It is no longer a secret that the basic tool to fight corruption in the form of public procurement, has become the main legal way to syphon the state budget in Bulgaria. Preliminary adjusted winners, hidden conditions, discriminatory requirements and annexes for subsequent appreciation, as well as lack of transparency are just some of the techniques for the right spending of government’s millions.
Now the government led by Mr. Oresharsky is preparing a new, the twenty ninth, amendment of the Law on Public Procurement, which claims that it will finally eliminate the bad practices and will increase transparency in the spending of public funds. Moreover, the changes would promote and reduce the administrative burden on small business. However, they are still at an early stage and are not even accepted by the Council of Ministers. In the words of Deputy Prime Minister Daniela Bobeva, who is responsible for the corrections to this legislative act, the Cabinet is continues collecting suggestions from interested parties. The final draft would be presented only after the examination of all ideas. However, one should not forget the pending discussion in Parliament where any initial good intentions can degenerate.
What is striking, though, are the measures presented by Mrs. Bobeva last week:
there are no restrictions on offshore companies
Namely the introduction of such restrictions in the Public Procurement Act was one of the first stated moves to be carried out by the Cabinet Oresharsky. In the draft its project so far what is included is only the requirement that companies registered in offshore jurisdictions should prove their financial capabilities. This will be done through bank guarantees by credit institutions specified by the contracting authority. The issue of ownership and source of capital is not at all touched. Economic relations with shady businessmen will be regulated entirely by a special new law.
Otherwise, Mrs. Bobeva’s team will suggest some very useful steps that will inevitably increase transparency and reduce bureaucracy in conducting public auctions. What is envisaged is, for example, the abolishment of the meaningless requirement for them to submit certified documents proving the facts that are stored in state agencies’ data bases. Henceforth all corporate data available in public records will be taken through official channels, and the business will be required only to disclose them. The move is projected not only to save large amounts of fees for processing the documents, but also to greatly facilitate and shorten the procedures themselves.
Admiration deserves also the intention tender documents no longer to be purchased; they will be downloadable for free on the Internet. In most cases, the documents are available online even now, but the interested companies are obliged to buy the forms from the state.
The adoption of standardized forms is also being considered and it is set to facilitate the work of the thousands of clients, many of whom are small local governments without adequate capacity. Such a measure
will facilitate businesses
because they will not have to prepare and complete different papers for each auction. Last but not least, standardized forms will reduce the opportunities for abuse and errors.
Most of the members of the evaluation committee will no longer be personnel of the contracting authorities. Today it is almost impossible to understand how the discussion and evaluation of tenders is carried out, as participants in the committees are permanent employees of the institution and have no interest to reveal any information. By law, among them there must be an external expert with the appropriate qualifications, but this expert also usually prefers to remain silent because he is paid to do so.
Upon a personal request from Prime Minister Oresharsky a requirement for
immediate return of the guarantees
is included for all candidates who lose the procurement tender. Now state and municipal agencies often retain such amounts for a long period without any compensations for the businesses, which is a serious burden for companies involved in several auctions.
Deputy Prime Minister Daniela Bobeva also explains that during the preparation of amendments to the law all the proposals of the Centre for Prevention and Combating Corruption BORKOR were taken into account. Headed by Eleonora Nikolova, this institution recently developed a special model for the decision making in public auctions. It should eliminate weaknesses in their implementation, and most importantly – save about a billion levs to the state budget.
The main part of the model for the prevention and detection of corruption provides that all orders become fully electronic. The motive is that this will be a simplification of procedures to reduce costs and improve quality. Computerization will be done through the creation of six electronic platforms. The first is called E-register and will contain all the data and documents regarding the procedures up until the decision to award the contract and the concluding of the contract. Altogether, these functions are now performed by the Registry of the Public Procurement Agency.
The next platform is called E-bidding. It will contain the active software applications for various forms of online bidding, but will be suitable primarily for open procedures in the field of services and expert advice, as well as in cases where a public body posts ads for sale of unnecessary or obsolete items, furniture and equipment. E-bidding can be used in the sale of old stocks from the state reserve, subject to renewal.
The platform E-catalogue will be used for supply and purchase of standardized machinery, tools, furniture, equipment and more. For all processes in the competition for construction works, services and supplies that are not suitable for carrying through the E-bidding there will be another platform called E-auction.
The BANKER
