What happened to the billion-dollar road project with a fraudulent contractor?

On November 2, information from the People's Committee of Luong Son district confirmed that the unit had issued a decision to ban bidding for 3 years in construction investment projects using state budget capital managed by agencies, departments, branches, People's Committees of communes and towns in Luong Son district, organizing the selection of contractors for Nguyen Ha Company Limited (address in Hoa Son commune, Luong Son district).

Explaining the reason, this unit said that this contractor intentionally provided dishonest information and documents in the bidding documents for the Construction Package of the project to renovate and upgrade the traffic roads in Hoa Son commune.

This behavior violated the provisions of Point b Clause 4 Article 16 of the Law on Bidding 2023.

Previously, on June 21, 2024, the joint venture of Nguyen Ha Company Limited - Thu Hang Invest Company Limited was approved by the Luong Son District Construction Investment Project Management Board to win the Construction Package for the project to renovate and upgrade the traffic road in Hoa Son commune, Luong Son district with a winning bid price of VND 13,828 billion (bid package price of VND 13,852 billion, discount of 0.2%).

Contract implementation period is 540 days, lump sum contract type. This is also the only contractor to submit a bid.

After realizing the violations in bidding regulations of Nguyen Ha Company Limited, the Luong Son District Project Management Board requested to stop all construction for this unit.

In early November, when present at the above mentioned route, according to the reporter's records, the route has been constructed for about 500m, mainly constructing longitudinal ditches and widening the road. The project starts at Dong Quyt Cultural House, and ends at the intersection with Dong Bai Hamlet Road (Hoa Son Commune).

Informing reporters, Mr. Nguyen Tien Viet - Director of the Luong Son District Construction Investment Project Management Board - said: "During the contract implementation process, the investor discovered that Nguyen Ha Company Limited had forged the contract and falsified its capacity to win the bid. In essence, the contractor did not have enough capacity to undertake the work that had been won. Currently, the entire Construction Package for the renovation and upgrading of Hoa Son Commune's traffic roads has been terminated."

According to Mr. Viet, the unit is re-counting the volume of work performed by Nguyen Ha Company Limited but there are no specific figures yet. Along with that, the disbursement for this bid package has not been made yet.

"The Luong Son District Construction Investment Project Management Board will also conduct bidding for a new project as soon as possible," Mr. Viet informed.