The project of connecting road between Ho Chi Minh City and the expressway is facing difficulties due to 'lost documents'

After more than 5 years of stagnation, the procedure to stop the BOT contract for the Vo Van Kiet connecting road project through Trung Luong expressway encountered difficulties due to changes in investor personnel and lost documents.

The content stated in the official dispatch of the HCM City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board (TCIP) sent to the City Department of Transport on the status of collecting information and related documents to determine the volume of work the investor has done at the above project. This is the basis for carrying out procedures to stop the BOT (build - operate - transfer) contract at this project before the deadline, after the city government agrees.

Connecting road project at the intersection of Vo Van Kiet Avenue and National Highway 1A (Binh Tan District). Photo: Quynh Tran.

According to TCIP, after the above project officially stopped construction in 2019, the unit organized many meetings and issued a series of documents urging the investor, Yen Khanh Group Joint Stock Company, to collect information, documents, and complete procedures. However, the coordination process with the investor before July 2023 encountered many difficulties due to the construction stoppage time and the change of personnel of this unit. The replacement did not hold the old job, sent unauthorized people to meetings, and the documents were lost.

In the following process, the investor provided some documents related to the volume of work previously performed, but they were not complete. Of which, with 11 consulting packages, the enterprise only compiled the complete documents and legal documents of only one package. For the other 10 packages, the above unit only kept the contract, the documents and legal documents attached are having to contact the parties to be reissued.

Regarding the construction and installation part, TCIP said that the investor has implemented 7/12 bidding packages with the value of about 160 billion VND, of which the payment volume is about 92 billion VND. However, some quality management records of the work performed by the contractors have also been lost. The investor is contacting to have the documents re-provided.

Regarding the selection of an independent auditor and the time to conduct the audit of the documents to finalize the volume, the investor expected to complete it by the end of January 2024. However, due to difficulties in synthesizing and completing the documents, the enterprise requested an additional month to have enough time to complete.

Previously, in 2022, Ho Chi Minh City agreed to terminate the BOT contract for the above-mentioned connecting road project ahead of schedule. The city requested departments and branches to study and advise the Ministry of Planning and Investment to receive specific instructions on the procedures for terminating the signed BOT contract and implementing the project in a new form.

A section of the connecting road project lies abandoned after the construction unit withdrew in 2020. Photo: Huu Cong.

The project connecting Vo Van Kiet with Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway was approved by the Ministry of Transport in 2010, with a budget of nearly VND2,400 billion. Due to lack of capital, in April 2015, Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee proposed the Government to allow the appointment of an investor. Yen Khanh Production, Trade and Service Company Limited (now Yen Khanh Group Joint Stock Company, the unit collecting tolls on Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway) was selected by the city in 2016 as a partner, with the project investment capital reduced to VND1,550 billion. Ho Chi Minh City is responsible for site clearance, estimated at VND560 billion.

The project consists of two parallel roads, each with one mixed-use lane and one car lane, and an intersection at both ends of the route. Once completed, the project will effectively promote Vo Van Kiet Avenue, expected to reduce congestion on Highway 1 - completing the traffic network in the southwest of the city, connecting the Mekong Delta.

According to the agreement, the investor will arrange capital by himself, of which the owner's capital (contributed capital) is nearly 15%, and the bank loan is 85%. When the project is completed, the investor will set up a toll station to collect tolls to recover the capital in 17 years and 8 months. The project was scheduled to be completed at the end of 2017, but only reached about 12% of the volume, then construction was slowed down and stopped completely in 2019. The reason was that the partner of Ho Chi Minh City did not have enough capacity.

Yen Khanh Company was established by Dinh Ngoc He - Ut "Troc" (former Deputy General Director of Thai Son Company - Ministry of National Defense ), appointing his niece Vu Thi Hoan (36 years old) as General Director. Mr. He is serving a life sentence in the case of bidding and collecting tolls on the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong Expressway and a previous case. Along with two similar cases, Ms. Hoan was sentenced to 14 years in prison. The investigation agency determined that this company had no capital, and was established only to sign joint venture contracts for personal purposes and to make a profit.

Gia Minh

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