Bidding for Long Thanh airport, bid lower than 1,000 billion still failed, what did ACV say?

The bidding package worth more than tens of thousands of billions of VND belonging to the Long Thanh airport project phase 1 is attracting public opinion when the losing consortium continuously petitions about the results and "reveals" the bidding price.

Long Thanh International Airport terminal is gradually taking shape - Photo: A LOC

Why did the bid lower than 1,000 billion still fail?

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, with the winning bid price of VND 11,066 billion and contract implementation period of 685 days.

Immediately after ACV announced the bidding results, the losing consortium 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) led by Trung Nam submitted a petition stating that the failure to meet technical requirements was not satisfactory.

In the latest petition sent to ACV on November 5, the consortium of 7 contractors said that their bid price was 1,000 billion VND lower than the price of the winning consortium, but was still rejected, clearly a waste of resources.

Speaking with Tuoi Tre Online , Dr. Nguyen Viet Hung - former head of the Bidding Management Department (now the Bidding Management Department), Ministry of Planning and Investment - said that the bidding package was organized in the form of 1 phase with 2 envelopes, when the investor (ACV) had not yet opened the financial proposal envelope, the consortium of contractors revealed the bidding price lower than the package price of 1,000 billion VND, which was the consortium of contractors revealing themselves.

Thus, this consortium of contractors is violating the rules of the game. The investor and the inviting party have not opened the financial proposal yet, but the consortium of contractors has self-reported a bid price much lower than the package price, which is an act of putting pressure on the inviting party and the investor.

This way of behaving is not really fair, the eliminated contractor consortium needs to face the truth about whether it was right or wrong to be eliminated in the technical review round.

"If a contractor fails to meet technical requirements, he or she may make incorrect technical calculations, leading to inaccurate bid prices and bid offers. For a bid package worth more than VND11,000 billion, the most important thing is whether the contractor has the technical capacity to complete the bid package. This is the most important thing," said Mr. Hung.

A corner of Long Thanh International Airport is being rushed by contractors - Photo: A LOC

What does ACV say?

Explaining the reason why the consortium led by Trung Nam failed to pass the technical evaluation round of package 4.8, an ACV representative said that package 4.8 of the Long Thanh international airport construction investment project had 2 consortiums participating.

Package 4.8 is a construction package organized in a 1-stage, 2-envelope bidding format. According to bidding regulations, evaluation is conducted in 2 steps.

Step 1 evaluates the technical proposals of the bidders participating in the bidding and only when the technical proposals meet the requirements of package 4.8 will the financial proposals be opened.

According to the technical evaluation results, the bid documents of the consortium led by Trung Nam did not pass the technical evaluation round, so according to the regulations and bidding procedures, the financial proposal was not opened.

According to information from ACV representative, when evaluating the technical proposals of contractors and consortiums participating in package 4.8 (including many criteria on construction experience and capacity, materials, proposed technical equipment, construction organization measures, etc.), the total technical score of the consortium led by Trung Nam only reached more than 700 points, not meeting the technical requirements in the bidding documents (the minimum total technical score must be 800 points or more).

Among them, there are some specific technical points that the joint venture led by Trung Nam did not meet, this was also clearly stated by the investor in the bidding results notice sent to the participating contractors.

Only contractors who pass the technical round will be considered financially.

Some bidding experts affirm that the opening of financial proposals, including taking into account the bid price, is only carried out by the inviting party and the investor for contractors and contractor consortiums that have passed the technical evaluation round.

According to Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung, in terms of bidding principles in the world, whether it is state capital or private capital, the bidding council only considers the price when the contractor passes the technical evaluation round. This is a principle, no investor or bidding party will choose a low-priced contractor who does not meet the technical requirements.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dau-thau-san-bay-long-thanh-bo-thau-thap-hon-1-000-ti-van-truot-acv-noi-gi-20241108085559294.htm