Current Status of International Bidding for Goods Procurement in Some Countries

In particular, the policy on staff in the bidding field is not given due attention, which will create a mechanism for corruption to develop. The basic reason is that the staff in charge of bidding at all levels and sectors are weak in capacity and lack knowledge. Meanwhile, the majority of officials with positions and power take advantage of their positions to illegally exploit and use state money. The situation of groups, cliques, and factions to monopolize bidding activities is increasingly common. Competent staff are suppressed and have no opportunity to develop. Given the above situation, the policy of using and attracting talent is an issue that needs to be considered in the coming time.

Finally, policies on contractor priority, eligible contractors, regulations on bid evaluation procedures , etc. also have many shortcomings. These are barriers that cause difficulties in bidding in general and international competitive bidding in particular. These shortcomings have created conditions for negative behaviors in society to develop. Therefore, the regulation of bidding policies must ensure healthy competition in the commodity economy, but must not ignore the State's management capacity and orientation for bidding activities.

3.3. CURRENT STATUS OF APPLYING INTERNATIONAL BIDDING FOR PROCUREMENT OF GOODS IN SOME COUNTRIES

3.3.1. Current status of implementation of the Bidding Law in China

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China's economy, political system, and social environment have many characteristics similar to Vietnam's. This is also the basis for Vietnam to refer to in the process of implementing bidding laws:

Bidding management hierarchy: perhaps due to the nature of being a large country, bidding management in China is decentralized as follows:

+ The State Planning and Development Committee is the focal agency to assist the Government in managing bidding in the field of construction works, including presiding over the drafting of the Law on Bidding currently in effect. This agency is also responsible for participating in and coordinating with other agencies and competent authorities.

of the National Assembly in the development and compilation of the Law on Government Procurement. The Planning and Development Committee is also the agency in charge of appraising the bidding results of large packages of construction projects whose investment policies have been approved by the National Assembly.

+ The Ministry of Finance is the agency in charge of drafting documents guiding regular procurement for administrative agencies (using state budget sources) nationwide. Ministries and localities (provinces and districts) guide implementation in their specific situations, but must not violate the law and instructions of the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance is also responsible for appraising bidding results according to decentralization.

+ The Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Foreign Trade is in charge of policy making and drafting guiding documents on bidding for the procurement of electrical and electronic equipment; managing import and export, and appraising bidding results for procurement packages for electronic and electrical equipment according to decentralization.

+ The State Economic and Trade Commission is in charge of formulating policies and drafting guidelines on bidding for projects of enterprises. This Commission is responsible for managing bidding for state-owned enterprises at the macro level, aiming to create fairness, resolve violations, strengthen institutions, etc.

+ Localities shall base on the Law on Bidding and guiding documents of specialized ministries to guide the implementation of bidding work in their localities, with the principle that it must not be contrary to the law and guiding Decrees.

Thus, it can be seen that the management of bidding in China does not follow the model of only one agency but involves the participation of many related agencies with appropriate tasks for each procurement field. This is also a model that is unique to China. The regulation that the Ministry of Finance appraises bidding results is also a new point compared to Vietnam. While we stipulate that the Ministry of Planning and Investment has the responsibility to appraise

Determine the bidding results of group A projects and delegate to other ministries and branches to appraise the remaining projects.

Eligibility of state-owned enterprise contractors: Since the 1980s, when China implemented state-owned enterprise reform, they were independent from the management of ministries and branches, in accordance with the market mechanism. Therefore, they are eligible to participate in bidding for packages using international funding sources (WB, ADB). This is a valuable experience in creating the eligibility of contractors to ensure compliance with the requirements of the sponsor's bidding regulations.

Procurement bidding of state-owned enterprises funded by the state: The procurement of these enterprises is guided by the State Trade and Economic Commission according to the principle that enterprises decide for themselves and are responsible for the procurement results on the basis of ensuring competition, fairness, transparency and economic efficiency. The procurement bidding of these enterprises is separate from the procurement bidding of the Government.

Publicity in bidding: In China, websites have been established to post bidding information such as: nationwide invitations to bid, results of bid evaluation (summary) and recommendations from the Buyer on the expected winning bidder. Immediately after the bid evaluation results are sent to the appraisal agency, they are also posted online to create an information base for participating bidders to have questions (the time to raise questions is 14 days). The Information Technology Company is responsible for this work. Through the network, access and online transactions are allowed. The turnover of online transactions reaches 5.1 billion USD/year. Every day, on average, about 200 domestic and international bidding information is updated online, with the following content: Customers have their own code to access; information is posted and provided free of charge; bidding results.

Bidding agency: Before the promulgation of the Bidding Law (2000), China had consulting companies working as bidding agents. In some cases, investors do not have enough experience, capacity and knowledge about bidding (for example, when non-professional investors are formed due to the investment needs of agencies and enterprises), investors sign contracts with bidding agents for this organization to carry out bidding, including: preparing bidding documents, announcing bidding, organizing pre-bidding conferences, organizing bid openings, and evaluating bids. This is a model that is being replicated in China with the cost for bidding agents being about 1-1.5% of the purchase value. With this form, professionalism in bidding is enhanced and therefore, the implementation time is faster, while ensuring higher implementation efficiency.

3.3.2. Current status of implementation of the Korean Bidding Law

Korea has a specialized organization specializing in bidding, abbreviated as SAROK (Supply Administration the Republic Of Korea), which carries out procurement worth tens of billions of USD/year. Thanks to this concentration, SAROK has become a professional agency in procurement to implement large projects in Korea. Only for small-value procurement contents are delegated to competent agencies outside SAROK. In order to have enough facilities to carry out the task, every year, the Korean Government allocates a certain budget for SAROK to improve the capacity of organizing bidding and especially in forming a center for quality inspection of contracts after bidding. Most goods are inspected for quality, technical specifications, durability, performance, etc. in accordance with the signed contract, before they are distributed to the using units. Thanks to these measures, the quality of goods after bidding has been guaranteed, avoiding the situation where contractors do not perform according to the commitments in the bidding documents and signed contracts. Specialization has created purchasing capacity which is extremely important and indispensable to ensure the effectiveness of bidding.

3.3.3. Current status of law enforcement on bidding in Poland

Poland applies a fairly standard form of procurement management. The Public Procurement Office (PPO) is under the Prime Minister. This agency is responsible for state management of procurement, and this function is specified in detail in the Public Procurement Law passed by the National Assembly. In addition to researching and drafting bills and legal regulations, the PPO has the authority to consider and decide on cases not specified in the Public Procurement Law. For example, the PPO is authorized to allow the application of the form of selecting contractors through open bidding for procurement packages with a value greater than 200,000 EURO. The PPO is also responsible for publishing leaflets specifically posting information on procurement. Accordingly, domestic open tenders with a value of more than 30,000 EU are published on this leaflet. On average, up to 70,000 tender announcements and winning bids are published on this leaflet every year, with a circulation of 1,000 copies. This is one of the forms of creating publicity in Polish bidding activities. Through this, bidders have the opportunity to grasp information and people can monitor bidding activities nationwide. In addition, the PPO is also responsible for participating in the process of reviewing and handling complaints in bidding.

Regarding complaint settlement: Complaints about bidding results are a common phenomenon in any country. In this regard, Poland has stipulated measures in the Public Procurement Law and these measures are considered positive, effective and have become a model for many countries to follow. According to Polish regulations, the handling of contractor complaints is carried out as follows:

+ Each party (the complaining contractor, the Inviting Party and the State Bidding Administration - PPO) has the right to appoint an arbitrator to represent it. The appointed arbitrator must be on the list of 640 arbitrators who have passed the examination and have been granted an arbitration practice certificate by the Government.

+ The complainant must pay a sum of money (about 700 USD) to cover the activities of the 3-member arbitration panel mentioned above.

+ Within no more than 2 weeks, the arbitration panel will decide who wins. If the contractor's complaint is correct, the buyer must compensate the contractor for the costs incurred. If the contractor's complaint is incorrect, the contractor must lose the amount paid in advance. Using arbitration when an incident occurs, as in Poland, is very convenient. For the 640 arbitrators allowed to participate in resolving complaints, they are normally officers and employees, and only when appointed do they act as arbitrators. This form creates flexibility, reduces costs and time required compared to resolving through the court.

Training of staff doing bidding work.

Realizing that people play a key role in all social activities, including bidding activities, Poland pays due attention to the training of bidding staff. In addition to PPO training, Poland has a bidding training system consisting of bidding training centers and schools, including private sector establishments. With different training periods from 2 weeks to several months, both domestic and foreign teachers. Most bidding staff have in-depth knowledge in this field. In addition, the legal knowledge through additional law degrees of project staff has helped the implementation of the Public Procurement Law in Poland achieve significant achievements. In summary, through the bidding regulations of Poland, the main contents of concern are:

+ Maximum disclosure of bidding information from bidding notices, bidding results and other information. This is an effective form of coordination to minimize negative bidding behaviors, which are a common phenomenon in any bidding.

+ The responsibilities of each unit and individual are clearly defined during the implementation process; there is no direct intervention by state management agencies in the process of selecting contractors or in the process of handling complaints. Everyone is responsible for complying with the Law on Public Procurement and anyone who violates the Law shall be punished.

Violators will be dealt with according to predetermined sanctions. This makes bidding activities more orderly, quick, and handling situations simpler.

+ Minimize non-competitive forms of contractor selection to ensure high efficiency in procurement.

+ Train a team of professionals with sufficient capacity to enforce the provisions of the public procurement law.

Thus, the regulations and guidelines on bidding in countries and international donors are very diverse. The same content is mentioned, but each country and each organization has different detailed regulations. At the same time, there are many new regulations, specific to the characteristics of each subject. To meet this requirement, the UNCITRAL Model Law on Bidding has 57 articles, some of which are also left blank, with instructions for each article, so that each country can supplement and expand them appropriately according to its own conditions. Therefore, the lessons learned are very rich. Within the scope of the research topic, the author would like to present only the most basic contents, the profound lessons that are considered useful for the research objectives. The lessons learned are mainly through the bidding regulations of a number of countries, including the following noteworthy contents:

+ Maximum disclosure of bidding information from bidding notices, bidding results and other information. This is an effective way to minimize negative behaviors in bidding.

+ The responsibilities of each unit and individual are clearly defined during the implementation process; there is no direct intervention by State management agencies in the process of selecting contractors and in the process of handling complaints. Everyone is responsible for complying with the Law on Public Procurement and anyone who violates will be handled according to predetermined sanctions. This makes bidding activities orderly, quick, and handling situations simple.

+ Minimize non-competitive forms of contractor selection to ensure high efficiency in procurement.

+ Train a professional team with sufficient capacity to enforce the provisions of the public procurement law.

Through the survey of bidding in some countries mentioned above, the following lessons can be drawn for Vietnam:

- First : Thoroughly grasp the objective economic laws in the market economy; build a system of legal regulations on bidding with a high level of consistency. The content of the regulations must ensure the principles of objectivity, fairness and transparency. At the same time, the regulations must be clear and specific to ensure that everyone can use them, avoiding to the maximum extent the intervention of state administrative management agencies in the selection of contractors and contract awarding, as well as handling questions and complaints (if any).

- Second : Focus on training and only use staff and experts who meet the practical requirements for bidding management. In parallel with the process of administrative reform, it is necessary to boldly remove from the state management apparatus on bidding those individuals who do not have enough professional knowledge or do not meet the requirements on moral qualities. There are strict measures and sanctions for bidding management staff who commit corrupt acts.

3.4. IMPROVING CURRENT BIDDING LAW

3.4.1. The urgency of having a complete Bidding Law system

The study and promulgation of the Law on Bidding is an urgent requirement to contribute to strengthening project management, overcoming existing problems to bring about higher efficiency in the use of the country's limited financial resources, and also stemming from the following reasons [21]:

(i) The policy of promulgating highly legal laws on bidding was passed by the National Assembly many years ago, in line with the National Assembly's orientation on legalizing regulations and requirements for international integration.;

(ii) The promulgation of the Law on Bidding will create uniformity in regulations regarding the spending and use of State capital.

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