Decision 512/QD-TTg 2021 on establishment of the State Examination Council for pre-acceptance test of construction works

DECISION

On the establishment of the State Examination Council for pre-acceptance test of construction works

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THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated June 19, 2015; the Law dated November 22, 2019, Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Organization of the Government and the Law on Organization of Local Administration;

Pursuant to the Law on Construction dated June 18, 2014 (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 50/2014/QH13); the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Construction dated June 17, 2020 (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 62/2020/QH14);

Pursuant to Government’s Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP dated January 26, 2021, detailing a number of provisions on quality management, construction and maintenance of construction works;

At the proposal of the Minister of Construction,

DECIDES:

Article 1. To establish the State Examination Council for pre-acceptance test of construction works (hereinafter referred to as the Council for short) to examine the pre-acceptance test specified at Point a, Clause 4, Article 123 of Law No. 50/2014/QH13 which was amended and supplemented under Clause 45, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14, and at Point a, Clause 2, Article 24 of Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP dated January 26, 2021 of the Government detailing a number of provisions on quality management, construction and maintenance of construction works.

Article 2. Duties and powers of the Council

1. Duties:

a) Examining the pre-acceptance test on a periodic or unscheduled basis in the course of construction; at important transitional construction stages and before the completed construction items and works are put into operation and use in accordance with Article 6 of this Decision;

b) Making annual reports to the Prime Minister on the task performance results of the Council, the construction process, the quality management of construction works; making unscheduled reports on arising technical problems, difficulties, problems, and inadequacies beyond their competence, which require the directions of the Prime Minister;

c) Annually proposing a list of construction works subject to examination of pre-acceptance test by the Council to the Prime Minister for approval;

d) Promulgating working regulations to serve as a basis for performing the tasks of the Council as well as the organizations and individuals assisting the Council;

d) Performing other tasks assigned by the Prime Minister.

2. Powers:

a) Requesting project owners, contractors, relevant agencies and organizations to make reports as well as provide information and documents to serve the Council's operation;

b) Assuming the prime responsibility for solving existing problems or handling arising technical problems detected by the Council in the course of examination, or requesting the project owners, relevant agencies, and organizations to do so;

c) Requesting the project owners to suspend construction activities of construction contractors when it detects that the construction quality fails to meet technical requirements, or construction measures are unsafe, thus being likely to cause incidents in construction works; stopping relevant individuals who do not meet the practice conditions as prescribed from participating in construction activities;

d) Advising competent agencies to handle organizations and individuals that violate the law provisions on investment and construction activities;

dd) Requesting the project owners to select domestic and foreign organizations and individuals with the expertise, experience and capacity as prescribed by the law provisions to carry out consultancy jobs, solve arising technical problems or examining the quality of the works.

Article 3. Organizational structure of the Council

1. Chairperson of the Council: Minister of Construction.

2. Vice Chairpersons of the Council:

a) Standing Vice Chairperson of the Council: Deputy Minister of Construction;

b) Deputy Ministers of relevant ministries managing specialized construction works;

c) Leaders of the provincial-level People's Committees of the localities where the works are built.

3. Members of the Council:

a) Standing Member of the Council: Head of the State Agency for Construction Quality Inspection;

b) Leaders of construction-specialized agencies or assigned specialized agencies (hereinafter referred to as specialized agencies) affiliated to the ministries managing specialized construction works;

c) Directors of the provincial-level Departments of Construction of the localities where the works are built;

d) Leaders of the provincial-level departments managing specialized construction works in the localities where the works are built;

dd) At-law representatives of the construction project owners.

4. Organizations and individuals assisting the Council:

a) The Standing Body of the Council, which is the State Agency for Construction Quality Inspection under the Ministry of Construction;

b) The Council's Think Tank consisting of experts with appropriate professional qualifications and experience;

c) The specialized agencies under the ministries managing specialized construction works;

d) Domestic and foreign organizations and individuals introduced by the Council and selected by the project owners in accordance with the law provisions to carry out consultancy jobs, solve arising technical problems or examining the quality of the works.

Article 4. Duties of the Council’s members and the organizations and individuals assisting the Council

1. Members of the Council:

a) The Chairperson shall: promulgate the working regulations of the Council and direct the activities of the Council;

b) The Standing Vice Chairperson shall: assist the Chairperson of the Council in directing and administering the regular activities of the Council; convene and chair meetings of the Council and sign documents and reports to the Prime Minister under the authorization of the Chairperson of the Council; perform the responsibilities mentioned at Point c of this Clause;

c) Other Vice Chairpersons shall: perform tasks assigned by the Chairperson of the Council; attend all meetings of the Council; direct the relevant affiliated agencies to implement the requests of the Council; jointly direct, solve and give opinions on issues related to the examination results of the Council under their competence and the law provisions;

d) The Standing Member of the Council shall: directly manage and administer the activities of the Standing Body and the Think Tank of the Council; perform the responsibilities mentioned at Point dd of this Clause;

dd) Other members shall: perform tasks assigned by the Chairperson of the Council; attend all meetings of the Council; jointly direct, solve and give opinions on issues related to the examination results of the Council under their competence and the law provisions; direct their affiliate specialized agencies within the ambit of their functions and tasks in order to assist the Council in examining the pre-acceptance test of construction works.

2. The Standing Body of the Council shall:

a) Assist the Chairperson of the Council in organizing the activities of the Council in general; organize activities of the Think Tank, organizations and individuals assisting the Council; coordinate with members of the Council, relevant agencies, organizations, and individuals in performing the Council's tasks;

b) Develop working plans of the Council, manage the finance and administration of the Council;

c) Perform the tasks prescribed in this Decision and other tasks assigned by the Chairperson of the Council.

3. The Think Tank of the Council shall: participate in the examination sessions of the Council; give opinions on professional and technical issues; report the results to the Council after each examination session; take responsibility for their conclusions and assessments on technical issues related to the works.

4. Specialized agencies under the relevant ministries managing specialized construction works shall: report to the Council on the state management issues related to the works within the ambit of their functions and tasks in order to serve the Council’s examination of pre-acceptance test important transitional construction stages and before the completed construction items and works are put into operation and use.

5. The examination of the Council shall not replace or lessen the responsibility of the project owners for managing the quality of their construction works and the responsibility of the contractors involved in the construction activities for ensuring the quality of the works they have built as prescribed by the law provisions.

Article 5. Principles and working mechanism of the Council

1. The independence and objectivity of the Council, the compliance with the law provisions on construction investment management and other relevant law provisions in the course of examination must be ensured.

2. The Council works in a collective manner under the leadership of the Chairperson of the Council.

3. Meetings of the Council on approval of the pre-acceptance test results of the project owners and meetings on important conclusions shall be decided by the Chairperson of the Council on the following principles:

a) Members of the Council must attend the meetings; if a member is unable to attend a meeting, he/she must authorize a representative attendant. The meetings shall be held when more than 50% of the members can attend (including authorized representative attendants);

b) Opinions of the members of the Council shall be expressed on opinion sheets. The Council's conclusions at the meetings must be adopted by at least two-thirds of the Council's members. If the above ratio is not reached, the Chairperson of the Council shall summarize the opinions of the Council’s members and report them to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision.

4. The Council's conclusions shall be based on the results of the pre-acceptance test of the project owners and relevant contractors, the professional assessments and opinions of the Think Tank, the consultancy organizations, the Council's Standing Body, and relevant specialized agencies as well as the opinions of Council’s members.

5. The Council shall take accountability to the Prime Minister for its conclusions and decisions.

Article 6. Examination activities of the Council

1. Examination of pre-acceptance test in the course of construction:

a) Based on the construction progress of the works, the Council shall organize the site examination of the works every 3 to 6 months or organize unscheduled examination sessions when necessary;

b) The contents of examination are specified at Point a, Clause 4, Article 24 of Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP.

After each examination session, the Council shall notify the examination results to the project owners and relevant agencies.

2. Examination of pre-acceptance test at important transitional construction stages and upon completion of construction items and works:

a) After a project owner organizes the pre-acceptance test as prescribed in Article 23 of Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP, it shall send to the Council 01 dossier to request examination of its pre-acceptance test at the important transitional construction stages and upon completion of construction items and works as prescribed in Appendix VI of Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP in order for the results of its pre-acceptance test to be examined and approved;

b) The Council shall examine the contents specified in Clause 4, Article 24 of Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP. Based on the examination results, the reports of the project owner, the reports of the contractors and the opinions of relevant agencies, the Council shall issue a written notice approving the project owner's pre-acceptance test or a written disapproval of the project owner's pre-acceptance test results which shall clearly state the shortcomings that need to be remedied.

If the construction items and works are those prescribed in Clause 4, Article 23 of Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP, the Council shall advise the Prime Minister to consider and decide on issues beyond its competence.

3. The Council may assign its Standing Body to examine the pre-acceptance test of construction works upon their completion or parts of a work to put them into operation and use and report the examination results to the Council for consideration and decision.

4. In the course of examination by the Council, the project owner shall:

a) Appoint an at-law representative to participate in the Council;

b) Provide the Council with information about the construction work as specified in Appendix V of Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP; technical documents and design documentation of the construction work;

c) Report to the Council the plan for pre-acceptance test of important transitional construction stages (if any) for the Council to consider and decide on the examination as prescribed;

d) Report to the Council on the construction progress, the quality control of the construction work on a quarterly basis and before each examination session of the Council; promptly report quality-related incidents or arising technical problems (if any) of the construction work;

dd) Brief the Council on the quality examination and assessment of the construction work as required by the Contract or specified in the Technical Instructions (if any) so that the Council can plan to review and give opinions to the examination outline and evaluate the report on the examination results;

e) Strictly comply with the requirements and conclusions of the Council, remedy the shortcomings and failures, study and absorb the recommendations of the Council, and send written explanations to the Council;

g) Coordinate with and create favorable conditions for the Council as well as organizations and individuals assisting the Council to effectively perform their assigned tasks.

Article 7. Legal effect of opinions, conclusions, and decisions of the Council

1. The Council's opinions, recommendations, requests, and conclusions shall be expressed in the documents of the Council or the agencies assisting the Council under its authorization.

2. The Council's notice approving the pre-acceptance test results shall serve as a legal basis for the project owners to organize the transition at important construction stages or to put the items or works into operation and use, and then to implement the next steps.

3. If the project owners or contractors have opinions different from the requirements, conclusions, and decisions of the Council, they shall preserve their opinions and send written explanations and clarifications to the Council. In case of necessity, the Council may report propose the Prime Minister the solutions for problems beyond its competence.

4. The Council shall use the seal of the Ministry of Construction and the Council's Standing Body shall use the seal of the State Agency for Construction Quality Inspection in the activities related to the Council.

Article 8. Working terms of the Council

1. The working term of the Council for each construction work shall start from the time the Prime Minister assigns the tasks to the Council until it self-dissolve after approving the pre-acceptance test results of the project owners when the works are completed and put into operation and use.

2. In the following cases, the working terms of the Council for the construction works will be decided by the Prime Minister based on the report and proposal of the Council’s Chairperson:

a) The works have been completed but they do not meet the conditions for the Council to approve the project owners’ pre-acceptance test results;

b) The results of the pre-acceptance test of the works have been approved by the Council for the works to be put into operation and use with conditions as prescribed by the law provisions on construction, but the project owners do not complete the construction of the works in line with the approved designs during the warranty period of the works;

c) The works fall into the cases specified in Clause 4, Article 23 of Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP;

d) The construction of the works encounters difficulties and obstacles or takes a long time with undetermined completion time.

Article 9. Operational expenses of the Council

1. The Council's operational expenses include:

a) Expenses for the activities related to the quality examination and the quality control examination of the works;

b) Allowances for the Council's members and Standing Body;

c) Expenses for hiring domestic and foreign consultancy individuals and organizations to perform the tasks assigned by the Council;

d) Expenses for purchasing technical documents; surveying and examining the product quality, participating in, and witnessing the testing and examination of products manufactured in foreign countries, learning experiences at home and abroad; disseminating information on the mass media;

dd) Stationery expenses, communication expenses, office equipment and travel expenses;

e) Expenses for other activities of the Council.

2. Operational expenses of the Council shall be allocated from the budget for regular expenditures and the funds estimated in the total construction investment of the works. The project owners shall allocate the funds, approve the expense estimates, and finalize and pay the Council's expenses. The Council's Standing Body shall make expense estimates, pay, and finalize the expenses for the Council's activities related to each construction work.

Article 10. Effect

This Decision takes effect from the date of its signing and replaces the Prime Minister's Decision No. 310/QD-TTg dated February 27, 2014, on the establishment of the State Council for Pre-acceptance Test of Construction Works.

Article 11. Organization of implementation

Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, Heads of Government-attached agencies, the Chairperson of the State Examination Council for pre-acceptance test of construction works, Chairpersons of People's Committees of provinces and municipalities, Heads of units which are project owners, as well as relevant organizations and individuals shall be responsible for implementing this Decision./.