Regulations on Fees associated with contractor selection in Vietnam under Decree 24/2024

Regulations on Fees associated with contractor selection in Vietnam under Decree 24/2024 (Internet image)

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Regulations on Fees associated with contractor selection in Vietnam under Decree 24/2024

(1) For international bidding, the employer will determine, based on the project scale and nature, the purchase price of the electronic bidding document or RFP to be paid by bidders, aligning with international practices.

For state-funded packages, revenues from selling electronic bidding documents or RFPs shall be transferred by the employer to the state budget according to the Law on State Budget 2015.  For non-state-funded packages, revenues from selling electronic bidding documents or RFPs are the employer's revenues and are managed and used according to the employer's financial mechanism.

(2) Fees for preparation and appraisal of documentation during the contractor selection process:

- The fee for hiring a bidding consultant to perform any work during contractor selection process is not subject to the fees outlined in (3), (4), (5), (6) and (7);

- In case the competent person assigns a subordinate agency to prepare and evaluate the overall contractor selection plan, the cost incurred in these tasks are included in the contractor selection cost estimate under (3);

- If an expert team or appraisal team is established by the employer to prepare and evaluate prequalification documents, EOI requests, bidding documents, and RFPs; to evaluate prequalification applications, EOI responses, bids, and proposals; to appraise contractor selection results, the costs incurred in their tasks are included in the contractor selection cost estimate according to (4), (5), (6) and (7);

- The costs specified in (3), (4), (5), (6) and (7) are determined in the total estimated investment, procurement estimate, investment preparation estimate, or recurrent expenditure estimate of the agency;

- The management and use of the costs specified in (3), (4), (5), (6) and (7) are carried out according to the employer's financial mechanism.

(3) The fee for preparing or appraising the overall contractor selection plan is 0.5% of the feasibility study report fee, capped at a minimum of 5,000,000 VND and a maximum of 40,000,000 VND.

(4) Fees for preparing and appraising documentation:

- The fee for preparing an EOI request or prequalification document is 0.1% of the fixed budget, capped at a minimum of 2,000,000 VND and a maximum of 30,000,000 VND;

- The fee for appraising an EOI request or prequalification document is 0.06% of the fixed budget, capped at a minimum of 2,000,000 VND and a maximum of 30,000,000 VND;

- The fee for preparing bidding documents or RFP is 0.2% of the fixed budget, capped at a minimum of 3,000,000 VND and a maximum of 60,000,000 VND;

- The fee for appraising bidding documents or RFP is 0.1% of the fixed budget, capped at a minimum of 2,000,000 VND and a maximum of 60,000,000 VND.

(5) Fees for evaluation of documentation:

- The fee for evaluating an EOI request or prequalification application is 0.1% of the fixed budget, capped at a minimum of 2,000,000 VND and a maximum of 30,000,000 VND;

- The fee for evaluating a bid or proposal is 0.2% of the fixed budget, capped at a minimum of 3,000,000 VND and a maximum of 60,000,000 VND;

(6) The fee for appraising the contractor selection result, including cases where no bidder is selected, is 0.1% of the fixed budget, capped at a minimum of 3,000,000 VND and a maximum of 60,000,000 VND.

(7) The fee for preparing and appraising EOI requests, prequalification documents, bidding documents, or RFPs for similar packages within the same project or procurement by the same employer, or for packages requiring contractor selection reorganization, is capped at 50% of the fee specified in (4). If a part of a divided package needs to be re-bid, the maximum fee is 50% of the estimated value of the re-bid part.

If contractor selection needs to be reorganized, the contractor selection cost will be calculated based on the specific circumstances of the package and added to the project and procurement estimate. In case of international bidding, the document translation fee is calculated in accordance with market prices, ensuring the effectiveness of the package.

(8) The petition fee paid to the Advisory Council to resolve a petition regarding selection results is calculated as a percentage of the bid price of the petitioner (petitioning bidder), as follows:

- For bid price under 50,000,000,000 VND, the rate is 0.03%, but not less than 5,000,000 VND;

- For bid price from 50,000,000,000 VND to under 50,000,000,000 VND, the rate is 0.025%, but not less than 15,000,000 VND;

- For bid price from 100,000,000,000 VND to under 200,000,000,000 VND, the rate is 0.02%, but not less than 25,000,000 VND;

- For bid price at least 200,000,000,000 VND, the rate is 0.015%, but not less than 40,000,000 VND and no greater than 60,000,000 VND.

For packages applying the single-stage and two-envelope method, two-stage and two-envelope method, in case the bidder requests not to open the financial proposal, the petition fee for the Advisory Council is determined based on bid price.

(9) Reimbursement of petition fees:

- If the bidder's petition is successful, the relevant organizations or individuals will reimburse the petitioner the petition fee that they have paid;

- If the bidder's petition is unsuccessful, the petitioner will not be reimbursed their paid petition fee.

(10) The Advisory Council has financial autonomy to cover expenses related to resolving bidder petitions, including payments to its members, standing support team, and other operational costs.

During the petition process, if the bidder withdraws the petition, they will only be reimbursed 50% of the paid petition fee in case the Advisory Council has not been established or the Advisory Council has been established but a council meeting has not yet been held. In case the Advisory Council has held a council meeting, the bidder will not be reimbursed their paid petition fee. For the remaining petition fee after reimbursement and spending according to Article 13 of this Decree, the standing support team of the Advisory Council shall transfer it to the state budget within 10 working days from the date on which the bidder withdraws the petition.

(11) Fees for contractor selection on VNEPS include:

- The fee for maintaining the name and capacity profile of the bidder on VNEPS is 330,000 VND for 1 year (including value added tax). Bidders pay this fee from the second year onwards after the year of registration to participate in VNEPS;

- The fee for submission of bids on VNEPS is: 330,000 VND for 1 package (including value added tax) for competitive bidding, limited bidding, online quotation under ordinary procedures; 220,000 VND for 1 package (including value added tax) for shopping method;

- The winning bidder fee for a package under competitive bidding, limited bidding, shopping method, or online bidding under ordinary procedures, applying online bidding:

For undivided packages: 0.022% of the successful bid but not greater than 2,200,000 VND (including value added tax).

For packages divided into multiple parts, total winning bidder fee for all winning bidders must not exceed 2,200,000 VND (value added tax included).  In case the value of 0.022% multiplied by the total successful bid of the package is lower or equal to 2,200,000 VND, the winning bidder fee of each bidder is 0.022% of the total successful bid for the package part that the bidder wins. In case the value of 0.022% multiplied by the total successful bid of the package exceeds 2,200,000 VND, the winning bidder fee of each bidder is calculated according to the following formula:

The winning bidder fee (including value added tax) = 2,200,000 VND x (total successful bid for the package part that the bidder wins/total successful bid of the package);

- The connection fees for electronic bid security between VNEPS and various institutions are determined by agreements between the VNEPS operator/supervisor and these entities, which include domestic credit institutions, branches of foreign banks established under Vietnamese law, domestic non-life insurers, and branches of foreign non-life insurers established under Vietnamese law.

(Article 12 of Decree 24/2024/ND-CP)

Ho Quoc Tuan

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