Bulk buying to save Vietnamese government $1.5 billion per year

By Bui Hong Nhung April 29, 2016 | 02:31 am PT

State-own cars. Photo by HTD

Vietnam is going to officially conduct public procurement on a lump sum basis this year, helping the country to save up to VND34 trillion ($1.5 billion), the Vietnam News Agency quoted a representative from the Ministry of Finance as saying.

Former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved public procurement on a lump sum basis in November 2011. Under the regulation, Vietnamese ministries, state agencies and provincial departments are responsible for purchasing property as well as equipment on bulk scale and distribute it to local divisions.

After a four-year trial, the country saved as much as VND500 billion (nearly $22.5 million).

The former PM decided to officially apply the new form of public procurement on a national scale at the end of February this year.

Nguyen Tan Thinh, deputy director of the Department of Public Property Management under the ministry, said at a meeting on April 28 that each year, Vietnam spends about VND200 trillion ($9 billion) on public procurement. The switch to lump sum procurement will save the country 10 to 17 percent of the sum, he added.

Thinh said that the new type of public procurement will also help to stop wasteful spending and corruption.

“When the new method is working smoothly, we can cut the number of personnel working in public procurement,” Thinh added.

Under the new regulation, papers related to procurement need to clarify information about goods and suppliers, together with discounts and commissions, if available.

Thinh said that money collected from discounts and commissions will go in to the state budget.