"The dying crops cannot wait for meetings and discussions on how to save them, they need you to be more flexible and take quicker action," Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung told the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) after a recent investigation into the ministry's work for 2016.

Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung (left) speaks in a meeting with the Ministry of Planning and Investment on August 25

Dung, who is now team leader of a newly established working group by PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc to inspect the implementation of government and prime ministerial policies said that the MPI should have reported the problems after disagreement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in providing support to save crops.

The government earlier this year approved a VND2 trillion package to help local farmers in the Mekong Delta deal with serious drought and saltwater intrusion. However, the MPI failed to disburse the money until the drought has returned, claiming that they could not reach agreement with the MARD on how to supply the money.

"The drought-affected provinces should have received the support in May to save their crops," Dung said. "But now it's too late, the plants have all died."

Minister of Planning and Investment, Nguyen Chi Dung, explained that they wanted to evenly divide the support for the provinces, about VND80 billion each, but the MARD wanted to spend the money on some of their projects in the area.

"We've held many meetings but haven't been able to reach an agreement on how to allocate the money," the minister said.

 

Displeased by the explanation, the Minister-Chairman of the Government Office said that the PM had been really serious about supporting farmers but now a vast area of rice, coffee and pepper which could have been saved, is all gone. He also pointed out that the MPI only fulfilled a third of the tasks issued by the PM so far this year.

The prime minister’s working group is tasked with advising and assisting the PM in monitoring and urging related ministries, agencies and localities to actually make good and deliver on agreed policies. It is authorised by the PM to supervise concerned ministries, agencies and localities.

The group has just begun investigating the MPI’s track record on implementing policies.