Failing to bid for Long Thanh airport, what did Hoa Lu Joint Venture say about the complaint?

Hoa Lu - one of three consortiums participating in the bidding for Package 5.10 of Long Thanh International Airport, invested by Vietnam Airports Corporation (ACV) - has just filed a complaint against ACV about the fact that Vietur consortium was the only unit to pass the technical round.

Speaking with VietNamNet , a representative of the Hoa Lu joint venture said that the joint venture of these contractors had filed a complaint and sent it to the authorities.

"The consortium is exercising its right to petition according to the Law on Bidding and the instructions of the bidding documents. The petition has been sent to relevant state agencies as prescribed," the representative affirmed and did not comment or confirm any further content.

Previously, the market had leaked information that this consortium had filed a petition. In it, there were many complaints about the 5.10 package worth more than 35,200 billion VND to construct Long Thanh International Airport, invested by ACV.

Accordingly, there is evidence that the leading member of the Vietur consortium violated bidding regulations and was not qualified to meet the technical requirements of package 5.10 for the construction of Long Thanh airport.

*5.10 is the largest bid package in the Long Thanh Airport construction project.*

In the above document, Hoa Lu presented some evidence that IC Holdings - the Turkish enterprise leading the Vietur consortium - did not meet the technical standards to win the bid and recommended that ACV stop opening the financial documents of the 5.10 package (round 2, after the technical round) and request to review and re-verify the capacity of the consortium of contractors, or invite a third independent unit (international consultant) with full capacity and expertise to re-evaluate the technical bidding documents of the parties.

The Vietur consortium violated bidding regulations and did not meet the technical requirements of Package 5.10. Hoa Lu provided links to international news articles mentioning events such as: The Chairman of IC Holdings is involved in many corruption suspicions; IC Holdings has a history of delayed construction of many projects and has a history of having major projects terminated, has a history of litigation with investors; IC Holdings' airport construction experience is untrue and shows signs of delay.

The document also stated that IC Holdings is a business participating in construction investment in Vietnam for the first time, and has no experience with Vietnamese law or Vietnamese construction regulations.

Also according to the recommendation in the above document, selecting only one Vietur consortium to enter the financial document opening round is likely to mean that the winning unit has been determined from the technical proposal round, leading to a very high risk of not ensuring fair competition in price - a factor that accounts for 85% of the total score for selecting the winning bidder.

On August 1, ACV announced that the Vietur consortium (including 3 companies of Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong) met the technical requirements for the 5.10 package. This means that the remaining 2 consortiums, Hoa Lu and CHEC-BCEG-Vietnam Contractors (led by China Harbour Engineering of China) were eliminated from the bidding process.

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 members, led by the ICISTAS Industrial and Commercial-Construction Group. ICISTAS belongs to IC İbrahim Cecen Investment Holding, established in 1969. This unit has a lot of experience in implementing large infrastructure projects such as ports, airports, energy,... in the United Arab Emirates, Russia... including major international airports in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bulgaria...

In this consortium, there are 3 businesses in the ecosystem of Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong - former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Coteccons: Newtecons, Ricons and SOL E&C.

'Qualified' for Long Thanh Airport project, Chairman Nguyen Ba Duong sent a letter to the Chairman of the construction ecosystem Ricons, Newteccons... Nguyen Ba Duong sent a letter to the staff in the system on the occasion of the traditional day and the context of preparing to implement many large projects.

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