National Assembly Delegate Doan Nghe An: Amending the Bidding Law needs to plug loopholes to avoid bid collusion.

Overview of the discussion session at Group 16. Photo: Quang Khanh

PROPOSAL FOR SPECIAL REGULATIONS ON BIDDING FOR DRUGS AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES

Regarding the draft Law on Bidding (amended), delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the Delegation of National Assembly Deputies of Nghe An province agreed that there should be a separate chapter related to bidding for drugs, medical supplies, chemicals, and biological products, because this is a very special type of goods.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the National Assembly Delegation, Chairman of the People's Council of Nghe An province chaired the discussion at Group 16 on the afternoon of November 7. Photo: Quochoi.vn

“Currently, along with amending the Law on Bidding, we are amending the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment. During the discussion, there were many opinions surrounding this content. In order to thoroughly resolve the difficulties in bidding for drugs, medical supplies and chemicals, the amended Law on Bidding should have a separate chapter,” said the delegate of Nghe An Delegation.

Accordingly, this chapter must also have clearer regulations on decentralization and delegation of authority for bidding activities in the health sector. Because in reality, there are many units that are assigned autonomy at level 1 and level 2, so the decentralization in bidding needs to be clear to facilitate implementation.

Along with that, delegate An Chung also suggested that the revised Law on Bidding should only stipulate mandatory posting of bidding-related information at a single address, the National Bidding System. On the other hand, the revised Law should also stipulate the handling of bid cancellation in cases where multiple bids are invited without any participants.

Delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province discussed the draft Law on Bidding (amended). Photo: Ho Long

Also related to this draft Law, delegate Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province analyzed the provisions related to the signing of investment and business project contracts, especially the conditions for signing the contract. Accordingly, at the time of signing, the selected investor must meet the technical and financial capacity to implement the projects according to the requirements of the bidding documents.

However, comparing this regulation, the delegate of Nghe An Delegation expressed concern that the draft Law has not clearly defined the basis for determining the "meeting financial capacity" of the contractor; the issue of handling the case of bid cancellation if the contractor does not have enough capacity or compensation for costs for related parties to cover the cost of re-bidding;... so if implemented, it will be very difficult.

On the other hand, delegate Vo Thi Minh Sinh also raised the question, why is there no regulation requiring clarification of the contractor's capacity at the stage of submitting for appraisal and public approval of the bid selection results, but only at the final step of signing the contract does the contractor's financial capacity need to be determined?

Delegate Vo Thi Minh Sinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Nghe An province discussed the draft Law on Bidding (amended). Photo: Quang Khanh

Ms. Vo Thi Minh Sinh also suggested that the Drafting Committee consider adding to the supervision and monitoring of bidding activities of socio-political organizations, because the draft Law does not see the "shadow" of these organizations, but only stipulates that the entire supervision content is carried out by the State management agency on bidding.

Delegate Tran Duc Thuan - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee on National Defense and Security requested the drafting agency to study and develop this Law in the direction of having strict regulations, plugging loopholes; ensuring publicity, transparency, and clarity in bidding; avoiding taking advantage of loopholes to carry out negative acts and bid collusion.

General Tran Duc Thuan also proposed that the amended Law on Bidding include provisions assigning the Ministry of National Defense to regulate the content of bidding work within the Ministry of National Defense, to ensure that it does not violate the provisions of the Law; and to ensure military and State secrets regarding the procurement of assets and goods serving national defense tasks.

Regarding the draft Law on Bidding (amended), Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Hien - Permanent Vice President of the Nghe An Women's Union commented: The regulation "bidding packages for providing consulting services that the competent person considers necessary to have the participation of foreign investors to improve the quality of the bidding package" is unclear and qualitative; while the regulations related to the participation of international contractors are very clear. Therefore, the delegate proposed to remove the above regulation from the draft Law.

Overview of the discussion session at Group 16. Photo: Quang Khanh

Along with that, based on the analysis of the nature of bidding as public and competitive, the delegate of Nghe An Delegation also expressed the view that there should not be regulations on restricted bidding, but this will be regulated in the requirements of specific bidding packages for some highly specialized bidding packages when organizing bidding.

On the other hand, delegate Hoang Thi Thu Hien also expressed disagreement when many points in the provisions of the draft Law such as: Construction of relocation of technical infrastructure works to serve the project, site clearance, construction of mine clearance or bidding packages to implement important national projects that need to be implemented immediately according to the Resolution of the National Assembly are within the scope of regulation on bidding.

"Important national projects according to the National Assembly Resolution are often large projects that need to be widely bid to select qualified contractors," the delegate expressed his opinion and suggested that the drafting agency conduct research to build a more suitable list of designated contractors.

CONCERNS ABOUT REGULATIONS ON QUALIFICATIONS FOR SERVICE BUSINESS

VALUATION

Regarding the Law on Prices (amended), Mr. Tran Nhat Minh - full-time National Assembly member of Nghe An Delegation said that the draft Law stipulates that "The Provincial People's Council assigns the Standing Committee of the People's Council to give opinions on deciding the prices of goods and services in cases where the Provincial People's Committee submits for opinions according to the provisions of law" is not consistent with the provisions on the duties and powers of the Provincial People's Council in the Law on Organization of Local Government; therefore, it should be removed from the draft Law on Prices (amended).

Mr. Tran Nhat Minh - Full-time National Assembly member of Nghe An Delegation discussed the draft Law on Prices (amended). Photo: Quang Khanh

Regarding the State management of prices and price appraisal, delegate Tran Nhat Minh also suggested considering that there should not be specific regulations on assigning tasks to the Minister of Finance and the provincial People's Committee for price management agencies under the Ministry and province as in the draft to create flexibility in the management work for the heads of ministries and localities.

The delegate of Nghe An Delegation also expressed concern when the draft Law stipulates that in order to be granted a certificate of eligibility for price appraisal services, at least 5 people must have a price appraiser card compared to the current Law's regulation of only 3 people; meanwhile, the Government's impact report has not clearly stated the reasons, positive and negative impacts of the above amendments and supplements in this revised Law on Prices.

National Assembly delegates of Nghe An delegation at the group discussion session. Photo: Quochoi.vn

Thanh Duy - Thu Nguyen