Coteccons consortium complains about 35,000 billion VND Long Thanh airport bid

Hoa Lu Joint Venture said "there is evidence" that Vietur Joint Venture does not meet technical standards, and requested ACV to stop opening financial documents for the Long Thanh airport bid package.

In a document sent to leaders at all levels and ministries, Hoa Lu Joint Venture complained to the investor, Vietnam Airports Corporation (ACV), about the decision that only Vietur Joint Venture met the technical requirements for the construction and installation package of Long Thanh airport passenger terminal equipment. This is a 5.10 package worth 35,000 billion VND.

The Hoa Lu consortium, led by Coteccons, includes eight contractors, including Hoa Binh, Central, An Phong, Delta, Unicons, Thanh An and Power Line Engineering (PLE - Thailand). This is the only consortium led by a domestic contractor, and has committed to completing the project by August 2026 if it wins the bid.

The Vietur consortium consists of 10 enterprises, led by the IC Istas Construction Industry and Trade Group (part of Türkiye's IC Holdings). The remaining members include Ricons, Newtecons, Sol E&C, Construction Corporation No. 1, ATAD, Vinaconex, Phuc Hung Holdings, Hawee Electromechanical and Hanoi Construction Corporation. Of which, Ricons, Newtecons and Sol E&C are three enterprises in Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong's ecosystem.

Perspective of Long Thanh airport. Photo: ACV — Perspective of Long Thanh airport. Photo: *ACV*

Hoa Lu said there was "evidence" that the leading member of the Vietur consortium - IC Holdings - had violated bidding regulations and was not qualified to meet technical requirements. Firstly, IC Holdings' chairman - Mr. Ibrahim Cecen, was involved in many corruption suspicions. Secondly, IC Holdings has a history of slow construction in many projects, has had major projects terminated and sued investors. Thirdly, IC Holdings' experience in airport construction is untrue and shows signs of delay.

The complaint states that IC Holdings' website states that the company built Pulkovo Airport in Russia, Varna Burgas Airport in Bulgaria, and the rest are airports in its home country of Türkiye. "There is no experience in international construction, especially in tropical countries with storms and rains," the representative of this consortium commented.

Regarding the Pulkovo airport project, Hoa Lu said IC Holdings is one of two contractors in the consortium. The airport's capacity is expected to be 17 million passengers by 2025, while IC Holdings announced 20 million passengers. Varna Burgas is a small airport with a capacity of 3 million passengers per year, so Hoa Lu said it cannot be compared to Long Thanh airport. In addition to the two airports above, IC Holdings also announced that it has experience in building King Khaled airport in Saudi Arabia, but this project started in 2017 and has not been completed yet.

The consortium led by Coteccons requested ACV to re-evaluate the information published by IC Holdings and requested the Ministry of Public Security to check the background of the company's chairman and the corruption allegations in the press.

In addition, the Hoa Lu group is also concerned that selecting a consortium to enter the financial document review round could mean that the winning bidder has already been determined from the technical proposal review room. The group said that ACV's decision leads to the risk of not ensuring fair price competition.

With the above complaints, Hoa Lu Joint Venture requests the competent authority to consider directing ACV to stop opening the financial documents of the 5.10 package and request to re-examine and verify the capacity of the contractor joint ventures or invite a third independent unit with sufficient capacity and expertise to re-evaluate the technical bidding documents of the parties.

A representative of Coteccons said that the Hoa Lu joint venture has sent a complaint to the authorities. "We are exercising our right to petition according to the Law on Bidding and the instructions of the bidding documents," he said, declining to comment further.

Speaking to VnExpress , an ACV representative said they had not yet received a complaint from the Hoa Lu Joint Venture. The unit declined to comment further because "it is in the bidding stage so all information must be kept confidential."

According to the law, when the contractor feels that his rights and interests are affected, he has the right to request the investor and the competent authority to review the issues in the contractor selection process. The contractor has the right to request the investor to explain the reasons for not achieving the technical score, and to request information on the specific scoring for each scoring criterion in the bidding documents and bidding documents. In addition, the contractor also has the right to request the criteria to be re-scored.

Hoa Lu Joint Venture cited the international competitive bidding (ICB) process and said that before deciding on technical factors with or without clear points, the investor must publicly request the bidding company to explain and provide more information to ensure objectivity. The application of disqualification points must be considered according to international bidding regulations to avoid possible future disputes from experienced contractors, affecting the project progress.

Previously, ACV representative said that Vietur has been selected as the contractor that meets the technical requirements. The investor of Long Thanh airport will take the next step of evaluating financial documents on August 4 and complete it in August.

Siddhartha

Source link