However, the bank said that it must wait for clearance within 30 days after the expiry of the bid's validity period (the expiration date according to the bidding documents is 120 days).

Mr. Hoang asked, is it legal for the bank to do so?

The State Bank of Vietnam responded to this issue as follows:

The bank's bid guarantee for customers must comply with the provisions of the Law on Bidding and Circular No. 07/2015/TT-NHNN dated June 25, 2015 on bank guarantee (amended and supplemented in Circular No. 13/2017/TT-NHNN dated September 29, 2017). Accordingly, the regulations related to the question he asked are as follows:

Clause 1, Article 4 of the Law on Bidding stipulates: "Bid security means that a contractor or investor performs one of the methods of depositing, or submitting a letter of guarantee from a credit institution or foreign bank branch established under Vietnamese law to ensure the bidding responsibility of contractors and investors within a specified time according to the requirements of the bidding documents and dossiers of requirements.

Clauses 4 and 7, Article 11 of the Law on Bidding stipulates: "4. The validity period of the bid security specified in the bidding documents and the request for proposals is equal to the validity period of the bid documents, proposals plus 30 days.

… 7. The bid solicitor is responsible for returning or releasing the bid security to the unselected contractor or investor within the time limit specified in the bidding documents, dossier of requirements but not exceeding 20 days, from the date on which the results of contractor selection and investor selection are approved…”.

Article 14 of Circular No. 07/2015/TT-NHNN stipulates that, in order to guarantee, credit institutions and customers sign an agreement to grant guarantees. The guarantee agreement must have mandatory contents, which include: Obligations to be guaranteed, validity of the agreement granting the guarantee.

Article 15 of Circular No. 07/2015/TT-NHNN stipulates that a guarantee commitment must contain the following contents: Expiry date and/or case of expiration of the guarantee; guarantee obligations;…

Clause 1, Article 19 of Circular No. 07/2015/TT-NHNN stipulates: "The validity period of a guarantee commitment is determined from the date of issuance of the guarantee commitment or after the date of issuance of the guarantee commitment as agreed upon. of related parties until the expiration of the guarantee obligation specified in Article 23 of this Circular".

Based on the above provisions, Mr. Hoang needs to work with the bank and related parties to release the bid guarantee letter in accordance with the agreement of the parties in the bid guarantee letter and relevant laws. involve.