The Ministry of Planning and Investment has recently issued two circulars detailing the compilation of bidding dossiers for packages ruled by the UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).
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The new documents are Circular 12 detailing the preparation of bidding dossiers for procurement of goods, and Circular 15 providing instructions for construction and installation bidding dossiers, under the above-mentioned three big free trade pacts that Vietnam has joined.
The two circulars, which become effective on August 25, aim to implement Government Decree 09 dated January 12, 2022, amending a number of articles of Government Decree 95 of 2020, guiding the performance of procurement procedures under the CPTPP, the EVFTA and the UKVFTA, as an effort to ensure the country’s effective implementation of international commitments.
The "three-in-one" integration also facilitates competitive and transparent bidding for domestic contractors and contractors from the EU, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The new rules apply to bidding dossiers in the form of single-stage single-envelop and single-stage two-envelop bidding modes.
According to the new regulations, based on the scale and nature of each specific bidding package, the bid solicitor shall make appropriate requirements based on the principles of ensuring competition, fairness, transparency and economic efficiency.
The bid solicitor must not set conditions to limit the participation of contractors or to create advantages for one or several contractor(s), causing unfair competition, such as stating the specific brand and origin of goods, including the naming of countries, groups of countries and territories, except the case of intra-regional bidding; or setting up the requirement that a contractor has entered into one or more contract(s) with a procuring agency of a particular country or that a contractor has experience in providing goods and services in that territory as a criterion for disqualifying contractors.
The circulars specify that in case of amending the provisions stated in the form of the bidding dossiers, organizations and individuals that make, appraise and approve the bidding documents must ensure such amended provisions are stricter than those noted in the bidding document form and not contrary to the provisions of the CPTPP, the EVFTA and the UKVFTA.
Regarding the biding packages that have been opened before the effective date of the circulars (August 25, 2022), the bid evaluation and consideration and approval of bid winners must comply with the bidding dossiers and not contravene such trade pacts.
The bidding documents already approved before August 25, 2022, but not yet issued must be modified to conform to the forms issued together with the new circulars.
Any information inappropriate or in violation of the bidding dossier forms issued together with the two circulars must be modified. In that case, the investor and procuring entity must give the contractors reasonable time to prepare their bid dossiers.-(VLLF)
