Circular No. 63/2007/TT-BTC guides the implementation of tendering for purchasing assets to maintain the regular operation of state agencies with state capital.

CIRCULAR

Guidelines for conducting tender procurement to maintain the regular operations of state agencies with state capital

hoạt động thường xuyên của cơ quan nhà nước bằng vốn nhà nước

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Pursuant to the State Budget Law No. 01/2002/QH11 dated December 16, 2002;

Pursuant to the Law on Bidding No. 61/2005/QH11 dated November 25, 2005;

Pursuant to Clause 5, Article 63 of the Government Decree No. 111/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 29, 2006 guiding the implementation of the Law on Bidding and the selection of construction contractors under the Construction Law;

This Circular guides the implementation of tender procurement to maintain the regular operations of state agencies with state budget funds as follows:

PART I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

I. APPLICABLE OBJECTS

State agencies, public service organizations, public science and technology organizations, units under the people's armed forces, Party organizations of the Communist Party of Vietnam, political and social organizations, occupational and social organizations, and social and occupational organizations (hereinafter referred to as agencies and units) must conduct tender procurement when purchasing assets to maintain regular operations using state capital according to this Circular and relevant laws.

II. SCOPE OF APPLICATION

1. Contents of asset procurement include:

a) Equipment and working tools of agencies and civil servants, officials, and employees as stipulated in Decision No. 170/2006/QĐ-TTg dated July 18, 2006 of the Prime Minister regarding the issuance of standards and quotas for equipment and working tools of agencies and civil servants, officials, and employees of state agencies;

b) Materials, tools, and equipment to ensure regular operations;

c) Machinery and equipment for professional work, ensuring labor safety, fire prevention, and firefighting;

d) Uniform procurement for sectors;

đ) Information technology products including machinery, equipment, accessories, software, and other products, including installation, trial operation, and warranty (if applicable);

e) Transportation means: cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats;

g) Printed products, documents, forms, publications, cultural products, books, films, and other products for propaganda, promotion, and professional work;

h) Maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for machinery and equipment, working tools, leasing transmission lines, consulting services, insurance services, and other leasing services;

i) Industrial property rights and intellectual property rights (if applicable);

k) Other types of assets.

All the above contents of asset procurement shall be referred to as assets hereinafter.

2. Sources of procurement funds include:

a) State budget funds allocated by competent authorities within the annual state budget expenditure plan of agencies and units;

b) Credit guaranteed by the state; other funds managed by the state (if applicable);

c) Assistance and donations from individuals and organizations both domestically and internationally managed by the state (except where required by the donor);

d) Legal revenue from fees and charges as prescribed by law;

đ) Funds from development activity funds and welfare funds of public service organizations and public science and technology organizations;

e) Other lawful sources of revenue as prescribed (if applicable).

III. THIS CIRCULAR DOES NOT APPLY TO

1. Repair, renovation, and expansion of office buildings, workshops, and laboratories;

2. Procurement of materials and equipment related to basic construction investment projects;

3. Procurement of specialized equipment and materials for national defense and security.

PART II

SPECIFIC PROVISIONS

I. AUTHORITY IN TENDERING

1. Authority to decide on asset procurement:

a) Ministers, heads of ministries equivalent to ministries, government agencies, and other central agencies (hereinafter referred to as heads of central agencies), People's Committees at all levels decide on asset procurement for agencies and units under their management according to current regulations.

- Heads of central agencies base on actual conditions issue documents to delegate authority for asset procurement to subordinate agencies and units.

- Provincial People's Committees seek opinions from the People's Councils at the same level before deciding on the delegation of authority for asset procurement to agencies and units under their management according to current regulations.

b) Heads of budgetary units at all levels decide on asset procurement within the scope delegated by higher-level management agencies.

c) Heads of public service organizations decide on asset procurement from development activity funds and welfare funds according to Clause 3, Article 5 of the Government Decree No. 43/2006/NĐ-CP dated April 25, 2006 on the autonomy and responsibility for implementing tasks, organizational structure, staffing, and finance of public service organizations.

d) Heads of public science and technology organizations decide on asset procurement from development activity funds and welfare funds according to Clause 3, Article 8 of the Government Decree No. 115/2005/NĐ-CP dated September 5, 2005 on the self-management and responsibility mechanism of public science and technology organizations and relevant laws.

2. Authority to approve tender plans:

Heads of central agencies; Chairmen of provincial People's Committees; heads of agencies and units authorized to decide on asset procurement as stipulated in Point 1, Section I, Part II of this Circular approve tender plans within their decision-making authority on asset procurement according to regulations.

3. Authority to approve tender invitation documents and approve the results of contractor selection:

Heads of central agencies; Chairmen of provincial People's Committees; heads of agencies and units authorized to decide on asset procurement as stipulated in Point 1, Section I, Part II of this Circular approve or delegate approval authority to lower levels for tender invitation documents and contractor selection results within their decision-making authority on asset procurement according to regulations.

II. TENDER PLAN FOR ASSET PROCUREMENT

1. Basis for preparing the tender plan for asset procurement:

a) Standards and quotas for equipment and working tools of agencies and civil servants, officials, and employees; existing equipment that needs replacement, supplementary purchase, and new procurement to meet work requirements;

b) Asset procurement decisions of competent authorities (as stipulated in Point 1, Section I, Part II of this Circular);

c) Proposals for sector-wide equipment procurement approved by the Prime Minister (if applicable);

d) The budget estimate for state budget expenditure assigned by the competent authority; sources from development funds, welfare funds of public service units, public science and technology organizations; state credit capital that the unit is permitted to borrow according to regulations (if applicable); other lawful funding sources of the agency or unit.

e) The appraisal price notification issued by the price management agency for types of assets required to be appraised according to detailed regulations of the Government implementing certain provisions of the Price Ordinance and related laws.

2. Contents of each tender package in the bidding plan:

The division of asset procurement into tender packages must be based on technical characteristics, implementation sequence, ensuring synchronization in procurement, and reasonable package scale. Each tender package shall have only one bid invitation document and shall be conducted through one bidding process. A tender package shall be implemented under one contract; if the tender package consists of several independent parts, it may be implemented under one or more contracts. The contents of each tender package include:

a) Name of the tender package;

b) Tender package price;

When establishing and determining the price of the tender package in the bid invitation document, the inviting agency or unit should refer to the prices of goods to be purchased from at least five different suppliers in the area to serve as the basis for determining the tender package price.

c) Funding source;

d) Method of selecting contractors and bidding method;

đ) Timeframe for selecting contractors;

e) Contract form;

g) Contract execution period.

3. Submission for approval of the bidding plan:

a) Responsibility for submission:

The head (or department, section, bureau chief) entrusted with the task of asset procurement by the superior agency or unit's head or their own head shall submit the bidding plan for approval by the person authorized to approve the bidding plan as stipulated in Point 2, Section I, Part II of this Circular for review and approval; simultaneously sending it to the organization or department designated for review as stipulated in Section V, Part II of this Circular.

b) Documents for submission:

- The submission document includes:

+ Part detailing completed work related to preparing for the bidding procurement of assets and legal bases for implementation.

+ Part detailing work that cannot apply one of the contractor selection methods specified in Section III, Part II of this Circular.

+ Part detailing the bidding plan including tasks that have formed tender packages to be implemented under one of the contractor selection methods specified in Section III, Part II of this Circular.

- Supporting documents attached to the submission document:

When submitting the bidding plan for asset procurement, copies of documents serving as the basis for establishing the bidding plan as stipulated in Point 1, Section II, Part II of this Circular must be submitted along with the document.

4. Approval of the bidding plan:

After receiving complete documents regarding the bidding plan and the review report, the head of the agency or unit as stipulated in Point 2, Section I, Part II of this Circular shall be responsible for approving the bidding plan as the basis for subordinate units to organize its implementation.

The time limit for approving the bidding plan shall not exceed ten days from the date of receipt of the complete submission report and the review report on the bidding plan.

III. FORMS OF ASSET PROCUREMENT

When implementing asset procurement, heads of agencies and units authorized to decide on procurement may choose one of the procurement forms prescribed below:

1. Open tendering:

Contractor selection in asset procurement as prescribed in Clause 1, Section II, Part I of this Circular must be conducted through open tendering except for cases specified in Points 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Section III, Part II of this Circular.

When conducting open tendering, there is no limit on the number of contractors participating in the tender. If at the tender closing time, fewer than three (three) contractors submit tender documents, the head of the agency or unit entrusted with the task of asset procurement shall report to the competent authority deciding on procurement to consider and decide whether to extend the tender closing time to increase the number of tender documents submitted or to proceed with opening the tender to evaluate the submitted tender documents.

2. Restricted tendering:

Restricted tendering shall be applied in the following cases:

a) At the request of foreign sponsors for the source of funds used for the tender package;

b) Tender packages with high technical requirements or specialized technical requirements, tender packages with research or experimental nature where only a few contractors can meet the requirements of the tender package.

When conducting restricted tendering, at least five (five) contractors determined to have sufficient capacity and experience must be invited to participate in the tender; if there are fewer than five contractors in reality, the head of the agency or unit authorized to decide on procurement shall consider and decide whether to continue organizing restricted tendering or apply another selection method.

3. Direct award:

a) Cases of asset procurement that can apply the direct award method:

- Procurement of goods to address emergencies caused by natural disasters or fires requiring immediate resolution.

- Tender packages due to the requirements of foreign sponsors.

- Tender packages belonging to national secret projects, urgent projects for national interests, energy security decided by the Prime Minister.

- Procurement of goods approved by the Prime Minister for direct award.

- Goods produced solely by one manufacturer with a unified selling price (such as electricity, water...).

- Service consultancy tender packages with a tender package price under 500,000,000 VND (five hundred million VND), asset procurement tender packages within project plans or regular procurement budgets with a tender package price under 100,000,000 VND (one hundred million VND); in cases deemed necessary, the head of the agency or unit authorized to decide on procurement may decide to organize a tender.

b) When implementing direct award, a contractor determined to have sufficient capacity and experience meeting the requirements of the tender package must be selected, and the direct award procedure must be followed.

c) In cases where tender packages fall under emergency situations due to natural disasters or fires that require immediate rectification, the purchasing entity shall report to the competent authority specified in Clause 1, Section I, Part II for permission to implement according to the provisions of Clause 7, Article 35 of Decree No. 111/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 29, 2006 guiding the implementation of the Law on Bidding and the selection of contractors under the Construction Law, but must ensure compliance with relevant regulations regarding the approval of the tender package price.

4. Direct procurement:

Direct procurement may be applied when a contract for a tender package with similar content was signed not more than six months prior.

When conducting direct procurement, the previous contractor selected through bidding may be invited to execute a similar tender package.

Direct procurement may be applied to execute a similar tender package within the same project or another project.

The unit price for contents within a tender package subject to direct procurement shall not exceed the unit price of corresponding contents in a similar tender package previously contracted. In case market prices fluctuate at the time of procurement, making direct procurement inappropriate, a new tender must be organized.

5. Competitive quotation in asset procurement:

Competitive quotation shall be applied in cases meeting the following conditions:

- The tender package has a value below VND 2,000,000,000 (two billion dong);

- The procurement content involves commonly available goods on the market with standardized technical characteristics and equivalent quality.

6. Selection of contractors in special cases:

If it is impossible to select a contractor according to the provisions of Points 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Section III, Part II of this Circular, then the head of central agencies and the Chairpersons of Provincial People's Committees must develop a plan to select contractors ensuring competitive goals and economic efficiency and submit it for consideration and decision by the Prime Minister.

7. For tender packages for asset procurement eligible for the procurement methods stipulated in Points 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Section III, Part II of this Circular, if the agency or entity deems it necessary to organize a tender to ensure management and effective use of state budget funds, they shall conduct the tender as prescribed and report to the competent authority on the results of asset procurement.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF BIDDING

1. The implementation of open bidding and selective bidding for consultancy service tender packages shall be carried out in accordance with Chapter IV of Decree No. 111/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 29, 2006 guiding the implementation of the Law on Bidding and the selection of contractors under the Construction Law.

2. The implementation of open bidding and selective bidding for asset procurement tender packages shall be carried out in accordance with Chapter V of Decree No. 111/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 29, 2006 guiding the implementation of the Law on Bidding and the selection of contractors under the Construction Law.

3. The implementation of other forms of contractor selection shall be carried out in accordance with Chapter VI of Decree No. 111/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 29, 2006 guiding the implementation of the Law on Bidding and the selection of contractors under the Construction Law.

V. REVIEW IN BIDDING

Review in bidding includes: review of bidding plans, review of tender invitation documents, and review of contractor selection results.

1. Reviewing bodies:

a) For asset procurement tender packages within the approval authority of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, the Department of Planning and Investment or the relevant specialized department shall be responsible for reviewing the bidding plan, tender invitation documents, and contractor selection results. The assignment of the review task to the Department of Planning and Investment or the specialized department shall be decided by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

b) For asset procurement tender packages within the approval authority of the head of central agencies, the head of central agencies shall decide the body, organization, or department to undertake the review tasks of the bidding plan, tender invitation documents, and contractor selection results.

c) For asset procurement tender packages where the procurement decision-making authority has been delegated according to the provisions of Point 1, Section I, Part II of this Circular, the head of the agency or entity receiving the delegation shall decide the body, organization, or department to undertake the review tasks of the bidding plan, tender invitation documents, and contractor selection results.

2. Requirements for review:

a) The body, organization, or department assigned to review the bidding plan shall check and evaluate the contents as stipulated in Points 1, 2, and 3 of Section II, Part II of this Circular; prepare a report on the review results based on compliance with Article 65 of the Law on Bidding and submit it to the authorized person to approve the bidding plan as specified in Point 2, Section I, Part II of this Circular.

b) The body, organization, or department assigned to review the tender invitation documents shall check and evaluate the contents as stipulated in Clause 2, Article 14 and Clause 2, Article 21 of Decree No. 111/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 29, 2006 guiding the implementation of the Law on Bidding and the selection of contractors under the Construction Law, and submit it to the authorized person to approve as specified in Point 3, Section I, Part II of this Circular.

c) The body, organization, or department assigned to review the contractor selection results shall check and evaluate the contents as stipulated in Article 59 of Decree No. 111/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 29, 2006 guiding the implementation of the Law on Bidding and the selection of contractors under the Construction Law.

d) For assets requiring high or complex technology, the body, organization, or department reviewing the bidding plan may hire consultants to review aspects such as pricing, technical features, legal basis, and other relevant contents (if any) to ensure the effectiveness of the review process.

3. The maximum review period in bidding is 20 (twenty) days from the date of receipt of complete and valid documents.

VI. SUBMISSION, APPROVAL, AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF CONTRACTOR SELECTION RESULTS

1. Approval of contractor selection results shall be carried out in accordance with Clause 1, Article 39 of the Law on Bidding.

The dossier for reviewing the tender selection results shall be conducted in accordance with Article 58 of Decree No. 111/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 29, 2006, guiding the implementation of the Bidding Law and the selection of construction contractors under the Construction Law.

2. The approval of the tender selection results shall be carried out in accordance with Article 40 of the Bidding Law.

3. Announcing the tender selection results shall be conducted in accordance with Article 41 of the Bidding Law and Clause 3 of Article 19 of Decree No. 111/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 29, 2006, guiding the implementation of the Bidding Law and the selection of construction contractors under the Construction Law.

VII. COSTS IN BIDDING

1. Contents of costs in bidding include:

a) Costs for preparing tender documents and organizing bidding;

b) Expenditure for publishing tender notices (if applicable);

c) Expenditure for hiring reviews (if applicable);

d) Expenditure for the activities of the specialized team;

d) Costs for the Advisory Board to resolve bidders' complaints (if any);

e) Other costs serving bidding;

In cases where consultancy services must be hired during the preparation of tender documents and organization of bidding (consultancy on technology selection; consultancy for analysis and evaluation of tender documents...), if the consultancy cost is less than VND 500,000,000 (five hundred million dong), the agency or unit may implement through direct assignment; If the consultancy cost is VND 500,000,000 (five hundred million dong) or more, it must be implemented through bidding in accordance with regulations.

2. Expenditure levels:

a) Costs for hiring review services, costs for publishing tender notices: according to actual contracts arising.

b) Costs for meetings of specialized teams, costs for meetings to review bidding plans, meetings to review tender documents, meetings to review the results of selecting contractors, meetings of advisory boards, and other expenses: shall be implemented in accordance with current financial expenditure standards.

For contents of costs that do not have specific amounts, agencies and units purchasing assets are permitted to incur costs based on actual occurrences, ensuring reasonableness and legality, and bearing responsibility for such expenditures.

3. Agencies and units organizing asset procurement may collect the following amounts:

a) Revenue from selling tender documents: The tender inviter sells tender documents at a price determined by the head of the agency or unit organizing asset procurement based on the scale and nature of the tender package. For domestic bidding, the price of one set of tender documents shall not exceed VND 1,000,000 (one million dong). For international bidding, it shall be implemented in accordance with international practices.

b) In cases where contractors make complaints about the results of selecting contractors, the inviting agency or unit may collect from the contractor to ensure costs for examining and resolving those complaints. The collection amount is 0.01% of the bid price of the complaining contractor but not less than VND 2,000,000 (two million dong) and not more than VND 30,000,000 (thirty million dong).

c) Revenues from bid guarantees as stipulated in Article 27 of the Bidding Law, and revenues from performance bond guarantees as stipulated in Article 55 of the Bidding Law.

4. Sources of funds to ensure the bidding process:

When organizing asset procurement, agencies and units may use the sources of funds specified in Point 3, Section VII, Part II of this Circular to cover costs for the bidding process and resolving contractors' complaints. In cases where the funds specified in Point 3, Section VII, Part II of this Circular are insufficient to cover the bidding process costs, the agency or unit may use its own regular operating funds to make up the difference. Any surplus can be supplemented to the agency's or unit's operating funds.

PART III

IMPLEMENTATION

1. This Circular shall take effect fifteen days after its publication in the Official Gazette and shall replace Circular No. 121/2000/TT-BTC dated December 29, 2000, issued by the Ministry of Finance.

2. For national reserve goods procurement, this Circular shall apply except where otherwise provided by competent authorities.

3. For drug supply in public health facilities, separate guidance shall be followed as directed by the Joint Circular of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance.

4. Matters not covered in this Circular shall be implemented in accordance with the Bidding Law and the provisions of Decree No. 111/2006/NĐ-CP dated September 29, 2006, guiding the implementation of the Bidding Law and the selection of construction contractors under the Construction Law.

5. During implementation, if there are any difficulties, agencies and units are requested to report to the Ministry of Finance for research and resolution./.