Over 3.3 million levs of Bulgaria’s money from EU programmes will be spent on new offices of the officials involved in the operational programme Transport. Procurement procedure for selecting a contractor was announced a few days ago and it is expected to cause a lot of interest because of the significant amount.
The new workplace will be literally in the centre of Sofia – on 6 Gourko Str. This is the address of the central Post Office building, which was built in the early twentieth century, and prior to World War II was substantially reconstructed. In 1978, it was declared an architectural monument in the category of national importance, and in 1988 received the status of historical and artistic monument. Which means that structural changes in the fa?ade and the height of the building are impossible to make.
However, the inside of the fourth floor, covering over 3 thousand square meters, will literally be disembowelled. A major repair of the roof over the offices will involve a placing of an internal insulation (not to violate the external appearance of the facade of the building). Besides a new electrical, telephone, internet and automatic fire alarm system will be installed and elevators – replaced. The access control will be done by electronic cards. They must be compatible with the system that is already working in the Ministry of Transport. When the work is done, the floor will host the employees of Coordination of Programmes and Projects which is the ruling body of the Transport programme. The head of the department will have a separate room with a total area of 50 square metres, and the three heads of departments would have each premises of 15 square metres. The contractor will also need to prepare the workplace for each employee of the department concerned, that employing an average of 14 experts each. At least for now, however, these officials will have to wait, because the job is expected to be completed within 365 days of the selection of the contractor.
The bidding will be open to Bulgarian and foreign companies and associations. Requirements that they will need to cover, however, are not that easy. Each candidate must have a total turnover for the last three years (2010-2012) of at least 7 million levs (excluding VAT) and their turnover from construction similar to the subject matter of the contract – has to be no less than 3 million levs (excluding VAT).
Each candidate must be registered in the Central Register of Professional Builders in the Chamber of Builders in Bulgaria and bear the highest, the first, category. Foreign firms would need to provide the equivalent document issued by a competent authority in the country where they come from.
Candidates are also requested to demonstrate that they have seven key experts and the special thing here is that one of them must have a certificate from the Ministry of Culture to carry out activities related to the conservation of architectural buildings of cultural value.
The builder of the new offices will have to accept some restrictions on the specifics of the site. The main problem here is that it is located in the central part of Sofia – in a building that, as mentioned, is a cultural monument. For this reason, the winner of the contract will have to be careful also about noise at work, the contamination of the site, needs to observe parking restrictions and the length of stay of the vehicles, as well as comply with the requirements for access of trucks to the city centre. And to make matters worse, the access of employees of the contractor to the site outside the working hours will be possible only after the Ministry of Transport approves the list of persons and equipment directly involved in the execution of repairs.
The criterion for selection of the winner will be the lowest price offered. The deadline for receipt of tender offers is October 7; a day later the names of the participants will become clear.
The BANKER
