How did the former chairman of Vietnam Education Publishing House help "familiar" businesses win bids?

Mr. Nguyen Duc Thai, former chairman of the board of members of Vietnam Education Publishing House (left cover), with three defendants - Photo: Ministry of Public Security

The Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency has just issued an investigation conclusion, proposing to prosecute Mr. Nguyen Duc Thai, former chairman of the Vietnam Education Publishing House (Education Publishing House), for bribery.

The two defendants To My Ngoc, former chairwoman of the board of directors of Phung Vinh Hung Company and Nguyen Tri Minh, director of Minh Cuong Phat Company, were both proposed to be prosecuted for bribery...

In the same case, five other people were proposed to be prosecuted for violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences.

Violating regulations to limit the participation of competent contractors

The investigation report shows that Mr. Thai has a "special" relationship with Ms. Ngoc and Mr. Minh.

From 2017 to 2022, these two people repeatedly came to Mr. Thai's office to meet, ask for favors, give gifts, and "thank" him for tens of billions of dong in order to create conditions for him to participate in and win the bid to supply textbook printing paper.

According to the investigation conclusion, purchasing paper to print educational books is a regular activity of the Education Publishing House, using production and business capital.

Before 2017, the Education Publishing House always applied the "bid" method, which is not covered by the provisions of the Bidding Law, to purchase printing paper. The unit selected to sign the paper supply contract is the unit with the lowest quote.

According to legal regulations, the Education Publishing House is not required to comply with the forms of the Bidding Law, but can issue its own regulations on procurement activities for uniform application within the enterprise.

The investigation concluded that since March 2017, Mr. Nguyen Duc Thai was appointed as Chairman of the Board of Members and legal representative of the Education Publishing House.

In this position, at the request of To My Ngoc and Nguyen Tri Minh, Mr. Thai directed the implementation of the selection of printing paper procurement using the shortened competitive bidding method contrary to the provisions of the Bidding Law to limit the participation of capable contractors.

Specifically, in May and June 2017, Ms. Ngoc and Mr. Tri met Nguyen Duc Thai, introducing themselves as companies that had supplied paper to the Education Publishing House.

Ngoc and Minh raised the issue, and Thai agreed to create conditions to help the two companies continue to supply paper to the Education Publishing House.

To limit the participation of contractors and create conditions for Phung Vinh Hung Company and Minh Cuong Phat Company to participate in the bidding, Mr. Thai directed his subordinates to organize the purchase of printing paper using the shortened competitive bidding method.

Since then, in 2017, the Education Publishing House has applied a shortened competitive bidding method to organize the selection of contractors for 7 packages, with a total value of nearly 430 billion VND.

However, the bid packages all have a value greater than 1 billion VND, violating the provisions of the Law on Bidding and Decree 63 of the Government.

Since 2018, the Education Publishing House has stopped applying the shortened competitive bidding method to select printing paper suppliers.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Thai when he was still in office - Photo: Vietnam Education Publishing House

Disclosing bidding package information to "familiar" businesses before issuing request documents

The investigation agency also accused Mr. Thai of disclosing information before issuing the request documents, colluding, and legalizing bidding procedures to create conditions for Phung Vinh Hung Company and Minh Cuong Phat Company to provide printing paper for the Education Publishing House.

Through that, Thai has repeatedly received a total of 24.9 billion VND in bribes from To My Ngoc and Nguyen Tri Minh.

Accordingly, based on the capacity profiles of the units sent, Mr. Thai's subordinates made a short list (including at least 3 suppliers with capacity and experience meeting the requirements of the bidding package, and wishing to participate) of contractors to send request for quotations, request documents and then submit to Mr. Thai for approval.

Not stopping there, in mid-August 2017, before signing the request for quotation and issuing the request documents, Thai directed his subordinates to provide information on bidding packages to To My Ngoc.

Following Mr. Thai's instructions, his subordinates made an appointment to meet Ms. Ngoc at a coffee shop on Tran Hung Dao Street to provide her with an information sheet including technical specifications of paper types, quantity of bid packages, and locations of delivery warehouses.

This is to help Ms. Ngoc prepare goods and bid prices for the bid packages that Phung Vinh Hung Company participates in.

According to the Investigation Police Agency, Mr. Thai's subordinates providing information about the bidding packages to Ms. Ngoc before releasing the documents is against the law.

Notably, before signing the invitation to bid, Mr. Thai called Ms. Ngoc to ask about the expected price her company would bid to ensure that Ngoc's company would win the bid.

After Mr. Thai signed the release, his subordinates only sent the request documents and the request for quotation for 6 printing paper packages to the shortlisted companies (including 6 enterprises, including Phung Vinh Hung Company and Minh Cuong Phat Company - PV).

On August 23, 2017, the consulting team deployed the selection of material suppliers, opened 6 sets of bidding documents and conducted bid evaluation.

Bidders who meet the validity of the bidding documents and technical paper type of each bid package will be eligible to participate in the commercial evaluation.

Of which, Minh Cuong Phat Company participated in 5/6 bidding packages, Phung Vinh Hung Company participated in 3/6 bidding packages.

On August 29, the steering committee and the consulting team selected the material supplier to hold a meeting to approve the bidding results.

Thanks to Mr. Thai's help, Phung Vinh Hung Company won three bids, Minh Cuong Phat Company won one bid.

The remaining two packages were won by Vietnam Energy Company. The other three companies did not win any packages.

In addition, the investigation agency determined that Mr. Thai also directed his subordinates to create a green team profile, legalizing bidding procedures so that Minh Cuong Phat Company could win additional package No. 7.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/cuu-chu-tich-nha-xuat-ban-giao-duc-viet-nam-giup-doanh-nghiep-quen-trung-thau-bang-cach-nao-20240923215301955.htm