Central Public Procurement Body will be in position to conduct more controversial procedures after a few days ago the government expanded its scope of action. Since mid-2010 the structure subordinated to the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov has announced tenders for over BGN110 million. With so much money at stake a number of private interests were involved which blocked the fulfilment of government promises to end the vicious practices in public procurement.
To the short but lucrative list of activities for which the central authority for public procurement is responsible, now have been added also car care products and lubricants for vehicles as well as the provision of soap, toilet paper and other supplies for cleaning of administrative buildings. The reasons for these changes say that ths way the body will improve its operation as well as its interaction with the ministries. In fact, it comes to getting rid of small players in the competition for state money. Contracts for such products are of relatively small amount (up to BGN200,000) but because they are made on a regular basis they arouse interest among the big fish on market. Now these tenders will become part of larger procurement procedures, inaccessible to the smaller businesses.
Intentionally or not, it was about these procedures that last year we saw the and some of the biggest scandals. In the course of the mega tender for BGN60 million in which providers for petrol and diesel for the civil administration were selected (Lukoil and Petrol) it was clearly shown how Bulgaria can organise tenders with pre-selected winners. Back then, after a check carried out by the BANKER it turned out that the during its work for review, evaluation and ranking of bids the selection committee made a bunch of violations and improperly chose as winner Petrol. The scandal led to holding of a new auction which did not change anything. One year later, there are dozens of smaller contracts signed, but it is difficult to speak of serious competition between companies when almost all orders are given the initial favourite – Petrol.
At present the Ministry of Economy and Energy is seeking a company to supply it with toiletries for BGN72,000, VAT excluded. Bids in the tender had to be submitted by March 26 but the winner has not yet been selected. Similar orders are regularly opened by other agencies, and most serious attention certainly deserves the Coincil of Ministers. Only the soap of Bulgarian Government costs BGN60,000 per year and the soap dispensers for it are of the luxury brand Hagleitner.
The same is the amount that taxpayers have to pay for their Cabinet’s cleaning detergents. For toilet paper and hand wipes additional BGN30,000 is paid and the brand used is Kimberly Clark. Apparently the waste generated by the Cabinet is too much, as BGN30,000 is paid only for the garbage bags a year.
From now on, these small sums will go into the hands of cleaning companies selected by Central Public Procurement Body, after the contracts for 2012 expire.
The total budget to keep fovernment buildings clean is BGN2 million a year. Interestingly, in the race for the sum a year ago major players in the cleaning business were missing (such as CSG Bulgaria, Barrage M, Comex and others.) However, according to the rules, contracts had to be distributed among at leat six contenders, but due to lack of applicants officials had no choice and awarded them to five players. Therefore, despite doubts whether the five participants have the capacity to cope with the task (because of the modest number of employees, lack of equipment and little experience in this business) none of them was disqualified from competition. And in this case the difference between the highest and lowest bid was nearly six times. And of couse – here comes the reasonable question as to how the State agrees to pay for one and the same thing drastically different prices?
