The disclosure of the results of evaluation of the proposal prior to the announcement of the decision to approve the contractor selection results is a violation of the prohibited acts stated in the Bidding Law. Violating organizations and individuals are handled according to Clause 3, Article 122 of Decree No. 63/2014 / ND-CP.

The Tan Thinh General Construction Co., Ltd. (in Quang Ninh Province) participates in a competitive offer for a construction package under a commune project as an investor. Because the investor was incompetent, he hired a bidding consultant to compile a request for proposal documents and evaluate the proposal documents.

The bidding package was opened on June 29, 2018 and is in the process of evaluating the proposal documents (there were not any decision to approve the contractor selection results).

On July 5, 2018, the bidding consultant announced the results of evaluation of competitive bidding documents for all 3 bidders. After receiving the above notice, the Tan Thinh General Construction Co., Ltd. found some unclear content and requested the authorities to answer, specifically as follows:

The deadline for bid closure of the aforementioned package is June 29, 2018, the Tan Thinh General Construction Co., Ltd. submitted the proposed documents in accordance with regulations. The company registered on the National bidding network system (approved on August 2, 2016), however, the contractor's information on the system at the time of bid opening on June 29, 2018 announced “ the account  did unpaid maintenance fee and after March 31, 2018 the account would be expirde ”. Immediately after the bid opening, the Company paid maintenance costs and was informed, "The account is still valid until March 31, 2019".

According to the notice of the consultancy unit about the evaluation results, the Company has a proposal that does not guarantee the bid participation, with the reason that, at the time of bid opening, the contractor has an account on the network. National bidding has expired from March 31, 2018.

Through receiving and responding system to recommendations of businesses, the Tan Thinh General Construction Co., Ltd would like to ask, are the evaluation results of the bidding consultancy unit for such recommendation  of the company correct?

When there was not any decisions to approve the contractor selection results, the bidding consultancy unit announced the results of evaluating the recommendation of the Tan Thinh General Construction Co., Ltd. to the two contractors participating in the above bidding package for recognition.

The company would like to ask, the bidding consultancy unit has disclosed the content of the opinion evaluation of the recommendation of the Tan Thinh General Construction Co., Ltd. before disclosing the results of such contractor selection. Does the disclosing information in Clause 7, Article 89 of the Bidding Law violate the regulations?

The Ministry of Planning and Investment makes comments on this issue as follows:

Regarding the bidder's eligibility, Point d, Clause 1, Article 5 of the Bidding Law stipulates one of the conditions for a bidder's valid status to be registered on the National Bidding Network.

Clause 1, Article 37 of Joint Circular No. 07/2015 / TTLT-BKHDT-BTC dated September 8, 2015 of the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance stipulates that starting from July 1, 2016, before at the time of bid closure for 2 working days, contractors and investors without confirmation of information registration on the national bidding network system may not participate in bidding for bidding packages and projects in the form of house selection. Bidding is prescribed in Articles 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26 of the Bidding Law.

In the case of the Company, when participating in the bid, the contractor must meet the eligibility status as prescribed above. Accordingly, contractors who have been listed on the National Bidding Network 2 days before the deadline for bid submission but have not yet paid the annual maintenance fee after the deadline for bid submission are still considered as eligible. The provisions of Point d, Clause 1, Article 5 of the Bidding Law. The bid solicitor must request the contractor to pay the maintenance fee before the contractor selection results are available.

Regarding the disclosure of information in the bidding process, Point d, Clause 7, Article 89 of the Bidding Law stipulates that one of the prohibited acts is the disclosure and receipt of documents and information about the house selection process. Bidding includes reports of the bid solicitor, reports of expert groups, evaluation reports, reports of consultancy contractors, reports of relevant specialized agencies in the process of selecting contractors before work declaration of contractor selection results.

Accordingly, the disclosure of the evaluation result of the proposal before announcing the decision to approve the contractor selection result is a violation of the above-mentioned prohibited act.

Violating organizations and individuals are handled under Clause 3, Article 122 of Decree No. 63/2014 / ND-CP.