Prohibited acts in bidding activities

Businesses and business owners should be aware of prohibited acts in bidding activities to avoid criminal liability, including:

1. Offering, receiving, or mediating bribes.
2. Abusing positions or powers to unlawfully influence or interfere in bidding activities in any form.
3. Collusive bidding (“bid rigging”), including:
   a) Arranging, agreeing, or coercing one or more parties to submit or withdraw bids to ensure a particular party wins;
   b) Arranging or agreeing to refuse providing goods or services, not signing subcontract agreements, or other agreements to restrict competition so that one party wins;
   c) Contractors or investors with sufficient capacity and experience intentionally withholding documents proving their capacity or experience when requested by the bidding entity to facilitate another party’s winning.
4. Fraud, including:
   a) Falsifying or altering information, documents, or materials in bidding;
   b) Intentionally providing untruthful or biased information or documents in expressions of interest, pre-qualification documents, project registration dossiers, bid documents, or proposals to manipulate selection results.
5. Obstruction, including:
   a) Destroying, falsifying, concealing evidence, making false reports, or threatening/suggesting actions to prevent the detection of bribery, fraud, or collusion by competent authorities;
   b) Obstructing competent authorities, project owners, bidders, or investors in the selection process;
   c) Obstructing supervision, inspection, auditing, or examination of bidding activities;
   d) Making false complaints or denunciations to hinder bidding activities;
   e) Violating laws on cybersecurity to interfere with or obstruct online bidding.
6. Failure to ensure fairness and transparency, including:
   a) Participating as a bidder or investor in a project where one acts as the procuring entity in violation of the 2023 Bidding Law;
   b) Participating in both the preparation and evaluation of bidding documents for the same project;
   c) Participating in both bid evaluation and selection of contractors or investors for the same project;
   d) Procurement officials or project owners participating in contractor selection where relatives are bidders, creating conflicts of interest;
   e) Bidders participating in procurement packages for goods, construction, or consultancy where they themselves provide consulting services related to that package;
   g) Supervisory contractors performing inspection services for the same package they supervise;
   h) Using non-competitive procurement methods when conditions for such methods are not met;
   i) Specifying brands or origin of goods inappropriately;
   k) Imposing requirements to restrict participation or create advantages for certain bidders;
   l) Splitting projects or procurement estimates to assign contracts directly or limit competition.
7. Disclosure of confidential documents or information regarding bidder or investor selection, except as allowed under the 2023 Bidding Law, including:
   a) Content of expressions of interest, pre-qualification, and bid documents before official release;
   b) Documents, clarifications, responses, and evaluation reports before public disclosure;
   c) Results of contractor or investor selection before public disclosure;
   d) Other documents considered state secrets under law.
8. Illegal subcontracting or transfer of contracts, including:
   a) Transferring work beyond the maximum value designated for subcontractors without approval;
   b) Transferring work within subcontract limits but beyond approved scope without consent;
   c-d) Cases where approval is given but exceeds allowable limits.
9. Organizing contractor selection without identified funding, contrary to Article 39(3) of the 2023 Bidding Law.

Criminal liability under the 2015 Penal Code for serious consequences in bidding violations:

1. Performing any prohibited acts causing damage from VND 100,000,000 to under VND 300,000,000, or under VND 100,000,000 but previously disciplined or fined, may result in:
   • Non-custodial reform up to 3 years, or
   • Imprisonment from 1 to 5 years, including acts of: illegal interference, collusion, fraud, obstruction, unfairness, selecting contractors without confirmed funding, illegal transfer of contracts.
2. If committed under aggravating circumstances (for profit, organized, abusing position, sophisticated schemes, or causing damage VND 300,000,000 to under 1 billion), imprisonment is 3–12 years.
3. Causing damage of 1 billion VND or more results in imprisonment of 10–20 years.
4. Convicted persons may also be prohibited from holding certain positions for 1–5 years or have part/all assets confiscated.

Legal basis:

• Article 16, Bidding Law 2023
• Article 222, Penal Code 2015
• Point k, Clause 1, Article 2, Law amending and supplementing certain articles of the Penal Code 2017.