Departments, agencies and local authorities have been told to review all approved build-transfer (BT) projects and take responsibility for any violations in their execution, based on Resolution 160 issued by the Government at the end of 2018.

A section of Pham Van Dong Street in HCMC, a project conducted under the BT format 

Under the resolution on the use of public land to pay investors for their execution of BT projects, for BT contracts signed prior to January 1, 2018, payments that have yet to be completed must continue being conducted in line with the signed contracts.

Meanwhile, the resolution allows BT contracts signed from January 1, 2018, to use public assets to complete payments. As such, departments, agencies and local authorities must review the contents of contracts to ensure they comply with the 2017 Law on the management and use of public property, the land law, the law on State budget and other relevant regulations.

In case any of the contents is inappropriate based on prevailing regulations, the deals will need to be re-negotiated.

In addition, the resolution notes that State agencies must conduct negotiations and sign BT contracts in cases where BT projects found investors prior to the effective date of the resolution but did not conclude the agreement.

The Government also asked departments, agencies and local authorities to ensure transparency and compliance with regulations during their execution and to avoid wasting public resources.

Amendments to BT contracts are needed if violations are uncovered but have yet to cause losses for public assets. Besides this, violators must receive strict sanctions.

At the start of 2018, the Government required departments, agencies and the authorities of localities to suspend the use of public property for paying investors for executing BT projects until the Government’s resolution was issued.

The temporary suspension resulted from bottlenecks arising from payments conducted under the format, which unintentionally created an opportunity for investors to secure public land at low prices.

The State Audit noted that the BT format had failed to ease the burden on the State budget.

SGT