In recent years, along with the Law on Public Investment and the Law on Management and Use of State Assets, the Law on Bidding is a tool for the State to monitor investment activities and the management and use of public assets. However, in the process of implementing bidding, there have been many problems and difficulties, leading to bidding not achieving high results, even many agencies and units encounter difficulties because "no one comes to the bidding"...
In 2021, Nghe An Fisheries Sub-Department was awarded a large patrol ship by the Vietnam Fisheries Surveillance. However, this ship was used, its inspection period had expired, and the repair cost would be over 3 billion VND, mobilized from the budget, so it had to go through bidding. However, in the province, there is no specialized consulting unit on ships to assess the level of damage and the equipment that needs to be replaced, so after 1 year of notification, the investor did not receive any application. The Fisheries Sub-Department then had to "send" a document to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of Finance requesting to invite a number of consultants from Hanoi and Hai Phong to evaluate, and after the results were available, they would organize a bidding for repairs. It was not until the end of 2022 that the ship repair was carried out.
In 2021 and 2022, Nghe An Irrigation Department will purchase flood and storm prevention equipment and materials, including sand and gravel bags, to reserve at key locations. The unit has posted 3 times on the national network but no unit has participated. Therefore, the unit must continue to announce a 4th time. Only after that did 1 unit participate.
Also in 2022, the Department of Science and Technology organized a bidding for a package of purchasing quality measurement management equipment lines worth 15 billion VND at the Provincial Department of Quality Measurement. Mr. Tran Quoc Thanh - Director of the Department of Science and Technology said: The procurement policy was approved by the province and allocated budget from the second quarter of 2022. After completing the procedures to transfer to the Financial Support and Consulting Center to carry out centralized procurement, according to regulations, there must be a consulting contractor participating, but after waiting for more than 8 months, because no unit participated, at the end of 2022, the above package was cut, transferring 10 billion VND, the remaining 5 billion VND was transferred to 2023. This year, after inviting a consultant from the Institute of Quality Measurement to advise on the configuration of the equipment line, the file was transferred to the Financial Support and Consulting Center to carry out the next procedures, but after more than 2 months, there has been no response or reply.
These are 3 of many units using the state budget in the province that organized bidding but had no bidders participating. According to statistics from the Nghe An Department of Finance, in 2022, the whole province proposed to centrally purchase assets and equipment worth 141 billion VND, of which 28.6 billion VND was won, 112.4 billion VND was returned to the budget; invited to bid for 11 specialized cars, after announcing 3-4 times of bidding according to regulations but only 1 car won the bid (Department of Forestry), 10 cars had no bidders. The 2021 equipment supply package of the Department of Health worth 45 billion VND was transferred to the 2022 bidding even though it was invited 4 times, but the price appraisal enterprise refused so it could not be implemented; the 2022 Department of Education and Training package worth 30 billion VND was also canceled because the contractor participated but committed errors, and has not been extended to date.
Mr. Vuong Dinh Nhuan - Director of the Provincial Traffic Project Management Board shared: The purpose of public bidding is to find good construction solutions to save the budget. But there are projects that have not saved much. For example, a large traffic project in the area, the province invited public bidding but when announced, it was found that the winning bidder only paid 100 million VND lower than the bidding price given by the investor, which is too low, the budget saving rate has not been achieved.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Tien - Head of Bidding, Appraisal and Investment Supervision Department, Department of Planning and Investment said: The purpose of bidding is to choose the best construction plan with the same value to ensure the quality of the project, thereby increasing savings for the budget. In 2022, the whole province organized to receive and approve 3,143 bidding packages of all kinds, worth 20,320.04 billion VND. Except for bidding packages according to regulations that are designated for bidding; works, projects or asset procurement packages of 100 million VND or more must be publicly invited for bidding. In fact, transparent and competitive bidding will select good plans, contributing to increasing savings for the budget.
A bidding expert analyzed: In principle, bidding information is posted on the national bidding network so contractors nationwide can participate, but in reality, bidding packages in some localities are often won by local businesses because of advantages in equipment and labor. It is also possible that contractors inform each other and give way. The above reality shows that violations and distortions in bidding activities are increasingly sophisticated.
On the other hand, although the province has not yet discovered any cases of collusion or bid-selling, the budget savings rate through bidding is currently quite low. While the national average is 5.6% and some ministries, branches, corporations, general companies and localities are from 9-12%, Nghe An's savings rate in 2021 is 1.42% (VND 75,769 billion) and in 2022 is 1.79% (VND 363.47 billion). Not only that, since 2021, centralized procurement has arisen with inadequacies and problems that have left many investors "helpless".
In addition, from the practice of supervision and urging, Mr. Nguyen Minh Tien - Head of Bidding, Appraisal and Investment Supervision Department, Department of Planning and Investment said: Assets, equipment or consumables in the fields of health, quality measurement or textbooks... have long been assigned by vertical bidding, now switched to public bidding, but in the current context, very few consulting and price appraisal contractors participate, so the bidding is not successful.
A representative of the Medical Equipment and Supplies Joint Stock Company in Vinh City, a unit that often participates in drug bidding sessions for medical facilities in Nghe An province, shared: Regulations and bidding mechanisms in the medical field are still lacking and rigid. It is true that, after the negative incidents related to Viet A Company or AIC International Consulting Company were discovered, hospitals are more cautious, consultants and price appraisers of drugs and medical supplies are hesitant to go to distant provinces. If the above problems and difficulties are not resolved soon, they will greatly affect the expertise and quality of service at public hospitals.
