The State Treasury of Yen Bai province has performed well its functions and tasks of central and local financial resources management. Vietnam Business Forum Magazine has an interview with Ms. Tong Thuy Ha, Director of Yen Bai State Treasury, on achievements of local budget collection and expenditure. Nguyen Bach reports.
Could you briefly introduce budget management results of the Yen Bai State Treasury in 2015-2018?
In 2015-2018, the Yen Bai State Treasury closely followed the instructions of the Ministry of Finance, the State Treasury of Vietnam, local Party committees and authorities to effectively implement work programs and plans, including perfecting professional budget collection process; effectively implementing state budget collection coordination among tax authorities, customs authorities and the State Treasury; authorizing budget collection via four State-owned commercial banks; diversifying forms of tax payment via ATMs and POSs to facilitate organizations, businesses and people to pay taxes, fees and charges into the State Budget. With consistent solutions that match local practical situations, the State Treasury has successfully completed budget revenue estimates of the Ministry of Finance and the Provincial People's Council in the past years. Specifically, in 2015, the total state budget revenue reached VND1,775.3 billion, equal to 106.73% of the central estimate and 104.13% of the provincial estimate. In 2018, the value topped VND2,914.8 billion, equal to 144.08% of the central estimate and 131.41% of the provincial estimate.
Regarding the state budget spending, the State Treasury strictly and timely controlled the State Budget under adopted policies, regulations, standards and norms and refusing to settlement payment for ineligible requests. In 2015-2018, the Yen Bai State Treasury disbursed a total of VND37,268.554 billion, including VND 26,101.191 billion of recurrent expenditure and VND11,151.398 billion of investment expenditure.
For controlling investment expenditures, the Yen Bai State Treasury has actively coordinated with investors and project management units to grasp investment fund disbursement of each project, timely report the disbursement progress and details of each project to local authorities. It has strictly implemented regulations on publicity of process and records and payment control time; guided and created favorable conditions for investors working with the Yen Bai State Treasury in order to accelerate the disbursement progress. From 2015 to May 2019, given the planned allocation of VND11,101,995 million, the Yen Bai State Treasury disbursed 11,706,170 million.
How have you worked to modernize and improve management in association with public administration reform to fulfil the State Treasury development strategy to 2020 approved by the Prime Minister?
Modernizing and improving management and applying information technology to professional activities is clearly defined as key to public administration reform in the State Treasury sector, facilitate information update, settlement and provision for management and administration of all-tier authorities, the State Treasury, the Ministry of Finance, and the Government. At the same time, it is an important foundation for achieving the goal of electronic State Treasury in 2020 under the State Treasury system development plan. We have continued to utilize and operate the treasury and budget management information system (TABMIS), deploy a series of IT applications as guided by the State Treasury of Vietnam, and further improve information quality and reporting criteria.
In 2019, we strive to make 100% of administrative procedures available on the online public service portal at Level 4 and have 100% of State budget users utilising online public services. Besides, we will continue to effectively carry out the scheme on unifying the state budget control process through the State Treasury; bring treasury administrative procedures to the online service portal and clearly post them at its working offices to help achieve public administration reform in State budget collection and spending.
What are your central tasks to meet local practical requirements in the coming time?
In the coming time, to further improve the efficiency of budget revenue and expenditure management and implement local socioeconomic development tasks, the Yen Bai State Treasury continues to carry out key tasks such as closely following directions of the Ministry of Finance, the State Treasury, Party committees and local governments to realize working programs and plans. It will well implement professional accounting and payment processes; strengthen inspection and supervision of professional activities; uphold discipline, raise the responsibility and accountability of unit leaders in directing and implementing working regulations, grassroots democracy regulations, and regulations on coordination of Party organizations, authorities and mass organizations to unify the leadership; and carry out of political affairs. It will further public administration reform, publicize administrative procedures and professional processes within the State Treasury; speed up modernization and information technology application to administration; focus on personnel training, retraining and development; and increase staff rotation and transfer to find core employees.
Thank you very much!