Business sues bank
Lao Dong Newspaper received a petition from Huy Hoang Design and Construction Services Joint Stock Company (address: 187 Truong Chinh, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi) reflecting that SeABank Quang Nam had violated its payment obligations and failed to cooperate with customers.
Accordingly, on February 1, 2024, Huy Hoang Company signed a contract with the joint venture of Nhat Phat 18 Construction & Trading Company Limited - Hung Phuc An Construction Joint Stock Company (Hung Phuc An is the representative) to construct the package: Construction of section Km655+285.04 + Km674+556.65 (including survey and TKBVTC) of the Bung - Van Ninh section component project of the North - South Expressway Construction Project, Eastern phase 2021-2025.
Based on the signed contract, on February 29, 2024, SeABank Quang Nam issued 2 letters of guarantee to "guarantee the obligation to repay the contract advance payment" of 3.6 billion VND and "guarantee the contract performance" of 726.6 million VND.
"After signing, we transferred 3.6 billion VND in advance to the contractor through an account opened at SeABank Quang Nam. The bank's role is like an arbitrator. If the contractor does the right thing, they will disburse. If not, it must be returned.
The remaining 726.6 million VND is the amount of money the bank guarantees for the contractor's responsibility. If the contractor performs the contract correctly, that's fine. If not, it will have to compensate the contracting party for that amount.
The contractor's failure to perform the contract, in addition to causing losses in time and money, also damages our reputation and honor," explained a representative of Huy Hoang Company.
The longer you wait, the less money you get.
According to the complaint, during the construction process, Nhat Phat 18 - Hung Phuc An Joint Venture repeatedly committed violations but was unwilling to correct or repair them, leading to conflicts between the parties.
On May 3, 2024, Hung Phuc An Company sent a document requesting to stop construction and transfer all remaining work to Nhat Phat 18. Hung Phuc An also requested Huy Hoang to liquidate the contract with the joint venture; and carry out procedures to cancel the guarantee certificates.
Therefore, on August 1, 2024, Huy Hoang Company worked with the bank, provided documents and requested to perform guarantee obligations including the advanced amount (minus the actual volume of work performed by the joint venture) and the amount committed to perform the contract.
Although both guarantee certificates clearly state that "SeABank Quang Nam commits to unconditionally and irrevocably pay the contractor the amount (guaranteed) within 5 working days from the date of receipt of the contractor's request and without any conditions", it was not until September 4, 2024 that SeABank Quang Nam issued a notice requesting the performance of the guarantee obligation to the representative of the contractor consortium, Hung Phuc An Company.
According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Minh Quan - Chairman of Huy Hoang Company, after the bank announced, his whole company was very happy, but things still did not progress, the money was still not paid.
Too frustrated, on October 4, 2024, Mr. Nguyen Huu Minh Quan continued to send a document to SeABank Quang Nam requesting to fulfill the guarantee obligation, with the total amount of 2 installments being: 2,396 billion VND (minus the volume performed by the joint venture). But until now (October 16), the bank has remained silent.
"The incident has caused the company to suffer a lot of financial damage as well as serious loss of reputation with the investor, leading to the company having to cut some items due to slow progress," Mr. Quan was indignant.
Regarding this incident, in early October 2024, Lao Dong Newspaper contacted Mr. Pham Quoc Hau - Director of SeABank Quang Nam many times by phone, text message and text to seek information, but Mr. Hau refused to respond.
According to lawyer Nguyen Danh Hue - Hung Dong Law Company Limited (Hanoi Bar Association), in the above case, SeABank Quang Nam is the "reputable unit" chosen by both parties to stand as guarantor.
Lawyer Hue analyzed: The amount of 3.6 billion VND "guaranteeing the obligation to repay the contract advance payment" is the amount of money that Huy Hoang transferred to SeABank Quang Nam's account, this is clear. Subtracting the actual amount of money that the joint venture withdrew for construction, the remaining amount is still Huy Hoang's money.
As for the amount of 726.6 million VND "guaranteeing the performance of the contract", if it is not cash transferred by the consortium, it will also be some asset of the consortium that the bank is holding to guarantee the above amount.
Obviously in both cases, the money was voluntarily transferred by the parties, not by the bank. Therefore, when problems arise, SeABank Quang Nam needs to properly fulfill its guarantee responsibility.
The fact that SeABank Quang Nam is trying to delay shows signs of abnormality, which need to be clarified by the authorities to avoid causing further losses to businesses during the current difficult period.
