New e-Government procurement system officially comes into operation on September 16

The new e-Government procurement system (e-GP) has officially come into operation from September 16, 2022 at https://muasamcong.mpi.gov.vn/. The system features many changes and breakthroughs, runs on multiple browsers and allows consistent management of bidding information as well as performance of online bidding, on the basis of ensuring safety and competition, fairness, transparency, budget efficiency, aiming towards development of digital society.

The new e-GP system has been developed as part of the project on “Adoption of e-commerce in government procurement” in the form of public-private partnership (PPP). The project is directed by the Vietnam Ministry of Planning and Investment and assigned to the Procurement Management Department, in coordination with FPT Information System Corporation (FPT IS) as the Investor and Investment and Development of National E-Procurement System (IDNES) Co., Ltd. as the project implementation company. The system officially comes into operation on September 16, 2022.

Accordingly, from September 16, 2022, companies and organizations need to upload plans, projects, bid invitation and contractor selection announcement on the new e-GP system, in accordance with regulations of Circular 08/2022/TT-BKHDT dated May 31, 2022 and Circular 10/2022/TT-BKHDT dated June 15, 2022. Bidding packages that have issued bidding documents before September 16, 2022 on existing e-GP system (using Internet Explorer browser) will continue to perform contractor selection on such system at https://muasamcong.mpi.gov.vn/. Specifically:

For bidding packages approved to perform online contractor selection and prepare electronic bidding documents (E-HSMT) in accordance with the regulations of Circular No. 04/2017/TT-BKHDT, Circular No. 05/2020/TT-BKHDT:

a) For bidding packages that have submitted E-HSMTs on the existing e-GP system before September 16, 2022, perform contractor selection in accordance with uploaded E-HSMTs and relevant legal regulations. In this case, bid opening and information posting during the contractor selection process shall be done on the existing e-GP system.

b) For bidding packages that have yet to prepare E-HSMTs, or have already prepared and approved E-HSMTs but yet to upload E-HSMTs onto the existing e-GP system, amend and re-approve E-HSMTs in accordance with regulations of Circular No. 08/2022/TT-BKHĐT and upload on the new e-GP system.

For bidding packages that have been approved but do not apply online contractor selection:

a) For bidding packages of which bidding documents have been uploaded to the existing e-GP system before September 16, 2022, perform contractor selection in accordance with the issued bidding documents and relevant legal regulations;

b) For bidding packages of which bidding documents have yet to be prepared, or have been prepared and approved before September 16, 2022 but yet to be uploaded onto the existing e-GP system, amend and re-approve the bidding documents in accordance with Clause 8, Article 39, Circular No. 08/2022/TT-BKHĐT and upload on the new e-GP system.

To participate in bidding activities on the new e-GP system, companies and organizations need to verify and update account information on the new e-GP system. Previously, according to an announcement of the Vietnam Ministry of Planning and Investment, from July 1, 2022, concerned parties including procuring entities and contractors need to migrate accounts from the existing e-GP system to the new e-GP system, as well as update account information on the new e-GP system. The migration has been performed and completed by many companies and organizations, helping to standardize, update, and clean account information, merge duplicated accounts, getting the new e-GP system ready before it is officially put into operation.

A major difference on the new e-GP system is the use of digital certificates (CTS) instead of specialized CTS used on the existing e-GP system. Note that, users cannot use the specialized CTS already available on the existing e-GP system on the new e-GP system. Companies and organizations are required to use CTS to authenticate information for the selection of contractors and investors on the new e-GP System. With CTS, users can use the same CTS on different government public service systems, such as electronic tax declaration, electronic social insurance declaration, electronic statistical declaration.

The new e-GP system also accepts and is compatible with most CTS provided by CTS providers in Vietnam licensed by the Vietnam Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) and published on the website of the National Electronic Authentication Centre, MIC (NEAC).

List of 23 CTS providers published on the website of NEAC as of September 15.

The new e-GP system is built and designed with 11 component modules, including: Portal; User Management; Call Center; e-Bidding; e-Shopping Mall, e-Contract; e-Payment; Item list; e-Documents; Supplier’s Performance Management; and e-Guarantee.

Officially being put into operation, the new e-GP system aims to manage the entire process of public electronic procurement from project information update, contractor/investor selection plan, issuance of bid invitation documents, submission of bidding documents, bid opening, evaluation and ranking of contractors, announcement of bidding result, to contract negotiation and online signing, monitoring and management of contract performance, thereby promoting national digital transformation and developing digital society in the future.

Users operate on the new e-GP system.

For the best and timely support in using the new e-GP system, users can contact hotline number of the National Online Bidding Center, Procurement Management Department, Vietnam Ministry of Planning and Investment, at 1900 6126, or visit https://muasamcong.mpi.gov.vn/ for a detailed user manual.