CIRCULAR

Regulations on management, use, and settlement of funds for comprehensive statistical surveys decided by the Prime Minister

Upon the proposal of the Director of the Administrative Financial Affairs Department, the Ministry of Finance issues this Circular to regulate the management, use, and settlement of funds for comprehensive statistical surveys decided by the Prime Minister as follows:

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Pursuant to the Statistics Law on June 17, 2003;

Pursuant to Decree No. 60/2003/NĐ-CP dated June 6, 2003 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of the Law on State Budget;

Pursuant to Decree No. 40/2004/NĐ-CP dated February 13, 2004 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Statistics Law;

Pursuant to Decree No. 118/2008/NĐ-CP dated November 27, 2008 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Finance;

This Circular applies to comprehensive statistical surveys (hereinafter referred to as surveys) conducted by Ministries, agencies at the level of ministries, and government agencies pursuant to decisions of the Prime Minister.

1. The state budget ensures and allocates within the budget estimates of central agencies assigned to host the survey according to the State Budget Law and guiding documents thereof.

Article 1. Scope and Applicability

2. Financial support from international organizations under programs and projects.

Article 2. Sources of Funds

1. Expenses for developing plans and procedures for comprehensive statistical surveys: depending on the scale, nature, and volume of indicators of each survey, the agency or unit assigned to develop the survey plan (including general outlines and detailed outlines) shall submit for approval by the competent authority.

2. Expenses for creating survey forms approved by the main agency.

3. Other lawful sources of funding as prescribed by law.

Article 4. Contents of Expenditure

3. Expenses for trial surveys to perfect plans, methods, indicators, work standards, and survey forms.

4. Expenses for establishing and selecting sampling frames for comprehensive surveys, analyzing survey samples.

5. Expenses for professional seminars, soliciting opinions from experts in related fields (if necessary), reviewing survey plans, inspecting survey methods and content of survey forms, reporting survey results.

6. Expenses for preparing guidance materials and fieldwork manuals for surveyors.

7. Expenses for printing, transporting survey forms, and other materials serving the survey, fieldwork manuals for surveyors, and other professional materials serving the survey work.

8. Expenses for drawing survey area maps where deemed necessary by the agency assigned to conduct the survey (if applicable).

9. Expenses for reviewing and compiling lists of surveyed units.

10. Expenses for office supplies and essential items directly serving the survey work for surveyors and team leaders.

11. Expenses for deployment meetings, summary meetings, and training sessions for surveyors, team leaders, members of the steering committee for the survey, and standing teams at various levels.

12. Expenses for publicizing the survey at all levels.

13. Expenses for providing information providers who fill out survey forms themselves (if applicable).

14. Expenses for hiring surveyors and team leaders to collect data and recheck (in cases where external hiring is required).

15. Hiring ethnic language interpreters and guides: this expense applies to survey areas in minority regions, mountainous areas, highlands, remote areas, where surveyors do not reside in the survey area or do not know the local language, thus requiring local guides and interpreters.

16. Expenses for quickly summarizing survey data at the central, provincial, district, and commune levels.

17. Expenses for processing survey results including: inspecting survey forms, checking, coding, cleaning, and completing survey forms; building software to enter and process, summarize survey data; expenses for entering and processing information, summarizing data. In cases where external units must be hired to enter and process, summarize data, the survey hosting agency shall sign a service provision contract with the service provider based on compliance with unit prices and standards issued by authorized agencies and organize bidding in accordance with current laws.

18. Expenses for hiring analysts to evaluate survey results (if necessary). The number of analysts is determined by the survey hosting agency but shall not exceed ten analysts for one survey.

19. Expenses for writing survey result reports: depending on the nature and scale of the survey, the survey hosting agency decides on the expenses for writing comprehensive reports (including main reports and summaries), thematic analysis reports.

20. Expenses for publishing survey results: depending on the nature and necessity of the survey, the head of the organizing agency decides on the publication of survey results through mass media, reports to functional agencies, or organizing conferences to announce.

21. Expenses for building databases, websites, publishing electronic products, and printing publications of survey results.

22. Expenses for storing survey forms (if applicable).

23. Expenses for summarizing and rewarding.

24. Expenses for implementing tasks directly related to survey activities, including: inspection, supervision, and audit of survey activities; travel expenses; office supplies; communication, electricity, water, fuel; translation of foreign language documents; expenses for purchasing equipment for data entry and processing; replacement parts for equipment used in the survey; overtime allowances for staff and other expenses (if applicable).

1. The expenditure levels for the contents stipulated in Article 3 of this Circular shall be implemented according to the current financial expenditure standards and norms prescribed by authorized state agencies and certain specific expenditure levels are detailed in the attached Appendix to this Circular.

2. Based on the scale and nature of the survey, the head of the agency or unit assigned to host the survey decides on specific expenditure levels that are appropriate but not exceeding the expenditure levels prescribed in Article 4 of this Circular. In cases where there are no established standards or unit prices for certain expenditure items prescribed by authorized agencies, the head of the agency or unit assigned to host the survey decides on specific expenditure levels based on the principle of thrift and efficiency within the allocated budget estimate or by reference to similar standards and unit prices of other approved projects and tasks, and bears responsibility for their decisions before the law.

Article 4. Expenditure Level

1. The level of expenditure for the contents prescribed in Article 3 of this Circular shall be implemented according to the current financial expenditure regulations, standards, and norms stipulated by competent state agencies, and some specific expenditure levels are detailed in the attached Appendix of this Circular..

2. Based on the scale and nature of the general census, the Head of the agency or unit assigned to lead the implementation of the general census shall decide on the specific expenditure level appropriately but not exceeding the expenditure level prescribed in Article 4 of this Circular. In cases where there are no established norms or unit prices issued by the competent authority for certain expenditure items, the Head of the agency or unit leading the general census shall determine specific expenditure levels based on the principle of thrift and efficiency within the budgetary estimate allocated by the competent authority or by reference to similar norms or unit prices in other projects or tasks that have been approved by the competent authority. and shall bear responsibility for their decision under the law.

Article 5. Preparation, execution, and settlement of budget funds for comprehensive statistical surveys

1. Preparation of budget estimates

Annually, at the time of preparing the state budget estimate according to the State Budget Law; based on the decision on comprehensive statistical surveys approved by the Prime Minister, the survey plan, current financial expenditure regulations, and provisions of this Circular; the agency or unit assigned the main responsibility for the comprehensive survey shall prepare the budget estimate for the state budget expenditure of the agency or unit, submit it to the direct supervisory agency for consolidation and submission to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Investment for inclusion in the annual state budget estimate to be submitted to the Prime Minister for presentation to the National Assembly for decision and allocation of the comprehensive survey budget within the annual state budget estimate of the agency.

2. Allocation and assignment of budget estimates

a) Based on the comprehensive survey budget estimate assigned by the competent authority, the agency responsible for the comprehensive survey shall implement the allocation and assignment of the budget estimate to subordinate units for implementation after obtaining the audit opinion of the Ministry of Finance according to current regulations.

b) In cases where external units must be hired to perform certain tasks during the comprehensive survey, the agency responsible for the comprehensive survey shall enter into contracts with external units to organize the implementation based on economic and technical norms and specific unit prices determined for each task. The vouchers serving as the basis for settlement and finalization are retained by the agency responsible for the survey, including: Loan contracts (attached detailed budget estimate approved by the agency responsible for the survey), the contract termination statement, product acceptance report, attached appendix for finalizing the budget estimate according to the specific workload, payment authorization or payment voucher and other directly related documents. Specific expenditure vouchers are kept at the accounting department of the unit directly incurring expenditures (the unit contracted to perform the work) according to current regulations.

3. Finalization of budget estimates

The use and finalization of budget funds for the comprehensive survey shall be carried out in accordance with the State Budget Law, Accounting Law, and implementing documents. Some specific contents are guided in this Circular as follows:

a) At year-end, the agency or unit directly implementing the comprehensive survey shall consolidate the finalization of the budget estimate for the comprehensive survey into the annual budget finalization of the agency or unit; simultaneously reporting the implementation status of the survey project and the use of survey funds to the higher-level supervisory agency.

b) The higher-level supervisory agency shall conduct acceptance of the results of the entire comprehensive survey or acceptance of phase results (for surveys conducted over multiple years), notify the results to the same-level finance agency to serve as the basis for reviewing (or auditing) the finalization of the comprehensive survey budget estimate and preparation of the next year's budget estimate (if applicable).

c) At year-end, if the comprehensive survey has not been completed according to the approved plan, and the allocated budget funds for the comprehensive survey have not been fully utilized; the agency or unit may transfer them to the following year to continue the comprehensive survey. If the comprehensive survey has been completed and there are unused funds, the agency or unit shall return the funds to the state budget according to regulations.

Article 6. Effectiveness

1. This Circular takes effect from June 1, 2012, and replaces Circular No. 48/2007/TT-BTC dated May 15, 2007, issued by the Ministry of Finance guiding the management, use, and finalization of budget funds for comprehensive surveys decided by the Prime Minister. The Comprehensive Survey of Economic and Administrative Public Service Units in 2012 pursuant to Decision No. 1217/QĐ-TTg dated July 27, 2011, of the Prime Minister shall also apply the provisions of this Circular.

2. During implementation, if difficulties or obstacles arise, agencies and units shall promptly reflect them to the Ministry of Finance for research and resolution./.