Official Dispatch No. 2676/BTC-QLCS dated February 28, 2017 of the Ministry of Finance on providing guidance on purchase of assets financed by the 2017 state budget funds and improvement of effective use of financial resources in management and operation of public assets

THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE

Official Dispatch No.2676/BTC-QLCS dated February 28, 2017 of the Ministry of Finance on providing guidance on purchase of assets financed by the 2017 state budget funds and improvement of effective use of financial resources in management and operation of public assets.

With the aim of implementing the regulations laid down in subparagraph a paragraph 2 section I of the Part I of the Government’s Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP dated January 1, 2017 on main measures to governance and administration of implementation of the socio-economic development plan and the 2017 state budget, and complying with the Prime Minister’s directives given in the Official Dispatch No. 1756/VPCP-KTTH dated February 27, 2017, the Ministry of Finance hereby provides guidance on purchase of assets financed by the 2017 state budget funds and improvement of effective use of financial resources in management and operation of public assets, specifically including the followings:

I. Purchase of assets financed from the 2017 state budget

1. Purchase of motor vehicles

1.1. General principles

Entities and authorities shall be advised to apply the system for allocated lump-sum spending on use of Government-owned or -leased motor vehicles for business purposes. Entities or authorities shall be allowed to purchase motor vehicles (including those used for official purposes, general business purposes and special purposes) only if:

a) they are short of motor vehicles in comparison with standards or norms stipulated by relevant state regulatory authorities in accordance with applicable legislation;

b) after completion of the inventory checking and redistribution of available motor vehicles within the remit of Ministries, sectoral departments and local authorities, it is determined that there is none of motor vehicles appropriate to be assigned for business purposes;

c) Ministries, sectoral departments and local authorities of which excessive motor vehicles are determined after completion of the inventory checking and redistribution of motor vehicles under the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 32/2015/QD-TTg dated August 4, 2015 have sent a report on the result of treatment of these excessive motor vehicles to the Ministry of Finance in accordance with applicable laws and regulations; the Ministry of Public Security or the Ministry of National Defense has submitted a report to the Prime Minister on the result of inventory checking and redistribution of motor vehicles used at their affiliated entities or authorities in accordance with regulations laid down in point b section 2 of the Prime Minister’s Order No. 31/CT-TTg dated November 2, 2016.

d) Allocated payments for purchase of motor vehicles have been defined in the 2017 state budget appropriation and funding sources allowed for use in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

1.2. Specified standards, norms and prices of purchased motor vehicles

a) Motor vehicles used for official purposes:

Standards and prices of purchased motor vehicles used for persons holding offices at entities or authorities shall be subject to regulations laid down in the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 32/2015/QD-TTg dated August 4, 2015 and the Prime Minister s regulations on standards and norms of motor vehicles used for business purposes by entities or authorities affiliated to the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Public Security and overseas Vietnamese representative missions.

b) Motor vehicles used for general business purposes:

Norms and prices of purchased motor vehicles used for general business purposes by entities or authorities shall be subject to regulations laid down in the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 32/2015/QD-TTg dated August 4, 2015 and the Prime Minister s regulations on standards and norms of motor vehicles used for regulatory management purposes by entities or authorities affiliated to the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Public Security, and for general business purposes by overseas Vietnamese representative missions.

c) Motor vehicles used for special purposes:

Norms of special-purpose motor vehicles assigned to centrally-governed entities or authorities shall be issued by the Ministers or Heads of central-level bodies upon receipt of consent from the Ministry of Finance; norms of special-purpose motor vehicles assigned to locally-governed entities or authorities shall be issued by the Presidents of the provincial-level People’s Committees upon receipt of consent from the same-level Standing People’s Council; prices of special-purpose motor vehicles shall be subject to provisions enshrined in the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 32/2015/QD-TTg dated August 4, 2015. Norms of special-purpose motor vehicles assigned to entities or authorities affiliated to the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Public Security shall be issued by the Minister of National Defense and the Minister of Public Security within their jurisdictions upon receipt of consent from the Ministry of Finance as prescribed by Clause 1 Article 9 of the Law on Management and Use of state-owned assets.

1.3. Purchase of motor vehicles used in programs/projects financed by foreign funding sources:

a) Programs/projects financed by ODA funds, preferential borrowed funds and commercial borrowed funds

The Resolution No. 07-NQ/TW dated November 18, 2016 of the Politburo on guidelines and approaches to restructuring of the state budget and management of public debts as a manner of assurance that the national financial system is safe and sustainable stipulates that public loans serve investment and development purposes only, but not current spending purposes. Therefore, foreign loans that fall within the scope of programs/projects financed by ODA, preferential and commercial borrowed funds shall not be used for purchases of motor vehicles.

The reciprocal capital (as a part of the investing capital) of projects financed by overseas loans which serves the purpose of purchase of motor vehicles must conform to stipulated standards or norms and fall within the investment outlay approved by competent authorities.

b) Projects financed by foreign non-refundable grant aid

Entities or project management units in need of transport equipment or motor vehicles shall draw up the plan for purchase and use of motor vehicles or transport equipment which specifies users, funding sources and capability of paying expenses for operation, maintenance and repair thereof, and send a report on the plan to their host institutions to consult with the Ministry of Finance before submitting the plan to competent authorities for approval of their policies on investment in, purchase and acquisition of program/project/non-project grant aid.

1.4. Method for purchase of motor vehicles: The centralized bulk purchase of motor vehicles intended to be commenced in 2017 shall be subject to temporary suspension under the command of the Prime Minister as stipulated by the Official Dispatch No. 1756/VPCP-KTTH of the Government Office dated February 27, 2017. Ministries, sectoral departments or local authorities shall purchase motor vehicles in the manner specified in applicable laws and regulations on bidding.

2. Purchase of other public assets:

Purchase of these assets must conform to stipulated standards, norms or plans and budget projections approved by competent authorities. Ministries, sectoral departments and local authorities that have not yet issued the standards and norms of dedicated machinery or equipment (classified by type or quantity) assigned to entities or units under their management shall be obliged to introduce these standards and norms in accordance with the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 58/2015/QD-TTg dated November 17, 2015, the Circular No. 19/2016/TT-BTC dated February 1, 2016 of the Ministry of Finance and the Official Dispatch No. 15318/BTC-QLCS dated October 28, 2016 of the Ministry of Finance as the basis for their purchases of dedicated machinery and equipment for their business purposes.

3. Responsibilities of Ministries, sectoral departments, local authorities and State Treasury

a) Ministries, sectoral departments and local authorities shall command that their subordinate entities or divisions must comply with applicable standards, norms or regulations for, and ensure cost effectiveness and efficiency in, their purchases of assets.

Procedures and documentation requirements for purchases of public asset purchases shall be subject to applicable laws and regulations on bidding. Purchased assets must be entered into accounting records, reported, managed or used in accordance with applicable laws and regulations on management and utilization of public assets.

Ministers, Heads of central-level bodies, Presidents of People’s Committees of centrally-governed cities and provinces shall make any purchase decisions within their jurisdiction and shall be held liable for these decisions.

b) The State Treasury shall command State Treasuries at all administrative levels to take control of state budget spending on purchase of public assets in accordance with applicable laws, the Government’s Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP dated January 1, 2017 and instructions given in this document.

II. Enhancement of effective and efficient utilization of financial resources in management and operation of public assets

The Ministry of Finance shall request Ministries, Ministry-level bodies, Government affiliations and other central-level organs, People’s Committees of centrally-affiliated cities and provinces, state-owned Corporations and General Companies to strictly and effectively implement applicable laws and regulations on management and operation of public assets, the Prime Minister’s Order No. 31/CT-TTg dated November 2, 2016 on strengthened administration and promotion of effective utilization of public assets and instructions given in the Official Dispatch No. 17731/BTC-QLCS dated December 14, 2016, with particular attention paid to the following tasks:

1. Promptly accomplish valuation of assets managed under the authority of public entities according to the system for allocating funds to enterprises as prescribed by the Government s Decree No. 04/2016/ND-CP dated January 6, 2016 and the Circular No. 23/2016/TT-BTC dated February 16, 2016 of the Ministry of Finance; command entities under their delegated authority to manage, check, and collect all revenues generated from use of public assets in violation of applicable laws and regulations on management and utilization of public assets and other relevant legislation, and to pay such revenues to the state budget.

2. Intensify management of work offices and workplaces in accordance with the Prime Minister’s Order No. 27/CT-TTg dated August 25, 2014; take strict control of standards and norms applied to use of work offices in accordance with applicable laws, consult with financial institutions about norms of work offices before obtaining competent authorities’ approval of design of work office construction, improvement, refurbishment or alteration projects.

3. Accomplish approval of the plan for real property asset redistribution and the plan for relocation in accordance with laws and regulations; speed up the progress of execution of the plan for redistribution and treatment of state-owned real property assets which has been approved by competent authorities; eradicate violations or problems that may arise through such redistribution process; impose appropriate sanctions on violating organizations or individuals. Take charge of management and use of revenues generated from land and house redistribution activities referred to in the Prime Minister s Decision No. 09/2007/QD-TTg in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

4. Imperatively accomplish public notification of the list of assets acquired during the centralized bulk purchasing process and take necessary steps in carrying out centralized bulk purchases in accordance with the Prime Minister s Decision No. 08/2016/QD-TTg dated February 26, 2016 and other directives of the Ministry of Finance. Documents evidencing payments for bulk purchases of public assets according to the centralized bulk purchasing method by Ministries, sectoral departments or local authorities, shall be subject to general provisions on purchase of assets financed by the state budget allocations, and must include framework agreements and asset purchase contracts with contractors (with respect to purchases carried out according to the general agreement signing approach) or asset purchase contracts with asset suppliers (with respect to purchases carried out according to the direct agreement signing approach).

5. Conduct regular audit and inspection of their assigned public assets, established assets held under state ownership, project-associated assets acquired after project termination in order to take any timely actions and ensure public awareness and transparency; promote proper inspections or audits and ensure that financial obligations arising from use of hired or allocated state-owned land and exercise of delegated right to extract state-owned natural resources should be discharged in a sound and correct manner, prevent and avoid any losses.

6. Stimulate application of the auctioning method for allocation and leasing of state-owned land and delegation of right to extract state-owned natural resources, treat state-owned real property assets available for use at state-controlled entities or organizations or state enterprises, treat state-owned assets available for use at other entities, project-associated assets, established assets held under state ownership and other state-owned assets of which the decision on sale has been made. Entities or organizations whose assets are auctioned or entities in charge of selling assets shall be responsible for overseeing the entire asset auctioning process to ensure public awareness, transparency and compliance with laws.

In the course of implementation, if there is any difficulty likely to arise, the Ministry of Finance should be informed in a timely manner to obtain its advice to deal with such difficulty./.

For the Minister

The Deputy Minister

Nguyen Huu Chi