Prevent the exploitation of legal loopholes to legitimize bidding

The definition of the boundaries of "what is special" and "what is reasonable designation" is unclear, which can create a legal gap that can be easily exploited to legalize bid designation.

On the afternoon of May 23, National Assembly deputies discussed in the hall the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Bidding; Law on Investment under the public-private partnership model; Law on Customs; Law on Export Tax and Import Tax; Law on Investment; Law on Public Investment; Law on Management and Use of Public Assets (Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of 7 laws).

Regarding the amendment of the Law on Bidding, Deputy Nguyen Huu Thong ( Binh Thuan ) commented that the draft law's provisions in the direction of giving organizations and enterprises the right to decide on procurement are not really consistent with the cases where designated bidding is applied.

“If the organization is allowed to make its own purchasing decisions, is it necessary to apply the bidding method? The drafting agency needs to study and define more clearly the limits between “autonomy in purchasing” and “compulsory bidding”, especially clear quantitative criteria to determine which bidding packages are required to apply this law.

Delegate Nguyen Huu Thong (Binh Thuan) speaks at the hall on the afternoon of May 23. Photo: VIET CHUNG

Regarding the forms of contractor selection, this draft adds forms such as “designated bidding” or “selection in special cases”, while still retaining many traditional bidding forms such as open bidding, restricted bidding, competitive bidding. This makes the contractor selection system too complicated and easy to abuse. The definition of the boundaries of “what is special” and “what is reasonable designation” is not clear, which can create a legal gap that can be easily exploited to legalize designated bidding.

Also interested in the content of the amendment to the Law on Bidding, Deputy Pham Van Hoa ( Dong Thap ) analyzed that the draft regulation allows investors and competent persons to base on the scale, nature, and actual conditions of each bidding package and project to choose and apply forms of selecting contractors and investors on the basis of ensuring quality and efficiency; but then still have to organize bidding. "And then the winner is still that investor. So what is the purpose of organizing bidding?", Deputy Pham Van Hoa raised the issue.

According to the delegate, in this case, it is not necessary to stipulate continued bidding, but it is necessary to clearly stipulate the criteria for selecting contractors to avoid collusion between project owners and investors, causing damage to the budget.

Deputies attend the meeting on the afternoon of May 23 at Dien Hong hall. Photo: VIET CHUNG

Currently working in the health sector, Deputy Tran Khanh Thu (Thai Binh) expressed his agreement with the draft law having a separate mechanism for selecting contractors (different from the bidding process for public investment projects).

Delegate Tran Khanh Thu (Thai Binh) speaks at the hall on the afternoon of May 23. Photo: VIET CHUNG

According to the delegate, this "has removed the bottleneck that has lasted for many years for public service units, especially in the health sector when financially autonomous hospitals have legal revenue from activities whose main source of revenue is medical service revenue". However, the delegate noted to review a number of concepts and policies in the draft to ensure consistency and consistency with laws that are also being amended and supplemented at this session, such as the State Budget Law; the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation, as well as the Law on Digital Technology Industry.

MR. PHUONG

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/ngan-chan-viec-loi-dung-khoang-trong-phap-ly-de-hop-thuc-hoa-chi-dinh-thau-post796515.html