The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has issued an urgent dispatch to departments and the municipal inspectorate regarding the handling of the BOT contract for the road connecting Vo Van Kiet Street to the Ho Chi Minh City-Trung Luong Highway.
The project was left unfinished, with bridge pillars overgrown by weeds. |
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee agreed with the proposal of the inter-sectoral working group and related departments on the policy to unilaterally terminate the BOT contract for the above-mentioned project.
The city’s People’s Committee assigned the Management Board of Traffic Works Construction Projects to coordinate with the investor, project enterprise, and related units to review the signed BOT contract.
At the same time, they were tasked with studying relevant legal regulations and the actual situation of the project implementation to advise and propose solutions for settling related expenses… ensuring reasonableness and legality when unilaterally terminating the BOT contract. A report on this matter is to be submitted to the city’s People’s Committee and the inter-sectoral working group before July 15.
Additionally, the Department of Planning and Investment was assigned to coordinate with relevant departments to advise, propose, and draft a dispatch from the city’s People’s Committee to the Ministry of Planning and Investment to be guided on the procedures for unilateral termination of the BOT contract before the deadline, with completion set before July 10.
The municipal inspectorate was also assigned to coordinate with relevant units to inspect and provide opinions on the report of the situation regarding the early termination of the BOT contract to ensure thoroughness and limit procedural shortcomings, if any.
Based on the results of the above contents, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee assigned the inter-sectoral working group (with the Department of Transport as the head) to advise and propose the unilateral termination of the signed BOT contract, with completion set for July 2024.
This project, which began in 2015 and was expected to be completed in 2017, covers a length of about 2.7 km with a total investment of VND 1,557 billion. It starts from the Vo Van Kiet – National Highway 1 overpass intersection and ends at the intersection with the road leading to the Ho Chi Minh City-Trung Luong Highway (now Vo Tran Chi Street). The project comprises two parallel roads, each with one mixed lane and one car lane.
The project was implemented by Yen Khanh Joint Stock Company (investor) and Ho Chi Minh City – Trung Luong BOT Investment One-Member Limited Liability Company (project enterprise).
However, by June 2018, the investor had stopped construction, with the work progress reaching about 12% of the contract value.
According to a recent report by the inter-sectoral working group, to resolve the contract, the Management Board of Traffic Works Construction Projects has worked and had several documents requesting the investor and the project enterprise to report on the implementation status, legal issues, and dossiers related to the completed volumes.
Nevertheless, the investor and the project enterprise have repeatedly requested extensions and delayed implementation, citing reasons such as lost documents and contractors’ failure to provide complete information for settlement in accordance with regulations.
According to the inter-sectoral working group, up to now, the investor and the project enterprise have been unable to provide documents to clarify and demonstrate their capacity to arrange capital to continue the signed BOT contract and provide guarantees for its implementation…
In addition, the only credit institution that lent capital for the project, LienVietPostBank, in 2021, also issued a document stating its intention not to continue funding. This decision was made due to the project enterprise’s and investor’s violation of the credit contract, coupled with the prolonged suspension of construction, which impacted the financial plan and revenue stream for loan repayment.
Thu Hong
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