Hanoi (VNA) - Arecent audit on road maintenance funds conducted by the State Audit Office of Vietnam(SAV) has revealed loopholes in their collection and expenditure, raisingquestions over the transparency of the fund’s management.

According to the investigation, during 2015-2016, Vietnam Road Directorateallocated funds to works which were not urgent or used funds for the wrongpurpose, wasting more than 45 billion VND (1.9 million USD).

Also during this period, the fund management council slashed the regularmaintenance fee and other related fees by half compared to those set in 2013.The fees disbursed for 2015 and 2016 were reduced to 25 million VND (1,090 USD)per km per year, affecting road repairs.

The SAV found 9.7 billion VND (421,700 USD) of incorrect calculations inaccounting and payment of road repairs.

The fund, operated since 2013, increased sharply in 2015 and 2016, the auditrevealed. However, several roads were not maintained or repaired. Road markingswere not repainted. Road cleanup and grass trimming was done manually insteadof by machines.

Le Hoang Minh, Chief of Office of Road Maintenance Fee said that there arenearly 23,000 km of roads nationwide. The total funds allocated for roadmaintenance must be 150 million VND to 200 million VND (6,500-8,700 USD) perkm. In fact, on average only 50 million VND (2,170 USD) per km is approved.

“This approved fund meets only one third of demand, resulting in the reductionof spending,” he said.

For example, road markers must be repainted once every three months. Due tobudget restraints, they are repainted once every two quarters. The frequency ofgrass trimming is also reduced, he said.

He added that spending on highway maintenance in 2017 totalled 7.8 trillion VND(340 million USD). However, the road repair and maintenance work requires 23 to25 trillion VND (1 to 1.08 billion USD) per year.

Le Hong Diep, head of the Vietnam Road Directorate’s RoadMaintenance Department, in charge of planning the fund’s spending saidthat due to fund shortages, less maintenance work has been done.

Cleanup work on some roads located in remote areas must be done manuallyinstead of being done by sweepers.

According to Transport Deputy Minister Nguyen Ngoc Dong, the Finance Ministryrecently proposed putting an end to the road maintenance fund’s operation. Roaduse fees collected from vehicles are proposed to be directed to the Statebudget. The State will balance the spending for road maintenance.

Bui Danh Lien, Chairman of the Hanoi Transport Association said that thebiggest problem is that the fund spending is not transparent.

Residents and drivers protest against a lot of fees they have to pay includingroad maintenance fees and Build-Operate-Transfer fee. But it is not announcedhow the fees are allocated, he said, adding that collection and spending offees collected from the public must be publicised.

Lien said that removing the road maintenance fund is not reasonable at thistime. If the fund is removed, there will be no funds for repairing mountainousroads damaged by storms.

“The association agrees to maintain the fund but it must be transparent,” hesaid.

The association also proposed that the fund management should be assigned toone agency, such as the Ministry of Finance, and then this agency wouldallocate the fund to localities and sectors, he said.

Le Hoang Minh said that sources for the fund have increased five to 10 percenteach year thanks to the increasing number of cars.

According to a project enhancing capacity and sources for the road maintenancefund to be submitted to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in the second or thirdquarter of this year, the fund will not need additional budget sourced from theState in the period between 2022 and 2025.

The road maintenance fund will meet 70 to 80 percent of the demand instead ofthe current rate of 30 to 40 percent.

To stay independent from the State budget, the road maintenance fund needsmechanisms to call for funding from other sources such as the World Bank or thepolicy of leasing transport infrastructure, he said.-VNA