On the afternoon of July 31, the Culture and Social Affairs Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council sent a document to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee requesting consideration and resolution of difficulties and obstacles in the operation of canteens, kitchens, and parking lots of schools in the city.
Accordingly, the Ho Chi Minh City Inspectorate has concluded that some schools in District 8, Binh Tan, and Tan Phu have not complied with the regulations in Government Decree No. 151/2017/ND-CP (dated December 26, 2017), which details some provisions of the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets.
Specifically, schools that have not yet had their plans for using public assets for leasing or partnerships approved by the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee must temporarily suspend operations of their canteens, kitchens, and parking lots.
Head of the Culture and Social Affairs Committee Cao Thanh Binh stated that organizing services such as canteens, parking lots, and kitchens is an urgent need for students to ensure food safety and hygiene and maintain security and order around the school gate. However, to date, many schools have not been able to maintain canteens, parking lots, and kitchens, causing difficulties for both the school and the students.
Based on this reality, the Culture and Social Affairs Committee recommends that solutions be found to address the issues faced by schools in approving projects for the use of public assets, in order to ensure that educational activities within schools proceed smoothly and stably.
Simultaneously, approving the plan for the use of public assets helps prevent the waste of public assets in public schools, provides schools with additional revenue to invest in educational reform and welfare for staff, and increases tax revenue for the state budget.
According to a document sent to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the Culture and Social Affairs Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council recommends that the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City study and direct the Department of Finance and other relevant departments and agencies to find solutions and advise on measures to overcome difficulties and obstacles in the education and training sector in developing a plan for using public assets for leasing and partnerships to maintain the operation of parking lots, canteens, kitchens, and other auxiliary activities in schools, serving the essential needs of students and teachers.
Furthermore, to ensure the stability of current educational activities, it is recommended that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee implement specific solutions for public educational institutions (including preschools, primary schools, secondary schools, high schools, and other public educational institutions) to ensure legal compliance regarding parking facilities, canteens, kitchens, swimming pools, gymnasiums, sports fields, and classrooms serving the learning and training needs of teachers and students both during and outside school hours, starting from the 2024-2025 school year. This aims to avoid wasting existing facilities and to provide funding for regular maintenance and upkeep of school infrastructure.
Furthermore, the Culture and Social Affairs Committee recommends that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee implement specific solutions to address the difficulties surrounding Circular No. 9757/BTC-QLCS (dated September 26, 2022) from the Ministry of Finance regarding guidance on the use of public assets for leasing, joint ventures, and partnerships at public non-business units.
The guidelines state: "If a unit uses the premises for a canteen or parking lot to serve its operations, it does not fall under the category of using public assets for business, leasing, joint ventures, or partnerships as stipulated in Articles 56, 57, and 58 of the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets, and no project proposal is required."
However, in reality, most educational institutions are unable to organize, manage, and operate canteens and parking lots themselves, so they have to lease the space to units with the necessary functions. Therefore, they must prepare a leasing plan in accordance with regulations.
Furthermore, according to Clause 3, Article 57 of the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets and Clauses 3 and 4, Article 46 of Decree No. 151/2017/ND-CP, public non-business units must determine rental prices that are consistent with actual market rental prices and conduct auctions for asset rentals (rental prices may be adjusted upwards according to market fluctuations and must not be lower than the winning bid price).
Therefore, based on the above regulations, the rental price will be high, significantly impacting the affordability of students participating in these types of services.
Currently, some units are in the process of completing legal documents regarding land and property, or some units are still facing difficulties with land and property documents (currently lacking land use rights certificates and certificates for assets attached to the land), thus not meeting the documentation requirements as stipulated in the project.
Furthermore, there are currently no regulations on the area requirements for public service facilities to serve as a basis for determining assets that have been allocated, invested in, or purchased to perform state-assigned tasks but are not being used to their full capacity, as stipulated in Clause 1, Article 57 of the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets.
Organizing annual auctions for school canteen, kitchen, and parking lot operations faces numerous difficulties regarding documentation, procedures, and time; winning bidders are hesitant to invest heavily in a single year because they may not win the auction the following year and may not be able to comply with current legal regulations.
Faced with a series of difficulties and obstacles, the Culture and Social Affairs Committee (of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council) has proposed that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee find solutions to address these issues for schools.
THU TAM
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/tphcm-de-xuat-thao-go-kho-khan-ve-can-tin-bep-an-bai-giu-xe-cho-cac-truong-hoc-post751988.html
