounting and settlement of state budget in external relations.

Other regulations on establishment, compliance, settlement and publication of state budget of central agencies and localities that are not regulated under this Decree shall be implemented according to the Decree of the Government detailing a number of articles of the law on state budget.

2. For construction investment projects and purchase of assets, goods, services to maintain frequent activities of overseas Vietnamese agencies shall be implemented according to the Vietnamese law and the law of the host country. If there are differences among regulations on the same matter, it shall be implemented according to the law of the host country.

Article 8.Establishment of the annual state budget

1. State budget estimate shall be made according to the form as stipulated and submitted according to time as stipulated by competent agencies and guidelines made by the Ministry of Finance; it must fully demonstrate details of each revenue and expense items including expenses from retained revenue according to the regime; explanation on bases of calculation for each revenue and expense item. For expense item with confidential contents shall be implemented according to current regulations on protecting confidential of the state.

2. Annual state budget estimate for overseas Vietnamese agencies

a) Based on the five year financial plan, the three year financial state budget plan, medium state budget plan; regulations of the Prime Minister on building the plan for developing social economic plan and the next year state budget estimate; guidelines of the Ministry of Finance on making the state budget estimate for next year; guidelines of the Ministry of Planning and Investment on implementing the budget plan of previous year; inspection on budget plan notified and requested by the Ministry of Finance, specific tasks of head agencies including tasks of agencies that have staff working at overseas representative agencies of Vietnam; head agencies of overseas representative agencies of Vietnam shall guide overseas representative agencies of Vietnam to make a revenue and expense estimate for the next year.

The agency having staff work at overseas representative agencies of Vietnam shall coordinate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to guide overseas representative agencies of Vietnam on estimating the budget plan of the next year for professional fields that the agency is responsible;

Annual budget estimate of overseas representative agencies of Vietnam shall be made in Vietnamese dong converted from US dollars according to the currency rate as stipulated by the Ministry of Finance;

b) Based on guidelines of head agencies; specific tasks; regime; standards, budget spending level, criteria as a basis to estimate the budget; price fluctuations in the host country, fluctuations of US dollars compared with the local currency; situation on implementing the budget estimate of previous year, overseas representative agencies shall make the budget plan of the next year to send to the head agencies for summarization. The budget estimate shall be enclosed with the detailed explanation of each revenue and expense item.

c) The head agencies shall consider the budget estimate that is made and summarized by overseas representative agencies and send to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Investment (estimate on development investment) before July 20 for summarization and approval.

Article 9.Allocation and distribution of the state budget estimate

1. Allocation and distribution of the state budget estimate for overseas representative agencies

After being allocated the budget estimate by the Prime Minister, ministries, central agencies shall allocate and distribute the budget estimate to overseas representative agencies in US dollars converted from Vietnamese dong according to the currency rate as stipulated by the Ministry of Finance based on the following principles:

a) Be in accordance with the distributed budget estimate on the total budget and details in each field, revenue and expense item;

b) Be in accordance with the regime, policy, standard and spending level;

c) Ensure the budget to implement tasks of overseas representative agencies including implementing specific tasks of the agency having staff work at overseas representative agencies.

Results on allocating and distributing the state budget to overseas representative agencies shall be sent to the Ministry of Finance for examination and at the same time sent to the State Treasury for implementation.

2. For specialized activities that are allocated in the estimate of the agency having secondees work at overseas representative agencies implemented by overseas representative agencies.

a) Activities that are allocated in the estimate of the agency having secondees work at overseas representative agencies implemented by overseas representative agencies are activities as stipulated under Point k Clause 1 Article 5 of this Decree that are decided by the Prime Minister and operated as stipulated under Point 1 Clause 1 Article 5 of this Decree.

b)Based on the allocated budget estimate and tasks as stipulated Point a Clause 2 of this Article in each area, the agency having secondees work at overseas representative agencies shall issue a written document to request overseas representative agencies of Vietnam to coordinate with secondees to implement assigned tasks. Based on contents of works, regime, current spending level, the agency shall approve contents and detail state budget to implement activities and transfer the budget to the account of overseas representative agencies.

Article 10.Organizing collection and remittance of state budget at overseas representative agencies of Vietnam

Overseas representative agencies shall manage and implement collection of fees and charges and other revenues as stipulated; finalize the entire amount of money collected from fees and charges and other revenues as stipulated into the state budget custody funds at overseas representative agencies of Vietnam. Monthly, quarterly and annually, overseas representative agencies shall report the residual number of the state budget custody fund to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for summarization and send to the Ministry of Finance;

Management and use of the state budget custody fund at overseas representative agencies shall be guided by the Ministry of Finance;

Article 11.Granting state budget expenditure for overseas representative agencies of Vietnam

Based on the budget estimate as allocated and the residual number of the state budget custody funds at overseas representative agencies, head agencies shall transfer the budget to overseas representative agencies in US dollars according to the exchange rate as stipulated by the Ministry of Finance;

Article 12.Management, use of frequent expenditure of overseas representative agencies of Vietnam

1. Heads of overseas representative agencies shall be responsible for management, use of the budget as estimated, ensure efficiency, saving and in accordance with the policy, regime, standard and spending level.

2. Overseas representative agencies of Vietnam shall use means of payment and not use cash when paying for the beneficiary excluding the following cases:

a) Overseas representative agencies are located in countries that the payment account system is undeveloped, the units providing services don’t have bank accounts;

b) Items that are allowed to pay in cash as stipulated by the Ministry of Finance;

3. Head agencies of overseas representative agencies shall control payment based on documents provided by overseas representative agencies of Vietnam as stipulated.

Article 13. Establishment, management, payment and settlement of construction investment projects of overseas representative agencies

1. Establishment and allocation of medium and annual public capital of overseas construction investment projects shall be implemented according to the law on public investment and other guidelines;

2. Management on construction investment of overseas construction investment projects shall be implemented according to the law of the host country and Vietnamese laws. If there are any other regulations, it shall be implemented according to the law of the host country.

3. Advancement of capital and payment for overseas investment projects shall be paid according to the signed contract in accordance with the law of the host country and other regulations of Vietnamese laws;

4. Selecting contractors for overseas construction investment projects shall be implemented according to the law of the host country. Based on the nature of each package, the person that issues the decision on investment shall decide on forms of selecting the contractor.

5.Capital settlement shall follow annual state budget plan and settlement of finished projects.

6. Payment and settlement of investment capital of construction investment projects of overseas representative agencies shall be implemented according to guidelines of the Ministry of Finance;

Article 14.Management and use of the collected fees that can be retained

Amount of fees in diplomatic field shall be retained to compensate for activities of providing services to serve for collecting fees as stipulated; paying for frequent fixing and fixing assets, changing new equipment, modernization informatics technology; paying for training on professions and foreign language; paying for supplementing income for employees, laborers.

The Ministry of Finance prescribes the rate of fee that can be retained, spending structure, spending rate for increasing income for employees and laborers.

Article 15. Open account, use state budget of overseas representative agencies

Heads of overseas representative agencies of Vietnam shall consider and decide on selecting prestigious banks in the host country to open the account of overseas representative agencies to serve for operation and ensure the budget and deposit.

Article 16.Accounting, settlement of the state budget for overseas representative agencies

1. Transferring the budget source from the previous year to the next year

Frequent expenditure of overseas representative agencies granted until the end of December 31 that is residual must be refunded to the state budget by deducting equivalent expense item in the next year budget estimate; excluding the case that transferring the source to the next year as stipulated under Clause 3 Article 64 of the Law on state budget.

2. After finishing the budget year, overseas representative agencies shall close accounting book and settle the state budget to send to the head agency. The head agency shall consider and approve the budget of overseas representative agencies and notify the result to each overseas representative agency; summarize and send the report on budget settlement under its function to the Ministry of Finance, the State Audit before October 01 of the next year.

3. For activities implemented by overseas representative agencies as stipulated under Point a Clause 2 Article 9 of this Decree, overseas representative agencies of Vietnam shall supervise the budget that the agency having staff work at overseas representative agencies to implement assigned tasks (not entering the account of expenditure source of overseas representative agencies), at the same time shall manage, use in accordance with purposes, contents and activities that are assigned. After the work is done, overseas representative agencies shall collect all expense documents to send to the agency having staff work at overseas representative agencies for summarization as stipulated by the law. Overseas representative agencies shall be responsible for legality of documents.

If the budget transferred from the agency having secondees to overseas representative agencies that is residual and can’t transfer to the next year, the agency having secondees shall revoke and submit to the state budget as stipulated.

Chapter IV

IMPLEMENTATION ORGANIZATION

Article 17. Implementation organization

1. Prime Minister

To regulate on management of investment projects of overseas Vietnamese agencies as stipulated under Clause 2 Article 7 and Clause 1, Clause 2, Clause 3, Clause 4 Article 13 of this Decree.

2. The Ministry of Finance

a) To guide the implementation of regulations as stipulated under Article 8, Article 9, Article 10, Article 11, Article 12, Clause 6 Article 13 and Article 14 of this Decree.

b) To assume the prime responsibility for and coordinate with ministries, relevant agencies to present competent agencies to ensure frequent expenditure to implement annual external activities;

3. Ministry of Planning and Investment:

a) To assume the prime responsibility for and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and other relevant agencies to present relevant agencies to allocate the plan on medium and annual public investment for construction investment projects to serve for external activities.

b) To coordinate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to present the Prime Minister regulations on management of basic construction investment projects of overseas Vietnamese agencies as stipulated under Clause 2 Article 7 and Clause 1 Clause 2 Clause 3 Clause 4 of Article 13 of this Decree.

4. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

a) To assume the prime responsibility for and coordinate with ministries, relevant agencies to present the Prime Minister regulations on management of basic construction investment projects of overseas Vietnamese agencies as stipulated under Clause 2 Article 7 and Clause 1 Clause 2 Clause 3 Clause 4 of Article 13 of this Decree.

b) To organize, implement regulation as stipulated under this Decree;

5. Minister, heads of ministerial agencies, Heads of agencies directly under the Government and other agencies at the central level, heads of overseas Vietnamese agencies and chairperson of People’s Committee of provinces and cities under the management of the central are liable to execute this Decree.

Article 18.Transitional provisions

The state budget statement 2015 and 2016;shall apply regulations of the Law on state budget No. 01/2002/QH11; the Decree No. 60/2003/ND-CP dated June 16, 2003 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of the state budget law;

Article 19. Effect

1. This Decree takes effect on December 10, 2017 and applies from the budged year 2017.

2. This Decree annuls the Decree No. 107/2011/ND-CP dated November 2011 of the Government stipulating in detail point c, clause 2, article 15 of the law on overseas representative missions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

For the Government

Prime Minister

Nguyen XuanPhuc