Vietnam Airports Corporation (ACV) has just announced the bidding results for package 4.8: construction, equipment installation, design and construction drawings for internal port traffic works and airport technical infrastructure of component project 3, part of the Long Thanh International Airport construction investment project phase 1. Accordingly, the winning bid price is 11,066 billion VND, the contract implementation period is 685 days.

Package 4.8 is an important infrastructure package of the Airport with many complex technical items, so ACV has applied an open bidding method with a one-stage, two-envelope contractor selection method.

Under the one-stage, two-envelope bidding process, only bidders who meet the technical requirements and achieve technical scores according to the criteria and requirements of the bidding documents will have their financial proposals opened and their financial proposals reviewed and evaluated.

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The entire rough structure from the 1st to the 4th floor of the passenger terminal - the "heart" of Long Thanh airport - after 1 year of construction has been completed with massive, modern architecture. Photo: Hoang Anh

After the bidding results were announced, the consortium of contractors consisting of 7 enterprises (Trung Nam Construction and Installation Joint Stock Company, Bac Trung Nam Infrastructure Construction Joint Stock Company, Deo Ca Group Joint Stock Company, LIZEN Joint Stock Company, Hai Dang Joint Stock Company, Hoa Hiep Company Limited, Thang Long Corporation) submitted a petition stating that the rejection due to not meeting technical requirements was not satisfactory.

In the petition, the consortium of seven contractors also disclosed their bid prices while the financial proposals were not opened. The consortium said that their bid price was VND1,000 billion lower than the price of the winning consortium, but was still rejected.

ACV affirmed that the selection of contractors for Package 4.8 was carried out by ACV in strict compliance with legal regulations on bidding and selected contractors with capacity and experience according to the criteria and requirements of the package.

ACV also said: ACV has always seriously implemented the work of responding to and resolving the petitions of contractors participating in package 4.8 in particular and the project's packages in general, in strict compliance with the provisions of the Law on Bidding. All petitions of contractors are considered by ACV and have a written response that is correct, complete, and on time according to the provisions of the law on bidding.

According to this unit, the joint venture contractor of package No. 4.8 disclosed information about its bid price through a petition sent to the investor while the financial proposal was not opened (due to not passing the technical proposal evaluation step) is a violation of the provisions of Clause 7, Article 16 of the Bidding Law No. 22/2023/QH15 on disclosing documents and information about the contractor selection process.

Sharing with PV.VietNamNet , Dr. Nguyen Viet Hung, former head of the Bidding Management Department (now the Bidding Management Department), Ministry of Planning and Investment, said: The act of a contractor disclosing the value of his bid while the financial proposal is not opened is an "indecent" act.

“Let’s not discuss the law, this is a matter of the contractor’s ethics violation. It is impossible for a contractor who was eliminated in the first round to say that I had a better bid, while the other side had a higher price,” Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung assessed.

According to Mr. Hung, the contractor should look back at why it did not meet the technical standards. It is inappropriate to talk about the bid price to “smear mud on the pond” when the technical standards are not met.

In the world or in Vietnam, bidding must have a procedure. No one compares the price of a bidder who does not pass the technical documents with a bidder who passes the technical documents. Only when two bidders have the same technical documents, then they can compare the price.

“This is a large project, a national key project, with technical requirements being of utmost importance. If the project is cheap but does not ensure quality, is behind schedule, or has a budget increase, who will be responsible? Therefore, the contractor must pass the technical standards before the investor will consider the financial proposal. For a package worth more than VND11,000 billion, the important thing is whether the contractor has the technical capacity to do the package, this is the most important thing,” Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung emphasized.

Appearance of the 3,500 billion VND air traffic control tower at Long Thanh airport The air traffic control tower, the critical path of component project 2 of Long Thanh airport, has a height of 123m and is considered the "brain" that ensures many activities of the airport.