Drug procurement bidding issue - "hot" National Assembly forum

On the afternoon of October 30, National Assembly deputies worked in the hall, continuing to discuss the draft Law on Bidding. The content that many deputies were interested in discussing was the issue of bidding and purchasing drugs by medical facilities.

Ms. Pham Khanh Phong Lan, National Assembly delegate of Ho Chi Minh City, speaks. (Photo: Doan Tan/VNA)

Many delegates agreed with the provisions in the draft Law and said that the draft Law was carefully and meticulously prepared, specifying many contents, aiming to overcome the unreasonable points of the current Law on Bidding.

The drafting committee has accepted comments and provided a separate section on bidding for drug purchases by medical facilities, demonstrating greater openness and transparency in drug bidding, overcoming shortcomings in drug bidding and price management, and more clearly defining the responsibilities of the Ministry of Health and Vietnam Social Security, avoiding the situation of both playing football and blowing the whistle. However, many opinions say that there should be regulations on special cases to avoid creating loopholes and confusion in drug bidding.

Delegate Phung Duc Tien (Ha Nam) stated that Clause 1, Article 22 should only stipulate the appointment of bids for packages to purchase chemicals and medical equipment and supplies to implement disease prevention work in the event of a natural disaster or major epidemic occurring on a large scale, involving many provinces or cities or in one province or city but at a serious level, and should not stipulate "in urgent cases" in general as in the draft.

Expressing agreement with the form of price negotiation in selecting drug suppliers, delegate Nguyen Pham Y Nhi (Hanoi) said that it is necessary to remove the regulation on centralized drug purchasing implemented at the regional level in Clause 2, Article 48 to avoid duplication in implementation. If centralized drug purchasing is done at the central and local levels as in the draft Law, it will be understood that the centralized drug purchasing unit under the ministry will purchase drugs for medical facilities under the ministry, the centralized drug purchasing unit under the provincial People's Committee will purchase drugs for the provincial health sector, thus it is easy to have a situation where the same drug item in the same area but the central medical facilities under the ministry and the locality will have different drug prices.

The delegate suggested that this regulation should be amended in the direction of centralized drug purchasing being carried out at the national, provincial, municipal and medical facility levels, so that there will be a list of drugs used for the whole country, for provinces, cities and hospitals depending on the criteria set forth in the regulation. In particular, it is necessary to clearly state the criteria for selecting the drug list at 3 different levels to avoid the situation of asking for something.

According to delegate Nguyen Pham Y Nhi, Article 43 stipulates that centralized procurement is the selection of contractors through a centralized procurement unit, this concept needs to be clarified. The draft Law and the guiding Decree do not have any provisions mentioning drug quality, the delegate suggested that it is necessary to clearly define the objectives of centralized drug procurement, thereby specifying in detail the composition and operation of the centralized drug procurement unit for the national level, local level and medical facilities.

Raising the issue of the responsibility of the Social Insurance agency in bidding for drugs, delegate Nguyen Van Tien (Tien Giang) proposed adding Article 48a, regulating the responsibility of Vietnam Social Insurance in the price negotiation process, participating in all bidding stages, and having the right to refuse to pay for drugs with prices exceeding the prescribed level.

Basically agree with the provisions on bid designation stated in Article 22 of the draft Law, but opinions say that the general provisions on bid designation for bid packages that need to be implemented to overcome force majeure incidents can easily create loopholes for investors.

Delegate Dang Dinh Luyen (Khanh Hoa) said that some cases of bidding designation stipulated in the draft Law are too broad and lack strictness, such as Clause 1, Point a, Point e. In many cases, the law can be circumvented to avoid bidding. Therefore, stricter regulations are needed to limit bidding designation to ensure democracy in procurement and bidding for construction works.

Many delegates suggested that designated bidding should only be applied in cases where it is necessary to overcome the consequences of natural disasters, in emergencies such as broken dikes, traffic jams, broken water and oil pipelines; review and anticipate situations where designated bidding is needed to create flexibility in the implementation process.

There are opinions suggesting not to stipulate the limit on bidding designation, to avoid the situation of taking advantage of bidding designation by dividing bidding packages into smaller ones, and assigning the Government to stipulate the limit on bidding designation for each period to ensure the stability of the Law. Delegate Mai Thi Anh Tuyet (An Giang) suggested considering only applying bidding designation to small bidding packages.

Regarding the issue of ensuring competition in bidding, delegate Mai Thi Anh Tuyet said that the law stipulates legal and financial independence between contractors, between contractors and investors, and the bidding party is necessary to ensure legality and objectivity in bidding.

However, delegate Tran Xuan Hoa (Quang Ninh) said that with such legal and financial independence regulations, economic groups and state-owned corporations will be entangled. The delegate proposed to add a section on bidding organization in economic groups and state-owned corporations in Chapter II to specify the bidding mechanism with specific characteristics, suitable for the organizational model, principles and operating mechanism of these economic models in the spirit of ensuring the promotion of each other's advantages, strengths, available potentials, creating connections between member units in groups and corporations.

Many issues related to state capital limits, centralized procurement, incentives in bidding, prohibited acts, regulations on general conditions for individuals participating in bidding, etc. were also discussed by delegates.

Delegate Dang Dinh Luyen (Khanh Hoa) proposed clarifying the criteria when determining the conditions of individuals participating in the bidding party. Individuals participating in the bidding must also ensure competitiveness. In addition to the general conditions, it is necessary to add regulations that individuals and organizations participating in the bidding must have a minimum time of at least 3 years to ensure quality.

Delegate Nguyen Ngoc Bao (Vinh Phuc) proposed that the Law clearly stipulate that the investor is the unit with final responsibility in the bidding process./.

According to VNA