When the competent authority agreed on the policy for investment in repairing construction works from the regular budget and other revenue sources of the unit, Mr. Tho's unit hired a consulting unit to implement the costs according to Decree No. 10/2021/ND-CP (consulting on preparing documents, examining, constructing, supervising...) to serve as a basis for submitting to the competent authority for approval of the budget and contractor selection plan for implementation.

However, when the inspection agency inspected, the consulting costs were recovered for the reason that the payment of consulting costs was not in accordance with Clause 4, Article 35 of Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP and Clause 4, Article 3 of Circular No. 14/2021/TT-BXD.

Mr. Tho asked, for construction repair packages under 500 million VND and over 100 million VND, can this consulting cost be hired or not? If not, who will prepare the documents to submit to the competent authority for approval of the estimate? Mr. Tho's unit does not have any specialized staff in the field of construction investment while the documents for approval by the competent authority according to regulations need to have design drawings, detailed estimates...

The Ministry of Construction responded to this issue as follows:

Construction maintenance is implemented in accordance with the provisions of Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP dated January 26, 2021 of the Government detailing a number of contents on quality management, construction and maintenance of construction works.

Construction maintenance costs are specified in Article 35 of Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP.

Construction maintenance costs are determined by estimates in accordance with the provisions of Article 3 of Circular No. 14/2021/TT-BXD dated September 8, 2021 of the Minister of Construction guiding the determination of construction maintenance costs.

The estimate for repairing works with implementation costs of less than VND 500 million is implemented in accordance with the instructions in Table 2.2, Appendix II of Circular No. 14/2021/TT-BXD.

Estimate the cost of construction maintenance according to the instructions in Table 2.1, Appendix II of Circular No. 14/2021/TT-BXD.

The investor shall, based on Article 14 of Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP, perform the work himself if he has sufficient capacity or hire a consulting organization with sufficient capacity according to the provisions of the Construction Law and guiding documents to perform the work serving the maintenance of construction works.

The bidding and selection of contractors, including construction consulting contractors, shall comply with the law on bidding and relevant regulations.