Vo Hong Phuc, Minister of Planning and Investment

Devolution in investment and project management are the main big issues dealt with in a draft decree that calls for changes of Decree 17/2001.

Under the draft Decree, State administrative offices will focus on only performing their state management function. They will no longer act as the owners or holders of ODA projects. This role is to be shifted to agencies which will directly manage projects in the future.

The draft Decree regulates unified management of ODA, with the government as the focal point. Guiding principles for ODA management are democracy, transparency and openness. Devolution in management will help ensure the sound co-ordination of management, inspection and monitoring of concerned authorities as well as their active participation.

The draft Decree also stipulates clearly that project owners have to absorb total responsibility for the management and use of invested capital right from the pre-study stage up to loan payments.

In other words, project owners have to bear full responsibility for any mishaps that might happen during the project’s life-cycle, including any negative socio-economic impacts or pollution caused by the projects.

The Decree has a separate provision on the ODA management role of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, the State Bank of Viet Nam and the Government’s Office respectively.

Monitoring and evaluation activities constitute an important part of the Decree.

Under the new Decree, the project’s socio-economic impact assessment will be carried out following three years of implementation instead of five years as regulated in Decree 17.

Pham Sy Liem, former deputy Minister of Construction

Any investment project must undergo three stages: preparations; implementation; finalisation of investment and settlement of the project’s final balance sheet.

Project managers are usually overloaded with work, particularly with administrative procedures relating to basic capital construction.

So in my opinion, the project’s general management and construction work management should be separated. They must be managed by highly qualified professional people.

Under the 2003 Construction Law, the project owner could either hire consultants to undertake general project management or directly undertake management duties by creating a project unit.

But in practice, since the law came into force, the second option has been the most popular.

Why hasn’t the first option been so popular? In my opinion, Government Decree 16/2005 did not specifically define which type of management should be applied to different types of projects. The Decree only regulated the rights and obligations of the project management board. It even stated that if the management board was capable, it could undertake management duties for several projects at the same time.

This is a loophole in one word the Decree, as the phrases "capable" or "independent consultant" could be interpreted differently. This was the main cause leading to the scandalous case of PMU 18 (Project Management 18).

I totally support the proposed changes in the new Decree governing the management of projects using the State budget.

Professor Nguyen Mai, former member of the Prime Minister’s foreign economic research team

In the management of projects using Government money, it is important to define the responsibility of project owners and funding agencies.

In the present system, most project owners execute their responsibility through project management units (PMUs). Once the project is completed, the PMU is dissolved. That means no one will take responsibility in monitoring maintenance activities related to the completed project or contractors’ commitment during the time of warranty, as regulated in the contract.

This is one of the reasons leading to the poor quality of many projects.

Based on this reality, I totally support the idea of shifting project ownership from funding agencies to other agencies involved in the operation of the project, as the latter will have to bear all responsibility for the consequences of the project.

Professional skills, ranging from investment consultancy to management and implementation, are of primary importance for any investment project.

The relation between those who carry out various roles in the project and the project owner must be regulated in the contract. However, these organisations will operate independently but in a well co-ordinated manner.

By so doing, I belief that the Government will be free to focus more on its State management role and supervision of the use of the State budget.

Tran Ngoc Hung, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the Viet Nam Construction Association

Hiring consultants is common in other countries, as it brings more advantages than disadvantages.

Consultants are highly professional people.

The relationships between the project owner and consultants is based on an economic contract in which the rights and obligations of each party are clearly stated.

In Viet Nam, among PMUs, many staff are highly qualified to be consultants. But if they want to operate as independent consultants they should form themselves into consultant companies, not as staff of PMUs, as is the case at present.

Nguyen Quang Vinh, Deputy Director of the Construction Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

I couldn’t agree more with the idea of letting project users to be project owners.

But for inter-provincial projects or big irrigation projects, the project owners’ capacity has become a big problem. One example is the construction of the Cua Dai reservoir. The reservoir is designed to hold 1.5 billion m3 of water with a dam over 100 metres high. In this case, we had to assign a director of a provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development as the project director.

Source: Vietnam News