Principles of online quotation for case of online contractor selection in Vietnam

Principles of online quotation for case of online contractor selection in Vietnam (Image from the Internet)

Concept of online quotation

According to Decree 24/2024/ND-CP, online quotation is a repeated process where bidders electronically submit new prices or non-price values (quantifiable according to bidding document criteria) for ranking or re-ranking bids on Vietnam National E-Procurement System (VNEPS).

Principles of online quotation for case of online contractor selection in Vietnam

According to Article 99 of Decree 24/2024/ND-CP, online quotation for case of online contractor selection in Vietnam must adhere to the following principles:

- Contractors can continuously change the bid prices and other non-price factors (if any) during the online quotation period. The bid prices and other non-price factors (if any) proposed by the contractors are publicly displayed on the National Bidding Network System during the bidding process, except for the contractor's name. The National Bidding Network System automatically ranks and publicly displays the ranking of contractors corresponding to the bid prices and other non-price factors (if any) during the online quotation period; the remaining time of the online quotation process.

- In case the bid price is the only allowable factor to be revised and the package is evaluated by the lowest price method, if there are multiple contractors proposing the lowest price, the one who proposes the lowest price first wins the contract.

- In cases where the lowest price method is not used, the National Bidding Network System automatically ranks contractors based on evaluation criteria in the bidding documents. If there are multiple contractors ranking first, the one who ranks first earliest wins the contract.

- The end time of online quotation must be within working hours.

- The bid price must not be higher than the package price and must not be higher than the lowest proposed price when the price is the only allowable factor to be revised. If the post-discount bid price (if any) of all contractors meeting the technical requirements exceeds the package price and no contractor participates in online quotation under the usual process, the investor handles the situation according to points b, c, or d, Clause 8, Article 131 of Decree 24/2024/ND-CP.

Conditions for applying online quotations for case of online contractor selection in Vietnam

Online quotation includes regular process online quotation and abbreviated process online quotation.

According to Article 98 of Decree 24/2024/ND-CP, online quotation is applied as follows:

(1) Regular process online quotation is applicable in the following cases:

- Non-consultancy service packages that are common and simple;

- Goods procurement packages that are common, available in the market with standardized technical features and equivalent quality; there is competition among suppliers; the most important evaluation criterion is the price, with little or no impact from life cycle costs;

- Groups of goods and services that can apply online quotation include: raw materials, fuels, basic construction materials (iron ore, road aggregates, building materials, copper pipes, and other materials); standardized IT equipment including computers, cartridges, modems, and other devices; printing paper, photocopy paper, simple supplies, light bulbs; purchasing commercial software licenses; energy, coal, or gas; chemicals; transportation services; cleaning services; maintenance services; and other goods and services meeting the above two regulations.

(2) Abbreviated process online quotation is applied in one or several of the following cases:

- Procurement packages of goods and non-consultancy services valued at no more than 300 million VND for procurement estimates;

- Packages within investment projects of state-owned enterprises, enterprises with 100% charter capital held by state-owned enterprises, and investment projects under the Law on Public Investment, including: procurement packages of goods and non-consultancy services valued at no more than 1 billion VND;

- Goods procurement packages, non-consultancy services that must be bought from specific manufacturers to ensure compatibility in technology, copyright with existing equipment, machinery, software, services, or due to warranty conditions that cannot be purchased from other manufacturers and have many capable suppliers.

Tran Trong Tin

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