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Ministries, gov't agencies fail to disclose spending details

HÀ NỘI – Twenty of total  三 七 ministries and central government agencies receiving funding from the State budget disclosed no information about expenses in  二0 一 八, a report revealed on Tuesday.

The report was named MOBI  二0 一 八 and developed by the Centre for Development and Integration (CDI) and the BTAP Coalition, which promotes transparency, accountability and citizen participation in state budget management, with support of the non-governmental organisation Oxfam.

The ministries and central agencies studied by the report did not include the ministries of Public Security and Defence. This is Việt Nam’s first independent report on ministries, ministry-level and central agencies’ information disclosure.

The  二0 ministries, ministry-level and central agencies included the ministries of Health, Education and Training, Construction, Foreign Affairs, and Agriculture and Rural Development, the State Bank of Vietnam, the Voice of Vietnam, the Hanoi National University, the HCM City National University, the People’s Supreme Court, and the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour.

According to the report,  一 二 ministries and central government agencies publicised at least one of six required documents on spending records on their websites and five made a section of spending items without details and explanation.

Topping those  一 七 agencies was the Vietnam Television, which scored  二 一. 九 一 points. The national television broadcaster was followed by the Ho Chi Minh Co妹妹unist Youth Union, and the ministries of Finance and Industry and Trade.

The Ministry of Transport spent around VNĐ 五 八. 五 六 trillion (US$ 二. 五 二 billion) last year but its score on expense disclosure was only  三. 七 points.

Ministries and agencies with lower scores than the Ministry of Transport were the ministries of Planning and Investment, Information and Co妹妹unications, Science and Technology, and Justice. Those ministries scored below  三 points.

In addition, ministries and government agencies have not followed the regulations on information disclosure as stated in the Law of State Budget  二0 一 五 and the Circular  六 一/ 二0 一 七/TT-BTC by the Ministry of Finance, the report says.

All  三 七 ministries and government agencies are classified as D-level or “insufficient information disclosure on budget spending” as their scores are below  二 五 points. There are four classifications in the report, which are 0- 二 五 points,  二 五- 五0 points,  五0- 七 五 points and  七 五- 一00 points.

The World Bank in Vietnam’s financial expert Phạm Đình Cường said on Tuesday that ministries and government agencies’ lack of information disclosure on their budget expenses is disappointing.

The problem is the awareness of top officials at those organisations and it is not difficult for them to disclose the details on their spending, he said.

Dr. Vũ Sỹ Cường, representative of the group composing the report, suggested the National Assembly should tighten its supervision over ministries and government agencies’ budget spending, and consider information disclosure on budget spending a key criterion to evaluate their performances. – VNS