Serious violations at Viet Duc and Bach Mai Hospital project, branch 2

The Government Inspectorate has just issued the conclusion of the inspection of the investment project to build a new facility 2 of Bach Mai Hospital and the investment project to build a new facility 2 of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital. In which, the Government Inspectorate pointed out many serious violations of bidding regulations and consulting units.

Violations in consulting selection

According to the inspection conclusion, the Bach Mai Hospital and Viet Duc Hospital 2 project in Ha Nam province was submitted by the investor, the Key Health Project Management Board, and the Minister of Health approved the policy of hiring foreign consultants to prepare the project in 2014.

The inspection showed that in 2014, the Minister of Health and the then Key Health Project Management Board "seriously violated bidding regulations with the aim of selecting the correct foreign consulting unit that had been determined in advance."

In the submission, the Management Board of Key Health Projects stated: "Construction works must be invested in design and construction with flexible architectural solutions and new materials suitable for the advancement of equipment that is increasingly diverse in types and modern in technology; therefore, domestic construction consulting units cannot meet the requirements and it is necessary to hire foreign consultants to implement the project."

However, the investor could not provide documents to prove that "domestic construction consultants do not meet the requirements and it is necessary to hire foreign consultants to implement the project."

In fact, before that, there was a domestic consulting unit that had provided project consulting, technical design consulting, and construction cost estimates for projects with larger hospital beds.

The Government Inspectorate determined that the Director of the Key Health Project Management Board submitted for approval the policy of hiring foreign consultants to develop the project, but in Decision No. 996 dated March 21, 2014, the Minister of Health also approved the policy of hiring foreign consultants to design 2 projects when there was no proposal and at a time when the 2 projects had not yet been approved.

Then, in Notice No. 417 dated May 9, 2014, the Minister of Health directed to identify VK Group Company (Kingdom of Belgium) as the project consulting unit when the contractor selection had not yet been organized.

"Thus, the submission and approval of the policy of hiring foreign consultants to prepare the project was subjective, intentionally choosing the foreign consultant, VK Group Company, without assessing the ability to meet the requirements on capacity and experience of domestic consultants, seriously violating the provisions of the law on bidding and the regulations on hiring foreign consultants in construction activities in Vietnam. The responsibility belongs to the Minister of Health, the Director of the Management Board of Key Medical Projects, the Department of Medical Equipment and Construction and directly related units and individuals," the Government Inspectorate concluded.

The inspection agency also determined that the submission and approval of the plan for selecting architectural design options showed signs of dishonesty and lack of transparency, intentionally selecting VK Group Company as a foreign consulting unit to participate in proposing architectural design options for selection while there was not enough basis to confirm that the selected unit met the requirements and domestic consulting units did not meet the requirements for capacity and experience.

This seriously violates the regulations in Circular No. 23/2009 of the Ministry of Construction and the regulations on hiring foreign consultants in construction activities in Vietnam.

Bach Mai Hospital Facility 2. (Photo: Tuan Anh/VNA)

Violation of the provisions of the law on bidding

In addition, the Government Inspectorate said that there were many violations and mistakes occurring in the implementation stages of 4 foreign consulting packages (TV4/2014, TV5/2014, TVBM-04 and TVVD-04).

Typically and throughout the implementation process, the Minister of Health, the Management Board of key health projects and the units and individuals directly involved have intentionally violated the provisions of the law on bidding when dividing the bidding packages without basing on the technicality, implementation sequence and synchronization of the project; including the specific name of the foreign consulting contractor when submitting and approving the contractor selection plan.

The Minister of Health, the Management Board of key health projects and the units and individuals directly involved have built the name and content of the bidding package in the direction of narrowing the scope of consulting work (when only performing architectural design with bidding packages TVBM-04 and TVVD-04, which is 1/9 of the content of construction design)...

Along with the violations and mistakes that occurred in the submission and approval of foreign consulting policies; submission, approval and implementation of the plan to select architectural design options, the Minister of Health and the Management Board of key health projects at that time "seriously violated bidding regulations with the purpose of selecting the correct foreign consulting unit that had been determined in advance."

The process of negotiating and signing consulting contracts also resulted in violations; the value of the signed contract was many times higher than the value calculated according to the construction investment consulting cost norms issued with Decision No. 957 dated September 29, 2009 of the Ministry of Construction (Norm 957).

Specifically, the project consulting contract price is about 5.6 times higher (the estimated higher amount is about 35.8 billion VND for 2 projects).

The contract value of technical design consultancy and construction drawing design of the project (in which, the value of 2 architectural design consultancy contracts accounts for 72% of the total value) is about 2.3 times higher (the amount is tentatively estimated to be more than 69 billion VND for 2 projects).

Thus, the total contract value is higher than the value calculated according to Standard 957 by about 104.86 billion VND. The total value paid for the contracts is higher than the value calculated according to Standard 957 by about 80 billion VND. This causes a loss to the budget of about 80 billion VND.

With signs of violations of bidding regulations causing serious consequences according to the provisions of the 2015 Penal Code, the Government Inspectorate has transferred files and documents of 4 consulting bidding packages (TV4/2014, TV5/2014, TVBM-04 and TVVD-04) to the Ministry of Public Security for consideration, investigation and handling according to the provisions of law.

In particular, the Government Inspectorate determined that, with the TV4 and TV5 bidding packages, the consulting unit was invited to prepare a proposal that was not the author of the selected architectural design plan, contrary to the provisions of Decree No. 85/2009, and did not ensure competitiveness, violating the Law on Bidding.

Bidding packages TVBM-04 and TVVD-04 also invited consulting units to prepare proposal documents that were not the authors of the selected architectural design plan, and assigned architectural design contracts (not construction design) in violation of the provisions of the Law on Bidding.

All 4 bidding packages were not eligible for designated bidding but were still implemented, violating prohibited acts in bidding./.

(Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/nhung-vi-pham-nghiem-trong-tai-du-an-benh-vien-viet-duc-bach-mai-co-so-2-post1024766.vnp