Laos: Over 20 state projects violated financial rules

VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/Asia News Network): A total of 23 projects worth 1,066 billion kip that were approved by the National Assembly (NA) have not been implemented in line with the Law on State Investment.

This was reported to NA members during the second ordinary session of the National Assembly’s 9th legislature by the President of the State Audit Organisation (SAO), Viengthavisone Thepphachanh (pic).

Some projects did not carry out the required assessment and concession before being proposed for the state investment plan. In some cases, the documents were not complete or the work done under contract was not according to the technical standards.

In other cases, the guarantee money for the agreement and the project was not presented, or the price of the construction was calculated at a rate higher than the average price set by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.

Some projects modified the task is not proposed through the relevant sectors has the authority at each level, inspect and supervise the work more than the actual implementation.

In some projects, the funds were shifted to another task without making a proposal to the planning and investment sector in accordance with the regulations.

The management and administration fund was incorrectly used in certain projects, or the calculation of the project management fee exceeded the regulations. There were also instances of assessments not being done after the completion of the project, or the project proposals not matching the actual information on the ground.

Some projects implemented with loans and grant continued to violate the financial rules because the spending on them was not in line with the annual plan. In some cases, the calculation and disbursement of fuel for administration vehicles exceeded the permissible rate, and the procurement and hiring processes did not match the procedures under the laws, he said.

A number of investment enterprises continued to violate financial discipline since they did not sum up incomes and debts, did not issue receipts, and their procurement and hiring processes were not in accordance with the procedures. There are also many projects that had not yet met their profit tax obligations to the government.

To tackle such problems, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly proposed that the SAO should pay high attention to inspecting expenditure by the state, including from the road fund and property transformation fund, and focus on other priorities set out in the NA agreement on the budget plan for 2021-22.

The President of the Planning, Finance and Audit Committee, Dr Leeber Leebouapao, suggested the SAO should continue inspecting regular administrative expenditure during 2021-22 and be active in implementing the goals and priorities of the SAO that were not completed in 2022.

The SAO should also pay attention to modernising audit work (E-Audit) and closely coordination with the relevant government department to be more efficient and flexible, he said.