What are prohibited acts in bidding activities in Vietnam? What are judgments related to this issue?

What are prohibited acts in bidding activities in Vietnam?

According to Article 16 of the Vietnam Bidding Law 2023, the prohibited acts in bidding activities in Vietnam include:

(1) Offering, receiving, or brokering bribes.

(2) Abusing positions or powers to influence or illegally interfere in bidding activities in any form.

(3) Collusion in bidding, which includes acts such as:

- Arranging, agreeing, or coercing one or more parties to prepare or withdraw bid dossiers for one party to win the bid;

- Arranging or agreeing to refuse to supply goods, services, not to sign sub-contracts, or conducting other forms of agreement to restrict competition for one party to win the bid;

- A competent and experienced contractor or investor participating in bidding and meeting the requirements of the bidding documents, intentionally does not provide documents to prove their capability, experience when requested by the bid solicitor to clarify bid dossiers or when requested to verify documents to create conditions for one party to win the bid.

(4) Fraudulent behavior, which includes the following acts:

- Forging or falsifying information, dossiers, documents in bidding;

- Intentionally providing untruthful, non-objective information, documents in interest expression dossiers, pre-qualification dossiers, business investment project registration dossiers, bid dossiers, proposal dossiers to distort the results of selecting contractors, investors.

(5) Obstruction, including the following acts:

- Destroying, deceiving, altering, concealing evidence, or falsely reporting; threatening or suggesting to any party to prevent clarification of bribery or fraud actions, or colluding with competent, authorized monitoring, inspection, auditing agencies;

- Obstructing authorities, project owners, bid solicitations, contractors, investors in selecting contractors, investors;

- Obstructing authorized monitoring, inspection, audit agencies for bidding activities;

- Intentionally complaining, denouncing, or petitioning falsely to obstruct bidding activities;

- Violating cybersecurity laws to interfere, obstruct online bidding.

(6) Failing to ensure fairness and transparency. Certain acts can be cited, such as:

- Participating in preparation and simultaneously appraising interest expression dossiers, pre-qualification dossiers, bidding dossiers, request dossiers for the same procurement package, business investment project;

- Participating in evaluating bid dossiers, proposal dossiers while simultaneously appraising the contractor, investor selection results for the same procurement package, business investment project;

- A supervision consultancy contractor concurrently performing verification consultancy for the procurement package that they supervise;

- Splitting projects, procurement estimates into packages to facilitate direct contracting; dividing projects, procurement estimates to limit participation of contractors...

(7) Disclosing documents, information about the contractor, investor selection process, except in cases of providing information according to the provisions of point b, clause 8 and point g, clause 9 of Article 77, clause 11 of Article 78, point h, clause 1 of Article 79, clause 4 of Article 80, clause 4 of Article 81, clause 2 of Article 82, point b, clause 4 of Article 93 Vietnam Bidding Law 2023.

(8) Transferring contracts in cases such as:

- Contractors transferring part of the work of the package to other contractors beyond the maximum value allocated for subcontractors and the volume of work for special subcontractors stated in the contract;

- Contractors transferring part of the package work to other contractors not exceeding the maximum value of the work allocated for subcontractors stated in the contract but beyond the scope of work proposed for subcontractors in the bid dossier, proposal dossier without the approval of the investor, supervision consultancy;

- The investor, supervision consultancy approves contractors transferring part of the package work to other contractors beyond the maximum value allocated for subcontractors and the volume of work for special subcontractors stated in the contract;

- The investor, supervision consultancy approves contractors transferring part of the package work to other contractors exceeding the maximum value of the work allocated for subcontractors stated in the contract.

(9) Organizing contractor selection when the source of funds has not been identified.

What are judgments on violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences adjudicated by courts in Vietnam?

Below is a collection of judgments on violating bidding regulations causing severe consequences adjudicated by courts in Vietnam:

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