Enterprises bidding simultaneously speak up
The medical equipment supply package under the Medical Equipment Supply Project for Quy Nhon City Medical Center (Binh Dinh Province), using preferential loans from the Korean Government, worth more than 57 billion VND, has the investor and the bidder being the Department of Health of Binh Dinh Province. The bidding form is not online.
The bid opening date is December 2024. However, after many months of bidding, on April 1, 2025, the Department of Health of Binh Dinh province issued a decision to cancel this package with the reason: The technical proposal documents of all participating contractors did not meet the requirements of the bidding documents (HSMT).
Notably, before the above conclusion, the bidding process had a series of recommendations and reactions from consortia related to HSMT's technical requirements, the results of the evaluation of bidding documents or the application of relevant legal regulations.
Among them, it is possible to mention the petitions of An Khang Joint Venture including: Apro Korea Inc., (head member of the joint venture) headquartered in Korea and Khang Duy Pharmaceutical Company Limited; MD joint venture (with the participation of Meditronic Joint Stock Company) or the petition of Hoang Long Equipment Company Limited (headquartered in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City).
According to the contractors' recommendations, there are at least 12 devices in the required list that are only suitable for the products of one manufacturer, reducing competitiveness and violating the principle of fair bidding.
Typically, the An Khang consortium said that some equipment with cau hinh in HSMT such as machine No. 1 - Heart V fire breaker only available from Mediana, Model: D700, originally from Korea; machine No. 19 - Anesthesia with ventilation only available from Mindray, Model: WATO EX-35, originally from China; device No. 28 - Surgery X- Quang System (C-ARM) with DSA software only available from Genoray, Korea, ... and other equipment that contractors mentioned in the recommendation on the national bidding network system.
Meanwhile, the MD consortium also stated in the petition that: "The 19, 28, and 35 configurations in HSMT are based on models of brands that are not widely used in large hospitals in Vietnam. Because these are very important medical equipment for patients, we welcome the configcation of the prestigious GE Health Care manufacturer with a higher overall configuration as well as more advanced technology currently commonly used in large hospitals".
Another bidder, Hoang Long Equipment Company Limited, also made a recommendation to clarify HSMT's technical evaluation criteria, stating the view: "In case only one manufacturing company meets all the required formats, it will violate the bidding regulations, which must have at least 2 companies meeting. Request investors to clearly define specific and transparent criteria to ensure competitiveness and compliance with regulations".
Bidding marking criteria are unclearly reflected
According to Lao Dong reporter's investigation, after receiving recommendations from contractors, the Department of Health of Binh Dinh province in document No. 5114/SYT-KHTC dated December 10, 2024 responded to the information that the Scientific and Technical Council of Quy Nhon City Medical Center had inspected, reviewed and reported that some equipment had at least 2 or more manufacturers " basically" meeting the requirements for technical specifications of the equipment mentioned in HSMT.
This answer sparked many reactions from contractors. The An Khang consortium said that the technical assessment criteria in general HSMT are unclear when requiring "contractors to offer equivalent or higher configurations" (meaning 100% of equipment configurations must be equivalent or higher, not "basically" meet)
This contractor has sent a document to the investor requesting clarification of what the "basic" criteria are, which must be clearly stated and there must be a specific scoreboard for each technical configuration (if using the scoring method) according to the Bidding Law. If there are no specific criteria for bidding, it will lead to no basis and subjectivity when evaluating bidding documents.
Many questions are raised around the scandal of a medical equipment procurement package. With the selection of a contractor not yet available, some opinions in the matter said that the Project to Supply Medical Equipment for Quy Nhon City Medical Center is at risk of being behind schedule, causing waste of foreign preferential loans.
