The longtime dream of Ministry of Environment and Water to have new luxury cars with money from the Environment operational program seem closer.
Last year the BANKER weekly wrote about the procurement tender worth 420 thousand levs (excluding VAT), which was announced by thr Environment Minister Nona Karadzhova for the purchase of new cars equipped with a bunch of extras like multifunction steering wheels, heated washers, heated windscreen, cruise control, brake assistance, a system for monitoring tire pressure, etc.
Subsequently, the entire procedure was terminated with the hazy explanation that the violations were found in the part concerning the methodology for evaluation of tenders. But at the end of February 2012 the order turned up again, albeit with lessened price – just over 403 thousand lev without VAT. Funding was again through the Technical Assistance Axis of the EU’s Environment Programme.
For the first lot everything went smoothly and on October 10 Moto Phoe was chosen as a contractor company – the official importer and distributor of Ford, Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover.
Not so happy was the fate of the second and third lot. Because of the inflated demands for extras in the cars at the end of July orders were canceled. All offers that meet the previously announced terms, exceed the financial resources which the contracting authority can provide, the Ministry of Environment admitted.
But rather than give up their intentions, Nona Karadzhova announced on 8 October a new contract for these two lots, but of course with higher target prices. So the money for three cars off-road suddenly swelled to 144,522 levs, VAT excluded, as much as it was proposed by Porsche BG (representative of the Volkswagen Group in the country) in the previous edition of the tender.
A few days the names of the contenders for the supply of vehicles became clear. Only one for the two lots applied firm Autotrade which is authorized distributor of Volkswagen in northeastern Bulgaria. It is owned by Agop Krikorian and Wakhan Angatian.
Company Euratek of Angel Todorov Ivan Todorov and Roman Polak submitted a bid only for the three off-road vehicles.
Other competitors for the supply of three rough-terrain vehicles are Star Motors (owned by Auto Union and managers and Peter Asen Asenov Karaivanov) that imports Mazda cars, and Ratola Lease – official representative of SSANG YONG MOTOR, Brabus and Fiat.
The BANKER
