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

Package 4.8 is a critical infrastructure package for the airport with many complex technical items, so ACV applied the open bidding method with a one-stage, two-envelope contractor selection process.

According to the one-stage, two-envelope bidding process, only bidders who meet the technical requirements and achieve the technical score as specified in the tender documents will have their financial proposals opened and reviewed.

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The entire structural work from the first to the fourth floor of the passenger terminal – the "heart" of Long Thanh Airport – has been completed after one year of construction, boasting a massive and modern architectural design. Photo: Hoang Anh

Following the bidding results, the consortium of seven companies (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 Limited Company, and Thang Long Corporation) submitted a petition arguing that their rejection due to failure to meet technical requirements was unfair.

In their petition, the consortium of seven contractors also disclosed their bid prices while their financial proposals were not opened. The consortium stated that their bid was 1 trillion VND lower than that of the winning consortium, yet they were still disqualified.

ACV affirms that the contractor selection process for Package 4.8 was carried out in strict compliance with legal regulations on bidding and that a contractor meeting the capacity and experience requirements of the package was selected.

ACV also stated that the process of responding to and resolving requests from contractors participating in package 4.8 in particular, and all packages of the project in general, has always been carried out seriously and in strict compliance with the regulations of the Bidding Law. All requests from contractors have been considered by ACV, and written responses have been provided correctly, fully, and on time in accordance with the law on bidding.

According to this unit, the fact that the consortium contractor for package 4.8 disclosed information about its bid price through a petition sent to the investor while the financial proposal documents were not opened (because they did not pass the technical proposal evaluation step) is a violation of the provisions of Clause 7, Article 16 of the Law on Bidding No. 22/2023/QH15 regarding the disclosure of documents and information about the contractor selection process.

Speaking to PV.VietNamNet , Dr. Nguyen Viet Hung, former head of the Procurement Management Department (now the Procurement Management Bureau), Ministry of Planning and Investment, stated that: The act of a contractor disclosing the value of their bid while the financial proposal documents are not opened is an "unethical" behavior.

"Leaving aside the legal aspects, this is a matter of ethical violations by the contractor. It's unacceptable for a contractor who was eliminated in the first round to claim that their bid was better than the other contractor's," Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung assessed.

According to Mr. Hung, the contractor should reflect on why they failed to meet the technical standards. He argued that using the bid price to shift the blame when technical criteria are not met is inappropriate.

In the world and in Vietnam, bidding processes must follow a specific procedure. No one compares the price of a bidder whose technical specifications did not meet the requirements with that of a bidder whose specifications did. Only if two bidders have equally qualified technical specifications are their prices compared.

“This is a major project, a key national project, with top-priority technical requirements. If we use cheap methods but the project is of poor quality, behind schedule, and over budget, who will be responsible? Therefore, the contractor must meet the technical standards before the investor will even consider the financial proposal. For a contract worth over 11,000 billion VND, the most important thing is whether the contractor has sufficient technical capacity to undertake the project; this is paramount,” Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung emphasized.

The appearance of the 3.5 trillion 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, is 123m high and is likened to the "brain" that ensures many of the airport's operations.