From 2021, How are Bids in PPP Regulated?

From 2021, How are Bids in PPP Regulated? (Illustrative Image)

Law on Investment in the Form of Public-Private Partnership 2020 regulates bids in PPP projects as follows:

First, regulations on bid security consist of 6 contents:

- Based on the scale and nature of each project, the value of the bid security is stipulated in the bidding documents at a determined rate from 0.5% to 1.5% of the total project investment.- The validity period of the bid security is specified in the bidding documents as the validity period of the bidding documents plus an additional 30 days.- In case the validity period of the bidding documents is extended, the procuring entity must request the investor to extend the validity period of the bid security correspondingly on the condition that the content of the submitted bidding documents does not change. If the investor refuses to extend, the bidding documents will become invalid and be rejected.- In the case of a consortium, each member may separately provide bid security or agree for one member to be responsible for providing bid security on behalf of itself and other members in the consortium. The total value of the bid security must not be less than the value required in the bidding documents. If any member of the consortium violates the provisions of Clause 6 of this Article, the bid security of all consortium members will not be refunded.- The procuring entity must refund or release the bid security to the investors who are not selected within the timeframe stipulated in the bidding documents but no later than 14 days from the date the investor selection results are approved. For the selected investor, the bid security is refunded or released after the PPP project enterprise established by the investor provides the contract performance security as stipulated in Article 48 of this Law.- In case the investor refuses to extend the period according to the provisions of Clause 3 of this Article, the procuring entity must refund or release the bid security to the investor within 14 days from the date the procuring entity receives the extension refusal document.

Additionally, bid security will not be refunded in the following cases:

- The investor withdraws the bidding documents while the bidding documents are still valid;- The investor violates the bidding law, leading to cancellation of the bid according to Point e, Clause 1, Article 34 of this Law;- The investor does not proceed with or refuses to proceed with contract negotiations, completion within 30 days from the date of receiving the winning bid notice from the procuring entity, or has negotiated, completed the contract but refuses to sign it, except in cases of force majeure;- The PPP project enterprise established by the investor does not provide the contract performance security as stipulated in Article 48 of this Law.

Second, the provisions on bid cancellation are applied in the following cases:

- All pre-qualification documents, bidding documents do not meet the requirements of the pre-qualification, bidding documents;- Change of objectives, scale recorded in the pre-qualification, bidding documents;- The pre-qualification, bidding documents do not comply with the provisions of this Law or other relevant legal provisions, leading to the selected investor failing to meet the requirements to implement the project;- The organization of investor selection does not comply with the provisions of this Law or other relevant legal provisions, leading to restricted competition among investors;- There is evidence of offering, accepting, brokering bribes, collusion, fraud, misuse of positions, powers to illegally interfere in bidding activities, leading to incorrect investor selection results.

Note: Organizations and individuals must compensate for costs to the related parties and be handled according to the provisions of law when they have actions leading to bid cancellation according to points c, d, and e, Clause 1, Article 34 of this Law.

More details can be found in Law on Investment in the Form of Public-Private Partnership 2020, effective from January 01, 2021.

Thanh Thao

>> CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE IN VIETNAMESE