Mr. Le Hoang's company is a state-owned national security and defense enterprise, with 100% government investment, operating in the border region. The company is also tasked with organizing production and business activities, planning and executing the cultivation of long-term industrial crops such as rubber, coffee, and cashews, to create employment, income, and improve the lives of workers and self-employed individuals in the project area.

Previously, the company used competitive bidding to select suppliers for raw materials, materials, and fertilizers for rubber production and processing. Starting from 2022, the Financial-Accounting Department has advised on the purchase of raw materials for production according to Circular No. 58/2016/TT-BTC issued by the Ministry of Finance.

Mr. Hoang asks whether the company is required to use the national procurement system according to Circular No. 58/2016/TT-BTC when regularly purchasing materials and raw materials for production. Does the company continue to apply the competitive bidding process for the regular procurement of materials and raw materials as it did in previous years?

The Ministry of Planning and Investment provides the following response:

The Public Procurement Law (Article 3, Clause 2, amended by Article 1, Clause 99 of the Law on Investment in the form of public-private partnership) stipulates that in cases of procurement for supplies, fuels, materials, goods, consultancy services, non-consultancy services to ensure continuous support for production, business activities, and procurement to maintain the regular operations of state-owned enterprises, the enterprise must establish regulations for contractor selection to be uniformly applied within the enterprise, based on ensuring the principles of fairness, transparency, and economic efficiency.

Therefore, the application of the Public Procurement Law for contractor selection to ensure continuous support for production, business activities, and the regular operations of state-owned enterprises is carried out according to the above-mentioned regulations without being mandatory to apply Circular No. 58/2016/TT-BTC (amended by Circular No. 68/2022/TT-BTC).