Construction

Capacity profile fraud

Recently, the Education and Times newspaper received feedback from readers about the serious violations of the Bidding Law in Package 12: Construction, supply and installation of equipment for the whole project (except for the part of Package 13) belonging to the project of headquarters of the People’s Court of Ha Dong District.

Bidding package is procured by Hanoi Civil and Industrial Construction Investment Project Management Board.

The decision on contractor selection is signed by the leader of the Hanoi Civil and Industrial Project Management Board to select the contractor to execute the bidding package.

The person who signed the Decision is Mr. Luong Thanh Phong – Deputy Director of Hanoi Civil and Industrial Project Management Board.

According to readers, on December 18, 2020, the Management Board of Hanoi’s civil and industrial construction investment projects had Decision No. 354 / QD-BQLDADD & CN approving the selection results. Select the contractor of Package 12: Construction, supply and installation of equipment for the whole project (except for the part of package 13) belonging to the head office project of the People’s Court of Ha Dong district.

Accordingly, CID HOLDINGS Joint Stock Company is the winning bidder, the bidding package price is VND 27,607,384,000; Winning bid price is: 27,468,439,000 VND, contract execution time is: 355 days, the form of contractor selection for this package is public bidding.

However, in the finalization of corporate income tax at the Tax Department of Nam Tu Liem district, CID HOLDINGS Joint Stock Company (tax code 0107005836), is located on the 22nd floor of Vinaconex 9 Building, Lot HH2-2 Pham Hung Street, Me Tri Ward, Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi City in 3 years (2017-2018-2019) only achieved an average annual revenue of 26.9 billion VND.

Specifically, in 2017, the company’s revenue was only 213,539,301 VND; in 2018 was 39,499,342,800 VND; in 2019 it is 41,216,509,132 dong.

Under the guidance in Circular No. 03/2015 / TT-BKHDT and as required by the bidding documents issued by the Management Board of civil and industrial construction projects of Hanoi City in Section 2.2 of The evaluation criteria table of competence and experience clearly states that the minimum annual average revenue of an enterprise must reach 42 billion (the minimum average revenue meets the requirements of the bidding documents).

The elephant goes through … the pinhole

Thus, with an average revenue of only 26.9 billion in the last 3 years, it is clear that CID HOLDINGS Joint Stock Company is not eligible to bid. And should be, the bid of CID HOLDINGS Joint Stock Company must be the agency responsible for detecting the above fraud and removed from the beginning, but it is not clear how, this unit is still allowed to attend. bid review and bid winner !?

In addition, in Section 3 of the Criteria for Evaluation of Competency and Experience, there is a requirement that the minimum number of similar contracts must be equal to 3 or different from 3, at least one contract with a minimum value of 20,000. .000.000 VND and total value of all contracts ≥ 60.000.000.000 VND from 1/10/2017 up to the time of bid closing.

It is known that in the past 5 years, CID HOLDINGS Joint Stock Company has been announced to win 4 bidding packages, all of which have low value, including: Package 3 Supply and transportation of VTTB and accessories (winning price is 2 , 7 billion VND; won the bid on May 3, 2019) invited by the Central Region Power Project Management Board; Package No. 03: Construction of the project of Quynh Bao Commune Medical Station, Quynh Phu District, Thai Binh Province (winning bid price is 5.08 billion VND; Winning the bid on 2/2/2020)….

Due to the above-mentioned irregularities, readers suspect that the leaders of CID HOLDINGS Joint Stock Company have falsified the documents to bid and win the bid.

The fact that CID HOLDINGS Joint Stock Company does not meet the financial criteria but still wins the bid, causing public opinion to question: Is the investor deliberately “creating conditions” for CID HOLDINGS Joint Stock Company to win? Bid?

With the manifestations of fraud and violation of the Bidding Law of CID HOLDINGS Joint Stock Company that has been mentioned by the public, the leaders of the Hanoi People’s Committee are requested to direct relevant agencies to enter, investigate, and clarify early. and strictly handle violations according to law provisions (if any).

Northern flow 2: Germany receives a request for a building permit, President Biden falls into a ‘dilemma’. (Source: The Brussels Times)

The website Tagesspiegel.de recently published an article titled “A guaranteed gas supply even without the Northern Stream 2 project”.

Accordingly, the Northern Flow 2 gas pipeline project not only supplies gas to Germany and the European Union (EU) but also has strategic implications for the transition of energy, the environment and political geography.

Once again, this has become a central issue in the context of Russia increasing its military forces on the Ukrainian border and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin making his first visit to Germany.

The question is, is this piping system really necessary? What would the consequences be if the pipeline didn’t go into service?

The opinions are mixed

Experts have many different opinions. Some people, like Jens Hobohm from Prognos Institute for Economic Research (Germany), believe that Northern Flow 2 from an energy point of view is necessary and meaningful.

In contrast, expert Claudia Kemfert from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) argues that the answer is “definitely not”.

According to Kemfert, it is not necessary to have any additional infrastructure for the transportation of natural gas from Russia. In addition, the plan to increase natural gas consumption will conflict with the discussed and agreed climate protection goals.

This expert said that there would be no serious problems if the Northern Flow 2 could not be completed and put into operation. If gas from Russia cannot reach Germany through this pipeline system, Germany and Europe will find other energy solutions.

In this regard, new US President Joe Biden has stated that, like his predecessor, Donald Trump, he wants to prevent the completion of the project through the threat of punishing companies involved in the project. .

Still many EU partners believe that, with the assistance of the Northern Flow 2, Germany is acting against the common interests of Europe.

Chairman of the European People’s Party (EPP) group at the European Parliament Manfred Weber said that the Northern Flow 2 project “will definitely not be feasible” if Russian President Vladimir Putin lets the conflict in the region. East Ukraine escalated.

Will the gas supply be at risk then? To answer this question, the forecasts of the amount of gas that Germany and Europe will need in the coming years are central.

From the outset, critics accused the conglomerates that built the pipeline project “inflated” the data on German and European gas demand, making the project indispensable. and completely overwhelmed the opposition.

However, Jens Hobohm believes that this criticism holds true only in previous years, but in recent years, gas consumption in Germany and Europe has increased more than expected due to the need for natural gas. as a bridge for energy transitions.

When countries like Germany give up nuclear power, Poland reduces its dependence on coal, while solar and wind energy are still unable to meet demand, gas is the optimal solution.

According to a study by the Prognos Research Institute, in 2014, the EU consumed 400 billion cubic meters of gas; in 2015, the figure was 419 billion cubic meters and in 2019 it was 470 billion cubic meters.

Consumption figures for 2020 have not been specifically calculated, but according to expert Hobohm, this number is expected to decrease due to the impact of the epidemic of acute respiratory infections Covid-19.

In Germany alone, gas consumption will also increase from 77 billion cubic meters in 2015 to 89 billion cubic meters in 2019, while in 2020 this figure will decrease by about 2.5 percent.

Is that a compelling argument for the construction of the Northern Flow 2 project or would the existing pipes be enough to meet demand?

Is the project really necessary?

If we compare the gas consumption figures for 2019 to 2006, when the first Northern Flow system was planned to be constructed, it can be seen that the consumption volume has never been as high as it was before. Meanwhile, the project construction consortium insists that pipelines are needed as gas consumption will increase continuously. In fact, in 2006, Germany consumed 92 billion cubic meters of gas, while in the EU it was 511 billion cubic meters.

Hobohm adds that Europe’s gas imports from outside Europe depend on how much the continent can produce and to what extent can it meet its own demand?

Currently, the amount of gas produced internally has decreased, partly due to the Netherlands cutting production share faster than planned.

The key point now, experts say, is that the Northern Flow 2 project is still under construction. And Europe has no problems with gas supplies. Whether this project can go into operation or not and never work is an open question.

The later this pipeline is completed, the less necessary it is to be, as the role of natural gas will decline more and more.

Along with that, security policy risks are also very concerned.

First, it is due to the dependence of Europe and Germany on gas from a Russia.

Second, additional risks come from this project because the pipeline runs from Russia through the Baltic Sea and then directly to Germany, not through intermediate states such as Ukraine, Belarus and Poland.

Critics of the project raise two questionable issues.

FirstlyMr. Putin wants free hands to implement his policies with neighboring countries without being afraid to depend on them (when gas exports no longer have to pass through these countries).

Monday, the operation of the Northern Flow 2 system leads to a decrease in the amount of gas flowing through the existing pipes, thereby reducing Ukraine’s income from allowing gas from Russia to transit through its territory. .

The national budget of Kiev will be more than 2 billion euros. Then, the pressure on the EU to increase its aid to Ukraine will grow.